A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier

Up next on my “you gotta read this” list is A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier.

I’ll tell you the fun part first:  it’s the first of a SERIES! Don’t you just love a series?  All that anticipation, counting the days til the next one comes out.  Yippeeeeeee! (no pressure, Ms. M, but when is the next one coming out?)

Paula Munier is actually a pretty cool gal.  She’s held all kinds of jobs in the writing world, including journalist, editor, acquisitions specialist, digital content manager, and publishing executive.  Now she is a Senior Agent and Content Strategist for Talcott Notch Literary Services.  She’s written at least three books that I know of on writing and is a popular lecturer on the subject.  Get this:  she just got her pic – well her cartoon – in the New Yorker! How great is that?

I wish my hair looked that good…

Oh, right, the BOOK!  I plowed through that thing like a hungry teenage boy through a plate of spaghetti.  And it was even better than spaghetti, if you can imagine such a thing.

In A Borrowing of Bones, our protagonist is a young Shakespeare-quoting Army veteran named Mercy.  Her partner is Elvis, also a veteran, formerly an Army Explosive Detection Dog.  Both are scarred from their experiences in Afghanistan.  Both are mourning the death of Elvis’s handler.

We meet Mercy when she and Elvis are on a hike.  Elvis finds, of all things, an abandoned baby.  Sitting in her carrier.  In the middle of nowhere.  What the heck?  Shortly afterward, we meet another major character; a Vermont State Fish and Wildlife Game Warden named Troy.  Troy has his own canine sidekick named Susie Bear.  Troy tries to explain to Mercy that she and Elvis are civilians now and should not “help.”

Troy quickly learns that Mercy has a big streak of stubborn in that pretty red head of hers. And that she’s a darned good investigator.  Starting with the baby, then a set of three-year-old human bones, the four find clue after clue.  Each one leads them into more dangerous circumstances.  And then…

That’s all I’m going to tell ya.  Mean of me, right?

This is a good, quick read. It is twisty, with interesting characters and a lot of heart.  If you’re not already a dog lover, you will be when you’re done with A Borrowing of Bones.