Synopses & Reviews
Edgar® Award–winning author Aaron Elkins’s creation—forensics professor Gideon Oliver—has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune
as “a likable, down-to-earth, cerebral sleuth.” Now, the celebrated Skeleton Detective is visiting friends at a vineyard in Tuscany when murder leaves a bitter aftertaste… It was the unwavering custom of Pietro Cubbiddu, patriarch of Tuscany’s Villa Antica wine empire, to take a solitary month-long sabbatical at the end of the early grape harvest, leaving the winery in the trusted hands of his three sons. His wife, Nola, would drive him to an isolated mountain cabin in the Apennines and return for him a month later, bringing him back to his family and business.
So it went for almost a decade—until the year came when neither of them returned. Months later, a hiker in the Apennines stumbles on their skeletal remains. The carabinieri investigate and release their findings: they are dealing with a murder-suicide. The evidence makes it clear that Pietro Cubbiddu shot and killed his wife and then himself. The likely motive: his discovery that Nola had been having an affair.
Not long afterwards, Gideon Oliver and his wife, Julie, are in Tuscany visiting their friends, the Cubbiddu offspring. The renowned Skeleton Detective is asked to reexamine the bones. When he does, he reluctantly concludes that the carabinieri, competent though they may be, have gotten almost everything wrong. Whatever it was that happened in the mountains, a murder-suicide it was not.
Soon Gideon finds himself in a morass of family antipathies, conflicts, and mistrust, to say nothing of the local carabinieri’s resentment. And when yet another Cubbiddu relation meets an unlikely end, it becomes bone-chillingly clear that the killer is far from finished…
Review
"Absorbing."
-PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"A solid mystery."
-LIBRARY JOURNAL
Review
Praise for Aaron Elkins and the Gideon Oliver mysteries:
“The whole world is Gideon Oliver’s playing field in Elkins’s stylish mysteries.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Lively and entertaining.”—The Seattle Times
“A series that never disappoints.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Elkins is a master.”—The Dallas Morning News
“No one does it better than Aaron Elkins.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune
Review
“No one does it better than Aaron Elkins.”—
The San Diego Union-Tribune
“The whole world is Gideon Olivers playing field in Elkinss stylish mysteries.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Evocations of Tuscany and a lively cast of supporting characters, notably feisty police lieutenant Rocco Gardella, balance the cerebral investigation with charm.”—Publishers Weekly
“Delivers another delicious blend of forensic science and a to-die-for setting…The family turns out to be as tricky as the Borgias, and the motives for murder elbow each other for precedence. Much about wine, Florence, forensics, and evil. Great bouquet.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Aaron Elkinss charming Gideon Oliver series—the celebrated ‘Skeleton Detective—moves to Italy in this solid entry…[Elkins] infuses the story with details about winemaking, describing it so well we can almost taste the barrel-aged vino. For mystery lovers, Dying on the Vine is indeed a tasty treat.”—Mystery Scene
“Its nice to see Gideon back in southern climes enjoying the good life.”—Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
The EdgarA(R) Award-winning author of Little Tiny Teeth returns with his professor of forensics, Gideon Oliver, a.k.a. the Skeleton Detective.
aNo one does it better than Aaron Elkins, a( San Diego Union-Tribune )aa and this time, Gideon Oliver will be up on the Rock of Gibraltar, where heall inspect his oldest bones yet. But a killeras loosea]
Around 25,000 years ago, did the Neanderthal live peacefully with his smarter, handsomer cousin, the Homo sapiens? The answer, recently found in the Rock of Gibraltar, left everyone speechlessa]
Buried ceremoniously, high in a cave, lies the skeleton of a human woman, clutching the skeleton of a part-human, part-Neanderthal child. Fascinated, Professor Oliver jumps at the chance to attend a conference near there. But two deaths, possibly murders, have rocked Gibraltar. As Oliver tries to piece things together, heas about to fall for some deadly tricks. After all, unlike the Gibraltar Boy, heas only humana]
Synopsis
Buried ceremoniously, high in a cave on the Rock of Gibraltar, lies the skeleton of a human woman, clutching the skeleton of a part-human, part-Neanderthal child. Fascinated, Professor Oliver jumps at the chance to visit the site. But two deaths, possibly murders, have rocked Gibraltar. As Oliver tries to piece things together, he's about to fall for some deadly tricks. After all, unlike the Gibraltar Boy, he's only human.
Synopsis
High up on the Rock of Gibraltar, forensics professor Gideon Oliver, the Skeleton Detective, is about to inspect his oldest bones, but a killer is on the loose, and Oliver will have to remember not to look down.
Synopsis
Edgar® Award–winning author Aaron Elkins’s creation—forensics professor Gideon Oliver—has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune
as “a likable, down-to-earth, cerebral sleuth.” Now, the celebrated Skeleton Detective is visiting friends at a vineyard in Tuscany when murder leaves a bitter aftertaste… It was the unwavering custom of Pietro Cubbiddu, patriarch of Tuscany’s Villa Antica wine empire, to take a solitary month-long sabbatical at the end of the early grape harvest, leaving the winery in the trusted hands of his three sons. His wife, Nola, would drive him to an isolated mountain cabin in the Apennines and return for him a month later, bringing him back to his family and business.
So it went for almost a decade—until the year came when neither of them returned. Months later, a hiker in the Apennines stumbles on their skeletal remains. The carabinieri investigate and release their findings: they are dealing with a murder-suicide. The evidence makes it clear that Pietro Cubbiddu shot and killed his wife and then himself. The likely motive: his discovery that Nola had been having an affair.
Not long afterwards, Gideon Oliver and his wife, Julie, are in Tuscany visiting their friends, the Cubbiddu offspring. The renowned Skeleton Detective is asked to reexamine the bones. When he does, he reluctantly concludes that the carabinieri, competent though they may be, have gotten almost everything wrong. Whatever it was that happened in the mountains, a murder-suicide it was not.
Soon Gideon finds himself in a morass of family antipathies, conflicts, and mistrust, to say nothing of the local carabinieri’s resentment. And when yet another Cubbiddu relation meets an unlikely end, it becomes bone-chillingly clear that the killer is far from finished…
Synopsis
Edgar® Awardwinning author Aaron Elkinss creationforensics professor Gideon Oliverhas been hailed by the Chicago Tribune
as a likable, down-to-earth, cerebral sleuth.” Now the celebrated Skeleton Detective is visiting friends at a vineyard in Tuscany when murder leaves a bitter aftertaste
When Gideon Oliver and his wife, Julie, are in Tuscany visiting the Cubbiddu family, the renowned Skeleton Detective is asked to reexamine the remains of a mysterious family tragedy. Pietro Cubbiddu, former patriarch of the Villa Antica wine empire, is thought to have killed his wife and then himself in the remote mountains of the Apennines. It does not take long for Gideon to deduce that, whatever happened, a murder-suicide it was not.
Soon Gideon finds himself in a morass of family antipathies, conflicts, and mistrust, to say nothing of the local authoritys resentment. And when yet another Cubbiddu relation meets an unlikely end, it becomes bone-chillingly clear that the killer is far from finished
About the Author
Aaron Elkins is the author of the Edgar® Awardwinning Gideon Oliver Mysteries as well as his most recent novel, The Worst Thing. He lives with his wife, Charlotte, on Washingtons Olympic Peninsula.