Touch of the Bone

by Baxter Clare Trautman

After a lifetime spent steeped in death L.A. Franco has retired from the LAPD and has plunged head first into living—but separating her two worlds isn’t as easy as she hoped. Following the death of “Sal” Saladino, a recluse and mentor with uncanny healing abilities, Frank is busy sloughing off her old identity as a cop and reluctantly growing into the new skin of a healer. She doesn’t understand her newfound abilities, but the patients she sees believe in them. When a ranch hand brings her an old journal of Sal’s, Frank’s world begins to shift uncomfortably. The pages of the journal describe an injustice Sal was too cowardly to confront. And as Frank begins to work her way through the pages, her cop instincts kick in—but she’s done with that phase of her life and isn’t willing to return. However, when one of her new patients comes to her with mysterious neck pain, she begins to suspect the ailment might be related to the murder Sal has alluded to. As Frank slowly learns to trust her newfound abilities—and her new lover—she begins to unravel the murder in the journal. When she suspects who the murderer is, Frank must choose whether she will confront them and the injustice in her old role as a cop or let bygones be bygones and continue on her new path as a healer.

240 pages, Paperback

Published August 8, 2023

Reviews

[Henriette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite: A woman‘s quest for grace
Hold of the Bone (#6) of the Frank Franco series has given us the tale how Lt Frank Franco discovers in beautiful visions and enchanting visits to the Saint Lucia mountains a new calling far away from the grisly homicides of South Central L.A. Touch of the Bone (#7) completes the outward transition with Frank‘s inner journey. Both books complement each other and add a new dimension to the Franco series.
I was first taken by surprise, but then thoroughly relished those books: It is a wonderful read esp. for more mature women who go through the transitions of menopause („the most sacred time in a woman‘s life. She‘s finally giving birth to herself“), of retirement or changing gears later in life. It is a hymn to the power of women, of survival and strength.
From the outset of Touch of the Bone we see Frank settling into the hermit-like tranquility of her mountain refuge and settling into herself. She picks up - oh so reluctantly - the mantle of healer left by Sal who lived in the mountain refuge before her. She taps into the origins of healing, into the primal strength of female power. There is a final challenge on her journey: By chance she discovers an old cold case and a possible connection to an ailment of a young child. Frank is conflicted between her duty as a former cop and her duty as a healer.
Again there a wonderful pearls of wisdom about women, about the gifts of menopause (I loved that Baxter Clare touches on the rarely mentioned shift in desire and duty after going through the change). I loved the zest of life of her new Latina lover who not only is full of laughter, but full of body. The language is again exquisite and I loved the vivid descriptions of raw nature and its circle of life and death.
The last chapter is the most exquisite capstone of Frank‘s inner search and finding the face of her soul: gorgeous, touching, encompassing. Grace.

Thanks for the ARC to Bywater Books. The review is left voluntarily.