Burnt Bones

Special X #7

by Michael Slade

On a remote island off the coast of Seattle, a man lies buried alive. Miles away, his captor--the elusive killer known only as Mephisto--listens through a transmitter to his victim's dying screams, waiting for him to reveal a secret only he knows. But learning the secret is only the beginning of Mephisto's maniacal game....

Tracking the madman are two detectives. In Canada, Superintendent Robert DeClercq, a man who has experienced horror up close. In America, Jenna Bond, a young detective who has never known true horror--until now.

Together they will uncover a trail of clues that will lead them to Mephisto, and into the bloody past in which he exists. Because there the most terrifying secrets are buried, lying amidst the bones of the dead....

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

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 28, 1999

About the author

Slade on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MountieNoir

Slade on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MountieNoir

Criminal lawyer MICHAEL SLADE has acted in over one hundred murder cases. His specialty is the law of insanity. He argued the last death penalty case in Canada’s highest court.

Backed by his forensic experience, Slade’s Special X and Wyatt Rook thrillers fuse the genres of police and legal procedure, whodunit and impossible crime, suspense, history, and horror.

Slade was guest of honor at both the Bloody Words crime convention and the World Horror Convention. As Time Out puts it, “A thin line separates crime and horror, and in Michael Slade’s thrillers, the demarcation vanishes altogether.”

Slade was guest speaker at the international Police Leadership Conference and several RCMP regimental dinners. As Reader’s Digest puts it, “The Slade books have developed a strong following among police officers because of their strict adherence to proper police procedure.”

For the stories behind his plots, visit Slade’s Morgue at www.specialx.net.

Reviews

[Orient · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started exciting to me as I'm in for historical adventures with detective and thriller spices. This read is definitely so. Ancient secrets, historical background (a bit prolonged, though, it got me bored at some points), my fave Mounties on another mysteries, a strange creepy villain (that's where I got to my main problem with this book, I loved the idea of using Faust & Devil theme, it sounded proper and the means, used, were horrible. So what not to like? There was a lack of grandness for me, it didn't blow my mind like in other Slade's books! The villain had all the means, but didn't use them the way he could!).

But......

[Kathleen (itpdx) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book starts out with two men being kidnapped and tortured. But the real crime in this book is the writing. Witness: this tortured sentence: "With wind wilding her sand-colored hair and tearing her cobalt eyes, Jenna rode the heaving wave up the inland shore of the island like a bucking bronc, spray spuming into her as whitecaps cleaved."
While I love getting historical background in my fiction reading, this book covers too many things in USA Today snap shots--gladiators in Rome, Picts, Scottish clan wars, Stonehenge, FBI, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, recent megalomaniac cult leaders, the history of the San Juan and Gulf islands, etc.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Burnt Bones" is Slade turning a corner in the Special X series, still delivering the thrills and chills that have dragged me, kicking and screaming, through the ordeals his characters have suffered in the previous six entries. There are still the history lessons--The Pig War should go down in history as one of the most ridiculously idiotic things people have ever shed blood over. There are still the horrors--a good half-dozen people, if not more, die in absolutely gut-wrenching ways, and even the few who don't die still have a lot of recovery ahead of them.

Poor Nicky.

But "Burnt Bones" is taking Special X in a new direction. The past few books have seen Robert DeClercq and the men and women under his command engage in deadly games of cat and mouse with a variety of homicidal sociopaths. DeClercq and company (usually) win the day, but there's always a price to pay. Headhunter. Cutthroat. Ripper. Ghoul. Zombie. They've all extracted their psychological toll, but they've all in the end had their grand plans undone by those who wear the tunic.

Mephisto is different. And just as every Holmes needs his Moriarty and every Bond his Blofeld, every DeClercq needs his Mephisto: a megalomaniac with designs so grand and intentions so obscene that no one book is fit to contain them. "Burnt Bones" delivers a tale with all the hallmarks of a good Slade story, then bends that story over the sawhorse. Sometimes...sometimes the Mounties don't get their man.

Poor Nicky.

"Burnt Bones" runs readers from the Roman Coliseum to the Scottish Highlands to Hadrian's Wall, then zig-zags across the US/Canada border as DeClercq, Craven, and west coast police officer Jenna Bond track a killer who hunts for the secret to Stonehenge, a killer who will spare no expense, obey no law, and take no agony off the table to get what he wants. Ritual sacrifice? Buried alive? Sliced to death one piece at a time? All in a day's work for Mephisto and his druids. Archaeology, it seems, is serious business.

So too are the works of Slade. A most excellent tale related by a teller with no peer when it comes to research, criminal law, and police procedure. Not for the faint of heart. Not for those with overactive imaginations. Because no matter what else you take from "Burnt Bones", I can guarantee you'll be thinking one thought as you close the covers and lay it aside:

'Poor Nicky.'

[Brian Sammons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slade wanted to make a Moriarty-like villain for his RCMP to square off against with a character called 'The Druid'. Sadly, I thought it was more goofy than anything. This is an OK read, but far from the best of Slade's books.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I MIGHT be able to dredge up 3.5 stars for this tale but juuuust barely. Mr. Slade is a historian. ..absolutely nothing wrong with this but his lengthy reenactments of moments from ancient history slow the pacing of this psychological thriller way too much. About 25% of my way through this book I thought ...huh, this is Thomas Harris meets Dan Brown ...interesting, clever, kinda cool. Here's the problem...Dan Brown may be the best in the biz when it comes to pacing. Slade is not.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so bad I don’t even know how to describe it. First just the writing and world building. Any woman over 35 is described as washed up. Any man over 40 is a chiseled hunk. The “deep dives” into history are ridiculous and also mostly wrong. The entire plot is a mad lib- is the devil searching for Atlantis? Or a hoard? Or going to release a super virus?

Who care. Zero stars. I’m hate reading it at this point.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second Slade book that I have read, and while it is better than the first, that's not saying much. This book is so boring that the history lessons about the Druids is the best part of it. Otherwise, fool of violence for violence sake. This will probably be the last Slade book I will read.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book actually scared me in spots. I was barely able to put this down because I wanted to find out what would happen to the characters.

The writing was okay at best. I myself am not a writer so I cannot say much.

[James Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

His best book!!!!!

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 7th book in the Special X series by Michael Slade. I loved the series so far , especially Headhunter and Ghoul and Primal Scream. However, this one is , to me, the weakest of the 7 novels.

It seems more like a pet project for Slade. Maybe he was interested in Stone Hedge and the history of Druids, Celts, Scotland etc. Maybe this story gave him an excuse to do research on those topics and even some background on Atlantis.

THe research is always top notch in a Slade novel and its packed with information regarding the above mentioned history and also some more Northwest history of USA and Canada.

The story for me just was boring. Nick Craven gets caught up in this plot and gets kidnapped and tortured. A US Cop, Jenna Bond, assists Declerq in trying to solve 2 kidnappings/murders that tie in a Scottish clan and a silver skill horde that was thought to be on the MacDonald family plot.

Katt is quickly becoming a favorite of mine and I love her banter with Craven and Declerq and her love of Holmes and Watson. I think Jenna might be here to stay but we will see.

Overall, its good but 3 stars for this one.

[Jaime · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was just too much for me. It took me months to trudge through the depravity and excessiveness of this poorly-constructed novel. At times, it felt like an experiment in S & M. The novel begins witht eh torture and slaughter of two men near Seattle and goes downhill after that. little hope and too much depravity made the bile rise up in my throat. I have to say that this novel lost me. I do not know if I can stomach another novel in the series.

[MJH · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched. However a little naughty in some parts, a seventeen year old's fantasy. But the fast paced writing makes up for that.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 2004. Whodunit, history, suspense and horror.

[Michele]

On my continuing saga of reading Michael Slade books, I read this one just after coming back from Scotland (which figures prominently in the book, just not as a location). It was one of the more poorly constructed of Michael Slade's books, partly because it features Mephisto as antagonist, and we never really get an idea who this strange and warped man is. I get that it's a kind of Professor Moriarty character, but DeClerq, the hero of Slade's stories, is no Holmes, so it doesn't quite work.

[Wendy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am thoroughly disappointed with this story. There are some truly grisly torture scenes and unbelievable cruelty in this story. However, instead of being the thriller I was expecting it to be, it was more of a history lesson of the Scots, Druids and the secrets of Stonehenge. I found myself getting very bored with the history lessons, which although were interesting, lessened the impact of the horror scenes.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was okay. I've read a lot of Michael Slade and I have found a lot of them concentrate on the gory details of crime and the inner workings of the RCMP. I enjoyed that. This one contains so many history lessons, and while I'm a fan of history, if I wanted to read about it, I would have found a textbook.

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be damned if I can remember what this book was actually about, what happened or how I felt about it. It mustn't have been that great if I can't remember. So I'll give it a 3.

[Nadia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as enjoyable as "Headhunter". Annoying when alternating flashbacks of boyhood with historical ones. Only gets interesting near the end. No clever twists or surprises.