Old Bones

With the roar of thunder and the speed of a galloping horse comes the tide to Mont St. Michel goes the lyric to an old nursery song. So when Guillaume du Rocher, patriarch of a prominent Breton family, falls victim to the treacherous tide, few are surprised. Even the old man's relatives, summoned to one of the family's periodic gatherings, accept the verdict of "accidental drowning."

Too quickly, this unfortunate event is followed by a strange discovery: workers discover parts of a human skeleton, wrapped in butcher paper, beneath the stone flooring of the ancient du Rocher chateau.

Dr. Gideon Oliver, lecturing on forensic anthropology in nearby St. Malo, is asked to examine the bones; Inspector Lucien Anatole Joly knows Oliver as the American "skeleton detective." Oliver is able to date the burial circa 1940. As the digging continues, other bits and pieces turn up, including scorched remnants of an S.S. Obersturmbahnführer's uniform—leading the police to conclude that the bones are those of a Nazi officer known to have been murdered in the area in 1942.

But Oliver has his doubts. Then, when one of the remaining du Rochers is poisoned, Gideon's doubts gel into one certainty: someone wants old secrets to remain buried. A nearly fatal side trip to Mont St. Michel provides the necessary clue to prove the skeleton's identity—and to expose past and present murderers.