Bone Dust White

Macy Greeley Mystery #1

by Karin Salvalaggio

Someone is knocking at the door to Grace Adams's house and won't stop. Grace thinks she knows who it is, but when she looks out her bedroom window, she sees a woman she doesn't recognize walking on the trails behind her home. The woman isn't alone for long before a man emerges from the dark of the surrounding woods and stabs her, then retreats into the shadows, leaving her to die in the snow. Frantic, Grace calls the police but knows they'll never arrive in time, so she herself goes to the woman and is shocked to find she's not a stranger--and that only raises more questions.

Badly shocked, Grace is taken to the hospital, and Detective Macy Greeley is called back to the small town of Collier, Montana, where she worked a case once before. She needs to track down the killer and find out what the murder has to do with Grace, a troubled young woman whose harrowing past may have finally come in from the cold. But the town of Collier is just as hard-bitten now as it was years ago, and Macy will have to reopen old wounds as she investigates a murder that looks like it took eleven years to come to pass.

Karin Salvalaggio's outstanding crime fiction debut, Bone Dust White, is an absolutely stunning work that signals the entrance of a major new talent.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Audiobook, Suspense

289 pages, Hardcover

First published May 13, 2014

About the author

Karin Salvalaggio was born in West Virginia in the 1960s. Her father was career military and her mother was a homemaker. Karin has fond memories of her nomadic childhood. She’s lived in places as climatically diverse as Alaska and Florida and as culturally distinct as California and Iran. Early on, she found companionship in books. Karin attended the University of California Santa Cruz, graduating in 1989, but aside from two years in Italy, she has lived in London, England since 1994. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. Her short story “Walleye Junction” was published in the Mechanics Institute Review 8 in 2011. Her debut novel, a thriller entitled Bone Dust White, has received critical praise. Burnt River, the follow up in the Macy Greeley Mystery Series, was published on May 12th 2015 and Walleye Junction came out in May 2016. Silent Rain, the fourth novel in the series, will be published in May 2017.

Reviews

[Sonja Rosa Lisa ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vor 11 Jahren ist Leanne spurlos verschwunden und hat ihre damals 7-jährige Tochter Grace zurückgelassen. Nun kehrt Leanne zurück, wird aber ermordet, bevor sie mit ihrer Tochter Kontakt aufnehmen kann. Was ist damals geschehen? Die hochschwangere Polizistin Macy Greeley übernimmt den Fall, da sie auch bereits vor 11 Jahren nach Leanne suchte. Damals wurden die Leichen einiger Mädchen gefunden. Hängen beide Fälle zusammen?
***
Mein Leseeindruck:
"Eisiges Geheimnis" ist der erste Band einer bisher zweiteiligen Reihe mit Detective Macy Greeley als Ermittlerin.
Mir hat das Buch sehr gut gefallen. Die Spannung wurde kontinuierlich aufgebaut und gehalten. Das Setting - das winterliche Montana - ist ein weiterer Pluspunkt. Ich fand die Atmosphäre sehr dicht und irgendwie düster.
Die Protagonisten hätten für mich noch etwas mehr Tiefe haben dürfen. Ich konnte mich nicht so wirklich in sie hineinfühlen. Dennoch hat es mir aber Spaß gemacht, diesen Fall zu verfolgen.
Ich weiß nicht, ob oder wie viele Bände es noch geben wird von dieser Reihe, aber ich werde weitere Bücher der Autorin auf jeden Fall gerne lesen.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Detective Macy Freely, heavily pregnant, is sent to Collier, Montana, when a murdered woman echoes back to a case on which she had worked. Grace, a young, vulnerable girl, witnessed the murder of her own mother. A mother she had not seen since she was seven.

Collier is a town that holds many secrets, its top citizens presenting many different faces. The subject matter difficult to read in that it contains the exploitation of children and the trafficking of young woman. The people who hold these secrets will do anything to protect them. The characters themselves, even the good ones, have very interesting lives and the resolution to this story will send many in the town reeling.

This is a dark and well written, atmospheric debut by Salvalaggio.


ARC from Netgalley.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook Narrated by Amy McFadden ( 10h 11m)

My previous two audio experiences were books narrated in the 1st person and so having a book read to me in the third person took a little getting used to. The book begins with what is described in the synopsis. So, I best just get to the "likes" and "dislikes."

1. Intricate plot- I thought this was merely a murder mystery, but the human trafficking and meth lab revelations really thickened the storyline. It really kept me turning the pages to see where the author was headed. On the other hand, there were some pacing problems in places and I felt myself irritated at the lack of case solving.

2. Captivating characters- I liked both Macy and Grace and their scenes were excellent especially in the second half of the story What I didn’t like was the first part where all the secondary characters hog the limelight and a lot of drama ensues. In my opinion, Macy was a strong and gritty character and she was underused.

3. I loved the beginning and felt really hooked I didn't like the ending, Chapter 27 as a cliffhanger would have been much better than the tidy wrap up in Chapter 28.

Although I am feeling a bit underwhelmed after completing this book, I would certainly dive into another Karin Salvaggio mystery. After all, the positives certainly outweigh the negatives.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karin Salvalaggio has published her first book, a murder mystery that is the first in what will be a series. I had to type that statement out, as I'm still having a hard time believing that Bone Dust White is her debut novel. Karin's writing is a gift of great characters, finely paced plot, and murder mystery with an abundance of entanglements. She has created a complex, somewhat understated main character in in State Police Detective Macy Greeley who is both well developed and yet not fully developed, hooking the reader, but brilliantly hinting that Macy Greeley is a promise of layers to come. As with all the most interesting characters in a series, Macy has a past that is revealed as relevant to the situation and a future that is evolving.

Bone Dust White brings readers into Macy Greeley's life when she is eight months pregnant, single, and on assignment away from her home of Helena, Montana in the small town of Collier, where she worked a murder case eleven years prior. It has taken eleven years to finish business that began in murder and ends once again in murder. Grace Adams lives with her widowed aunt in an isolated area of an unfinished housing development in Collier, and she is recuperating from a heart transplant operation when a woman comes through the snow to her house, knocking on the door, and then running from an assailant on the trails in back of the house. The woman is stabbed and left to die, and while Grace is terrified, she is compelled to go help the woman after the attacker has fled. Grace discovers that the dying woman is someone important from her past, and it's only the beginning of the past coming back to haunt her in its nightmarish revelations. Macy's job is to find the killer by connecting the dots that lead back to Grace and why murder arrived at her door. Grace isn't the only one who must relive the past, as Macy has some ghosts of her own, too.

It's always a thrill for a mystery series fan to get in on the ground floor of a series, and when its first novel, and the author's debut novel, is as satisfying a read as Bone Dust White, the excitement is enhanced ten-fold. I am already invested in the character of Macy Greeley and am looking forward to how she handles the challenge of single parenthood while continuing to be an exceptional detective.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not quite sure what to think at first of Bone Dust White by Karin Salvalggio. I thought it was a tad slow in the beginning with tons of characters. Somehow it all came together, and I really enjoyed the book. I will read more from this author. 3.5 stars

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to how the winter's snow has covered up the decaying town of Collier, Montana, home of the dying industries of mining and logging, where a sign, 'Please Drive Slowly' now reads 'Please D i e Slowly', the smalltown families left behind struggle to maintain a normal community even while economic rot nibbles behind every door.

No one wants to deal with the shrinking of the town's population and prospects, so life goes on in the usual manner - houses are cleaned by wives and daughters, the local used-car celebrity, familiar to all from his television ads, continues to offer hopeful deals, the hospital remains open - but the bars are too busy.

When I have driven through real towns much like this fictional Montana town, I have often wondered how they manage to keep the lights on. Hopefully, not like what some of these families eventually decided to do....

Grace Adams, a young 17-year-old, sees a woman stabbed from her bedroom window. The woman, staggering from her wounds, calls out Grace's name. Horrified, Grace phones for help, but since she and her aunt are the only inhabitants in a failed housing development, she expects the police and medics may be 30 minutes away. Grace is a shy introvert who can barely express herself, a victim of years of school bullying. She slowly pulls herself together enough to go to the woman in the back of her house, after she sees the cloaked man (?) move off over a ridge in the woods. Then, shock.

The dying woman is her mother, who Grace hasn't seen since she was 7. Her mother tells her '...they are after the money.'

Detective Macy Greeley, called in by her boss Ray Davidson, drives in from Helena. She has agreed to take the case, despite the fact her baby is due in four weeks. Grossly gravid, she struggles with the snow, the town's many secrets, and Grace's protective Aunt Elizabeth because the now murdered mother, Leanne, was a missing part of Macy's investigation into the murder of young Polish girls years previously. Sex trafficking was suspected but not proven. Can the still small, emotionally-damaged young woman Macy met when she was a child know more than she has been saying?

There are a lot of characters and as many secrets. During the day, gossips hint at old scandals that despite the passing of decades still titilate the mean girls of the town, while the men who have not yet deserted their families wonder how to delay coming home to their wives and children after their work is done. Grace is a scapegoat of sorts, which becomes obvious to Macy, especially as she learns how many couples with their children are dysfunctional with depression and violence.

The ice and snow covering the dirt roads of the town is soon to melt, revealing all...

I think this is a good-enough mystery (3 and a half stars easy), although it is not difficult to suss out what is behind the ongoing abuse of women and children. I did not guess who turned out to be the last perp standing, despite other expected collapses of certain middle-class veneers of the 'good' people of Collier. Even the present tense verbs used throughout did not jar me as much as they usually do (until I got accustomed to the format, again). Instead I found this pure mystery genre novel quite atmospheric.

[Sharon Mensing · Rating 5 out of 5]

The narrative of BONE DUST WHITE is written in the present tense, while the dialogue sets the timing of events in place. I don’t normally like books written in the present tense; however, in this case it is a brilliant move. There is a sense of the narrative providing a lens, something cold and crystalline, through which we see the events take place, while at the same time the characters’ thoughts and feelings provide emotional depth to the story. Set, as this book is, just over the Canadian border in northern Montana during the winter, and involving somewhat quirky characters, the balance between the narrative and the dialogue transports the reader rather than distancing (as present tense often does).
At the start of the book, Grace Adams, a not-quite 18 year old is recovering from a heart transplant as she observes a woman being killed through her bedroom window. As she makes the unwise move to go to the woman’s aid wearing only a silk nightie and bathrobe, the sense of isolation caused by living in the only occupied house in a failed subdivision, by the encroaching forest, and by the heavy snowfall becomes palpable. When Grace discovers the woman just barely alive, she also discovers that she is the mother who abandoned Grace 11 years previously. What Grace does at that moment, and then throughout the book, makes it clear that Grace is no ordinary teenager.
The detective assigned to investigate the murder, Macy Greeley, has a history in Grace’s fictional small Montana hometown of Collier, where she investigated but did not solve a human trafficking case at the same time that Grace’s mother disappeared from town a decade previously. Many of the characters peopling Grace’s world are the same ones Macy either investigated or worked with during that case, and indeed, the two cases do connect as the plot develops. In her final trimester of pregnancy as the case progresses, Macy has a tough exterior, keeping others at arm’s length. This contrasts well with her friend and self-appointed assistant, Jared, who seems to have a soft spot for each of the innocents who has been damaged by living in a dead-end, meth-ridden, half-abandoned ex-industrial town. There is plenty of nastiness in this book, but the narrative keeps it at distance while bringing the underlying kindness of the main characters into stronger focus.
The mystery and the characters both have great complexity, and both are revealed slowly as the layers are peeled away. While the plot moves along briskly, keeping the reader engaged, the development of character and relationships never loses focus. The setting provides darkness and gives perspective to the perpetrators of human violence. BONE DUST WHITE is a masterful debut, and I sincerely hope that Salvalaggio has a series in mind for Detective Macy Greeley.
This review first appeared at www.reviewingtheevidence.com.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predictable. Unlikeable and/or uncompelling characters. Mystery about a eighteen year old girl who finds her mother killed--we then work back through a rats' nest of creepy people and issues to figure out what's going on. Not recommended.

[Nancy McFarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This smart new author of crime fiction introduces our heroine, Detective Macy Greeley. She’s tough and smart and complex. This sad but unforgettable story is a reading experience in crime and passion, involving desperate people whose twisted lives cause hurt and pain to both the guilty and the innocent.

[Craig Sisterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karin Salvalaggio's debut is an assured crime tale set in the northern reaches of small-town Montana, near the Canadian border, and kickstarts a series featuring Detective Macy Greeley. Which is just as well, because when I got to the end of BONE DUST WHITE, having devoured it in less than a day, I certainly wanted to read much more about the understated, intriguing Montana detective. Greeley is the kind of character you quickly fall alongside, that has a 'series protagonist' vibe about her.

Greeley is heavily pregnant, dealing with plenty of complications in her own private life, when she's sent to Collier after a woman is murdered, stabbed to death in the snow. The woman's daughter Grace, who hadn't seen her mother since she vanished amidst all sorts of scandal 11 years before, is the only witness - and Greeley needs to tease any information she can out of the teenager.

But how does this new homicide tie into an old case involving four dead girls - a case Greeley is particularly interested in? Collier is a small-town, and connections are everywhere. As are secrets.

Salvalaggio does a great job drawing us into Greeley's investigation, and the world of small-town Montana. She creates a nice sense of place, even if the place isn't all that nice (in parts). Beautiful natural landscapes are pockmarked by decrepit fishing shops, meth labs, and trailers left to rot behind truckstop diners. The townsfolk know each other well, while keeping secrets from the police and each other. There's something festering beneath the surface, even among many of the politer citizens.

Greeley knows almost everyone she talks to is holding something back. But about what?

Beyond the pregnant sleuth, the other characters in BONE DUST WHITE are also well-drawn and interesting, such as Greeley's ex-lover Jared who is the paramedic who finds the near-frozen Grace but has all sorts of problems going on in his own life. It's a town full of connections, a spiderweb of relationships and past histories. All sorts of personal agendas clash and stumble over each other.

Salvalaggio delivers a gritty and textured first novel that shows plenty of storytelling talent. There's an authenticity to her character and the issues that bubble through the storyline - even if they could make some readers queasy at times. She has a lovely touch for evoking the Montana setting.

Overall, BONE DUST WHITE was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading; I was fully drawn into the world Salvalaggio had created, enjoyed riding along with the characters, and as soon as I closed the covers I wanted to go and grab another Macy Greeley tale off the shelf.

[Mike Finn]

Sometimes you start a book and know immediately that you love it, or that you hate it. Those books are easy. The hardest books are the ones that move along quite nicely, with nothing to dislike but with which you can't quite connect. "Bone Dust White" was one of those books for me.

I read to past the halfway mark, carried forward by the fact that the writing works and I like Macy Greeley, the heavily pregnant detective leading the murder investigation. The pace was slow and the story meandered a bit but there was nothing bad about the book.
In the end, I stopped a little over halfway through when I realised:

I wasn't curious about who had done what to whom because I'd never become engaged in solving a puzzle.

I found Garrett, the main male character, believable but irritating. He's a nice enough guy in an effort-free kind of way but he's cast himself in a victim/martyr role and he bores me.

The two women Garett is letting use him are both toxic and made me feel I was in a crime series twist of The Bold and the Beautiful.

Grace, the young female victim, is so helpless and soft that I want to slap her. I know, I should have more empathy than that, but I have no idea how this girl has survived to be eighteen.

I may try a different series by Karin Salvalaggio but I need a different mix of characters.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gritty, uncompromising, and terribly real, BONE DUST WHITE, a debut novel, is a mystery.that refuses to look away or turn its head. No hiding one's eyes here: instead, one is glued to page after page of unrelenting enhancement, puzzling out mysteries piled upon covert plots upon illegal, immoral conspiracies. Don't miss it, don't dim the lights, don't answer the phone, nor the door--you never know just whom it might be.

[Liz]

I agree with another reviewer that it felt more like domestic fiction than a mystery. Just could not get into the characters, and after continually picking it up and putting it down decided it was just not for me (I read about half the book).

[Booklunatic · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Sterne mit Tendenz nach oben

Gute Story, spannend, sympathische Ermittlerin.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rock solid 3 STAR read. In my view it is NOT ...

"...an absolutely stunning work that signals the entrance of a major new talent' -or-
"...as jarring as a headfirst plunge in an icy river … a stark and unforgettable reading experience”

I often wonder who writes the promo pieces for books. In this case I wonder if some of the writers either did not read the book or took some pretty creative license to come up with their book descriptions.

Don't get me wrong, this was a very interesting story but could have been so much more ... the potential for a blockbuster is buried in the foundation of this tale. Relative to the glowing description on the book jacket I was somewhat disappointed but nonetheless I'm glad I read the book.

The story takes place in Collier, MT, a former logging and industrial town, now in the throes of economic malaise that sits very near the Canadian border. It feels terrible!



"Something about Collier is broken and can't be fixed."

The author effectively captures the economic and social despair and utter hopelessness of a town that a changing and declining economy has left behind. Collier feels morally dirty even before the tale begins in earnest and the author effectively captures this emotion as well. The "ick" factor is oppressive!

The story involves some pretty weighty themes like domestic violence, infidelity and promiscuity, drug abuse, child abuse and pedophilia, sex trafficking and murder. And a murder is where the book begins. Grace Adams, a 17 year old recent heart transplant recipient, lives with her aunt Elizabeth Lamm on 153 Summit Road in the only habitable home in a failed, abandoned country club development outside of Collier. The rest of the development consists of cellar holes and skeletal remains of dwellings, intermittently occupied by the homeless passing through on the trails behind Grace’s home.

Looking out her bedroom window Grace witnesses a murder on one of the trails behind the house where she has been living since her mother abandoned her eleven years ago. The murder is extremely close and personal and begins the exposure of the immorality and criminal underbelly of Collier.

Enter Detective Macy Greeley. She is sent by her boss Ray Davidson from her office in Helena to investigate the Collier murder. Macy has some very close relations with Davidson. She is single, pregnant and previously worked in Collier, a town she refers to as a shithole, investigating the unsolved deaths of four eastern European girls eleven years ago. The girls' bodies were dumped at a roadside picnic area and an informant fingered Arnold Lamm’s Cross Border Trucking company in the crime. The informant is mysteriously killed, a truck fire destroys all evidence of the crime and now Macy is back in Collier investigating a murder that could lead to resolution of the murder of the girls committed eleven years earlier.

It feels as if everyone in Collier is connected to, or touched by, the illicit activity in Collier including Grace's mother Leanne, Leanne's sister Elizabeth and her husband Arnold and many of those employed by Cross Border Trucking.

The weave of characters and circumstances is excellent and the conclusion is riveting and fascinating, leaving the door wide open for a Macy Greeley series. Where the book fell short for me was my complete lack of emotional engagement with any of the characters. There is so much going on in this story and so many different characters, most of whom are sleazy and morally bankrupt, that I should have experienced raw emotions of disgust and outrage, compassion and heartache, anxiety and tension. I didn't feel much of any of these emotions at all. Character development was shallow at best and the depth and breadth of the story came up short for me. The stage was set for a creepy, keep me awake at night, page turner ... it didn't happen!

After all, this book is only 289 pages long. If I was the author's editor I would have sent her back to the word processor and asked for at least 150 more pages and tell me about these people and what motivated them to commit such despicable acts. Or maybe this is the part of a master marketing plan. Begin modestly, revealing just bits and pieces of Macy Greeley to whet the reader's appetite for future books. I don’t know. That strategy may have backfired for me. Read the book and find out for yourself!

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am going to try and be lenient on this novel, but I may not be successful. At first the book did not pull me in at all, cause it jumped straight to the action without any buildup. That is one thing that you do not do, cause then all the rest of the story goes nowhere, then you are left with useless characters that does not contribute. I will say that the synopsis was not really explored as I will like, just meaningless mini plots that did not really make the book all that memorable or interesting.

I will admit that mystery\thriller books are hard to rate high, cause I am very picky. Mainly it is my favorite genre of books so mediocre books turn to boring flops if nothing catches me.

[Sharon Huether · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bone Dust White... by Karin Salvalaggio... A crime and mystery thriller with a small town atmosphere and a community of characters. Macy Greeley is the dective handling this eleven year old case, gaining the trust of the many victims. A murder solved and sex trafficers arrested. I hope this author writes more books. Excellent story. Couldn't put the book down.

[Heidi Busch · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was really disjointed at the start and I had difficulties figuring out how people tied together. I think it could have been better edited as well, there were a few grammar mistakes. The premise of the story was good, but the execution of the story could have been better done.

[Gloria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid police procedural that focuses on international sex trafficking and also abuse of little girls nearby. It begins with high drama when a teen recovering from her heart transplant surgery looks out the window on a snowy day and sees a woman at the gate murdered before her very eyes.

From there it settles into the investigations of a host of possible perpetrators. This area sheds light on spousal physical abuse, and woman trying to raise children on their own while protecting them.

Detective Macy Greeley is very very pregnant. When this murder occurs, it immediately connects to an unresolved case from Macy's past. Now she is more determined than ever to resolve it.

Where this lets down a bit is in the climax. I think the author chose the wrong bad guy to feature since he is simply a bully, a clog, and ultimately just a cog in the wheel of the trafficking operation. None of the characters were especially inspiring or likable. The men, even the so-called good guys, all seem to let women down in a variety of ways.

But this is good enough to read the next series entry!

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karin Salvalaggio’s mystery set in the small town of Collier, Montana starts off with an incessant knock on the door one snowy morning. Grace is too terrified to open the door, but manages to catch a glimpse of a woman walking around in the snow outside. When she finally musters the courage to open the door and then leave the house, Grace finds the woman dead on the trail behind her house. She recognized the dead woman as her mother, who Grace has not seen since she was a child.
Helena-based detective Macy Greeley is assigned to the case. As the book progresses, the readers learns about both women’s lives. Grace is a troubled 18-year-old, abandoned by her mother at a young age and suffering from a severe life-long ailment. Detective Greeley is a pregnant, single mother to-be with man and professional troubles.
Collier, Grace’s hometown and where detective Greely had worked a case years before, is a typical small town, filled with secrets and intrigue, where nothing is what it seems at first glance.
For some reason, I just couldn’t get into this book. I found it difficult to empathize with the characters, and found Grace a little unnerving. While the theme of the secretive small town is universal, there was little in the book that made this particular story stand out from the rest or make it memorable. I felt like the book could have been set anywhere, and other than the cold and the fact that it has a border with Canada, it didn’t really give me a feel for the state of Montana.
What I did find redeeming about Salvaggio’s novel, however, was that besides showing that all small towns are a tangle of secrets, it shows an even darker side of small-town America: the proliferation of meth labs and the poverty and crime that they bring with them, triggering the demise of many small communities.

Read my other reviews on lasesana.com

[Maggie Boyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very unusually written book. The author has an almost pedantic writing style that includes skipping over important scenes and delivering a lot of dead-pan dialogue. And yet once you get pulled into the story you have a tough time leaving it behind.

Grace is home, resting after heart surgery, when she notices a woman approaching her back garden gate. Before the woman can enter the backyard and come to the door, a man comes to confront her and ultimately, kill her as Grace watches helplessly, calling the police. It turns out the woman was Grace's long lost mother. But no one has any idea who the knife wielding, ski mask wearing maniac might be.

But they kinda do. They might not know his identity but they do know that he was probably involved in the Grace's uncles illegal business enterprise. Enter pregnant cop Macy, who slowly begins to unravel the web of lies surrounding the community.

The positives are its spot on depiction of small town life. Criminals. Secrets. Nasty family members. Hopelessness. It's all there :-)

The mystery and its slow unraveling is another positive. You don't really see most of the surprises coming. Some, yes. But not the biggies.

The negatives are the almost sleep inducing prose and the fact that Macy is a bit stupid and pathetic. The kind of woman who makes bad decisions and then blinks her eyes in surprise at the bad results.

So, not great but an interesting story none the less.

[Marti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bone Dust White by Karin Salvalaggio is a debut book. The author has chosen to write about a crime that happened in Flathead Valley in Montana. The descriptions of the setting and most of the secondary character are dreary, uninteresting, secretive and cold.

From the beginning Grace discovers her mother, Leanne out in the snow dying from a stab wound after witnessing her attack. Only Grace has not seen her mother for many years, since she was left behind. One of other lead characters is a heavily pregnant detective from the state police who has been sent up to this area to investigate a murder. Macy Greeley arrives to investigate the death of that same woman Leanne that has been missing for years. So begins this novel of changing battle lines, secrets known and unknown, a lot of characters and the unrelenting cold and bitter wind.

The book seemed a little slow to me and I had a hard time connecting with the characters. However, I found as the book became more tangled, I became more invested in having the murder solved and justice served. The intertwining of a small town and the characters is a universal theme that could be set anywhere. I will try another book by this author when she writes another one.

[Alison Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been a while since I’ve read a book I couldn’t put down; Karin Salvalaggio’s Bone Dust White delivers that satisfying experience. The book wrapped me up in its plot, embedded its characters in my imagination and took me on a dark and compelling journey. Bone Dust White casts the universal and age-old themes of greed, power and exploitation into contemporary issues of sex trafficking, pedophilia and domestic abuse. Set in the run-down town of Collier, Montana in the winter, the gritty, chilled atmosphere is expertly woven into the story, coloring the scenes and seeping off the pages. The three main characters are authentically composed and, as the plot progresses, they gradually reveal their strengths, their flaws and their secrets. I confess, by the end of the book, I wanted to spend more time with each of them. I hope we will see more of these characters and read more of Karin Salvalaggio’s work.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met Karin Salvalaggio at this year's Bouchercon and we soon became accidental friends, jokingly calling each other stalkers. Her book, Bone Dust White is a finely crafted first novel, filled with engaging characters. It starts out like a writing class effort to describe a storm in fifteen different ways, but then settles into a gripping story. Her protagonist is a very pregnant and very capable detective who slowly unravels the mystery of a long-gone woman found dead by her damaged,abandoned daughter. Everything about Bone Dust White is done with professionalism and care, like the beautifully laid out cover, yet there are poignantly funny moments as well. My favorite was when the main character sees a sign that originally said, "Please Drive Slowly" but has now been vandalized to read, "Please D i e Slowly."

I highly recommend Bone Dust White and look forward to reading more of Karin's works.

[Andymartinink · Rating 4 out of 5]

One book I read in 2016 that really impressed me and which I neglected to write about - BONE DUST WHITE by Karin Salvalaggio. I felt a definite connection with this book partly because I had recently spent time in the wilds of Montana and she took me right back there. But in terms of her evocation of a place and a mood and a high level of mayhem I was reminded of Graham Swift’s 'Waterland' and his line that the Fens are a land of ‘madness and melancolia and murder’ (or something like that). The characters of Grace Adams and Jared, who wants so much to help everyone and always screws up, are brilliant. And I also fell for her tough but vulnerable (and also pregnant) detective Macy. This was the first of a series and it’s great. And I can’t wait to read the one Salvalaggio is now writing (I believe) set in London. I imagine there is enough madness and melancholia and murder there for her.

[lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

The word that comes to mind when I think of this book is awkward. The story was awkward, the plot pacing was awkward, the dialogue was awkward. Everything was so badly told I felt like I was reading a court transcript. There was no depth to the characters. I couldn't understand their motivations at all. They were so weird. After reading Fourth of July Creek, which was so well done, and which took place in Montana also, this book seemed like a terrible generalization of the people who live in Montana.

[Jill Lawton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping plot weaves through a landscape of colourful but completely believable characters. I loved Detective Macy Greeley with her wry humour, gritty determination and just enough self-doubt to be thoroughly human. Salvalaggio's setting is a captivating landscape - one that I am not familiar with, but was completely convinced about. And of course, story, story story.... this one was hard to put down and kept me turning the pages. If you love crime with character you will really enjoy this book.

[BB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really mixed bag. Definitely two star half way through. Loved Macy and Jared throughout but the others were all just too odd. Was that the point? Grace, Elizabeth, Leanne, Sam...all odd. Pamela, Toby, Hayley, Lizzie...odd. Trina, Dustin, I can go on. But then it held together better and I stayed up until 2am to finish so I gave it three stars. I got tired of reading about how cold it was there on the Canadian border, not helped I'm sure by how cold it is in my house.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grace's mother is murdered in her yard after having abandoned her years ago. Past deeds are stirring up violence in their small town. Macy is an investigator sent from Helena to investigate and she finds a lot of ugly secrets.

I thought the book was okay and I loved Macy. Grace irritated me though a lot of the suspects were interesting.

[Aleksandra Jaric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hate to give bad reviews....but what a disappointment! I still don't get the title of the book and it felt like chapters were glued together from different books. Jumping from character to character and building their stories with no final resolution at the end just doesn't make sense. The beginning got my attention, but by the end of the book....I was so glad the read was over.