The Bone Keeper: A Psychological Thriller

What would you do if the urban legend you heard about as a child turned out to be a reality?Another glorious read thanks to my favorite group, “Books of Horror”- the only reason I go on Facebook anymore. To whomever recommended it in a random comment section for recommendations, thank you so very much.I don’t like to give anything away that would be indicative of a spoiler, so I’ll keep this short and sweet.Growing up, many places and many people have heard of some sort of urban legend or myth. A haunted house, a creature in the woods or ocean, the monster living under your bed or in your closet. A fallacy, something we know to not hold any truth. But… What if? What if there was a little truth to myth? The Bone Keeper is just that - and is a crime reader and horror fan’s double feature. Set in the small towns outside Liverpool twenty years prior, we first encounter a group of children exploring the woods - attempting to encounter the legend known as The Bone Keeper. One of the children goes missing, and the lives of those involved is left in shambles. Fast-forward to the present, a woman is discovered beaten and bloodied wandering along a road outside of the woods. When the people discover a body a short time later, the story begins to unravel. With an endless amounts of twists and an ending nothing short of an absolute whammy, The Bone Keeper kept me on my toes and was a presence in my mind - calling to me if you would - until I finished it.Hats off to Luca Veste - the intricacies, the conflicts intertwining and the ability to keep every bit of mystery just slowly out of reach has been unmatched. Great writer, great storyline, the easiest five stars out the gate. It makes me wonder what truly goes on in the mind of writer.

The premise intrigued me initially but the further I read, the less I liked the main character which in turn ruined what could have been a good book for me. One of my pet peeves is when a protagonist has virtually no impressive traits on their own and only looks good compared to his stupid/ugly/incompetent colleagues/friends/customers etc. At first, I tried to ignore it but then this device grew so annoying, I began disliking the protagonist just because she was so superior to the others. The investigation itself also got bogged down halfway through the book and the ending was rather disappointing. I guess it's one of those cases where the idea was better than execution.

The plot line was great but the delivery fell short. There was not much in the way of character development and there was a lot of repetition about guilt and how it was affecting their lives. There were parts that were really good, i.e. the discovery they made in the woods and when the killer started tormenting them towards the end. But a good chunk of the middle dragged on a little.

This was a good story - I just think Louise's personality was a bit overdone. If she had one more "I know, but I'm not going to tell" episode and panic attack then I was ready to punch her in the nose myself ...lolThis is a horror --- paranormal - mystery. I was trying to read it , NOT as a paranormal mystery

Style wasn't for me. Jumped around. Confusing Transitions. Slow burn until the last chapters explain everything.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the urban legend aspect. The writing was good, this is a well edited kindle book.

First time to enjoy this author, a very good read creepy in a good way

I could not put this book down until the end.

The most ridiculous and far fetched book I have read. The previous books were really good. The plot is unbelievable and the main character has no redeeming or interesting qualities. Don’t waste your money buying this book.

Love it

The blurb does a decent job of outlining the overall story told in The Bone Keeper. There has been an urban myth about ‘the Bone Keeper’ stalking, murdering and preying on people in the woods around Liverpool for many years. It’s a tale that has been passed down from generation to generation and is a story told to the children to scare them.The Bone Keeper starts with a flashback from twenty years ago, helping to set the scene for the creepy legend that is the Bone Keeper itself. Four teenagers are in the woods, looking for the lair of the Bone Keeper in a disused tunnel, as kids are wont to do with urban legends, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mythical monster and be able to tell their friends that they saw the Bone Keeper and that it is real. As the blurb states, only three out of the four make it back out of the woods with one, lost, never to be seen again. A tragic and unfortunate disappearance or did something altogether more sinister occur and were they a victim of the bogeyman known as the Bone Keeper.We then jump forward to the present where a woman is found wandering around near some woods with grievous injuries singing the lyrics to the childhood rhyme about the Bone Keeper.“The Bone Keeper’s coming.The Bone Keeper’s real.He doesn’t stop.He doesn’t feel.He’ll snatch you up.And make you weep.He’ll slice your flesh.Your bones he’ll keep.”The woman claims to have been abducted, assaulted and then escaped from that whispered dread that is the Bone Keeper. Surely the Bone Keeper is just a myth? An urban legend of the area? It couldn’t possibly be real? Could it?A search of the near-by woods soon adds an even more sinister twist to the story of the injured women as a body is found. Then, during the further investigation of the area more remains are subsequently unearthed as the woods house a burial ground (could they be victims of the Bone Keeper) and then the killings start to take place escalating in frequency.When I read a book I like to feel a connection with the characters, whether it’s liking them, hating them or something in-between but regardless, I want to feel ‘something‘ when I read about them. Unfortunately with The Bone Keeper I didn’t, I felt they lacked depth, I was ambivalent towards them and I had the sense of being disconnected from the main character duo of DS Paul Shipley (who I just found to be rather dull) and DC Louise Henderson (who is hiding something that haunts her but just lacks the characterisation to make you care what it is). It was like there was a barrier and I was on the outside looking in at them as opposed to being there with them in their investigation.In a similar fashion to the duo of Mulder and Scully from the X-Files where Mulder is a believer and Scully the sceptic. Determining whether or not the Bone Keeper is fact or fiction, man or monster you have Shipley taking on the role of the sceptic and Henderson as the believer who tries to make Shipley see the truth and that there is something to the myth of the Bone Keeper that is connected to the buried remains and the killings that are taking place.Henderson has a secret and she appears to know more about the myth than she lets on. She feeds Shipley bits of information, guiding him to her way of thinking, to see that there is more than a simple rational explanation to the assaulted women and even the body and that there is truth in the old childhood tales about a monster roaming the woods.The killings that take place are all rather random, there is no rhyme or reason to who has been killed or why which leads to many twists and turns in the investigation and no concrete suspect as the Police try to figure out the link/links between the victims.To go with the present timeline there are some flashback scenes scattered throughout The Bone Keeper that all tie-in with the initial flashback from the beginning of the book. These help to set the atmosphere and add an air of mystery to the story. The actual myth and urban legend surrounding the Bone Keeper itself is sinister, oozes malevolence, is well incorporated into the story and was definitely my favourite part of the entire book.The writing in The Bone Keeper is serviceable and, at times even decent. But, it failed to grab me, missing that spark that ignited my interest. There is also a distinct lack of humour (it’s non-existent and I do like a bit of dark humour in my thrillers) and for me, the pacing seemed off dragging in places and moving from one scenario to the next without any emotion or impact to the reader. It is, however, a good story with an intriguing premise that is somewhat let down by the execution. Personally, I had high hopes, I wanted to be consumed by the darkness and I was left underwhelmed and just wanted ‘more‘ from the book.The Bone Keeper isn’t a ‘bad‘ book by any stretch of the imagination and if you are a fan of the genre or are just looking for a creepy and dark read then I’d suggest giving it a go. You never know, you might have a better time with it than me and I’d say it’s worth a read just for the urban legend of the Bone Keeper.

This book has been on my TBR pile ever since I picked up a proof copy at a crime festival (It has been that long I can’t even remember which one now) but as I am determined this year to read some of my ever-increasing backlog alongside authors I have not read before it seemed like the perfect time to dust it off and get stuck in.The Bone Keeper is an urban myth perpetuated over time by children to scare each other or so everyone thought. When Caroline Rickards is found with multiple injuries and no real explanation on how she got them DC Louise Henderson and her partner DS Paul Shipley are called to investigate. It is only when another body is found near the same area things start to get complicated and the myth of the Bone Keeper suddenly seems a little more real. They know that Caroline is hiding something from them they just don’t know what, then again it is quite clear from the start that DC Henderson has some secrets of her own that are starting to have an impact on her investigation.What I loved about this book is that it gives urban myths a new twist. Playing heavily on the readers imagination from the first chapter you know that events from the past are going to play heavily of what is to come, what you have to do is work out how. The clues are there but with so many twists and turns you may be surprised exactly how things turn out.Both Louise and Caroline are quite complex characters that at times can appear cold, yet you are still routing for them to get the answers they are seeking. The fast pace of this book means that you never get the chance to get bored and the dark under currents will have you checking behind you as you walk alone. The final chapters of the book bring all the elements together perfectly and are certainly packed full of action. What this book highlights perfectly is how the lonely and forgotten can be victims in more ways than one as they become easy targets. As a standalone book this is just perfect and due to the subject matter will appeal to fans of police procedural s and those that love that slightly spookier elements to their reading.

I love it when I find a new author, whose books I haven’t read before and has already written a series or two for me to read. Whoopee!
A little bit of research on the author reveals that he was born in a hospital on Merseyside built in the grounds of the Park (with a wood) that I used to play in as a child. He’s written a series of books about cases in Liverpool investigates by the Merseyside police force
He now has the attention of the crime writing world of readers and authors and his books have become very popular with crime fiction lovers.
The plot of this book centres around an urban legend of The Bone Keeper, a bogey man scary myth that Liverpool youngsters have picked up on and spread about between themselves.
There are symbols and a song associated with The Bone Keeper that just add to the weird and terrifying creepiness of the book.
The Bone Keeper’s coming. The Bone Keeper’s real. He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t feel. He’ll snatch you up. And make you weep. He’ll slice your flesh. Your bones he’ll keep.
The book begins with a group of children going into the woods to search for The Bone Keeper and who have convinced themselves that he’s real. One of them doesn’t survive the search but we have to read on to discover what happened but the opening chapter sets the scene for the whole premise of the book.
A lot of children's verse and literature centres on scary happenings in woods, so although it's fiction (isn't it? 😱) it's entirely believable for a myth such as this to be spread about by youngsters
'If you go down to the woods today...'
Move on twenty years and a woman is found badly injured on a Liverpool street, she’s had bits of skin sliced off all over her body and is understandably traumatised and not making any real sense. Before she was attended by the emergency services, she was heard singing The Bone Keeper song by eyewitnesses.
Two members of a detective team DC Louise Henderson and DS Paul Shipley track her movements back to a wood where a buried body is eventually uncovered.
The two police officers are friends but although mutually attracted to each other, their relationship is a not entirely comfortable one at times. Louise is reticent about her past and keeps her secrets close to her chest. Rarely socialising but good at her job. I wasn’t entirely convinced by their relationship but then this isn’t a character driven novel and the story flowed easily without the addition of too much back story and dialogue between the characters.
As they find more burials and bodies in the woods and body count increases, the Major Crimes team become involved because this can only be the work of a serial killer. Or was it something else
Something watched them all without them knowing. Something abnormal and malformed. Something they wouldn’t recognise. They thought they knew evil. They had no idea.
This book is a stand-alone, a one off and an extremely creepy as hell bone chilling read. It’s dark and deadly and there is an underlying fear of the unknown and never knowing what’s out there or imagined to be there. Exactly my favourite type of crime thriller. Let's just say I thoroughly enjoyed being scared out of my wits by this book.
'The Bone Keeper is real'