#BookReview Beastly Bones by William Ritter @algonquinyr @willothewords

Beastly Bones by William Ritter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've found very little about private detective R. F. Jackaby to be standard in the time I've known him. Working as his assistant tends to call for a somewhat flexible relationship with reality . . .

In 1892, New Fiddleham, New England, things are never quite what they seem, especially when Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, are called upon to investigate the supernatural. First, members of a particularly vicious species of shape-shifters disguise themselves as a litter of kittens. A day later, their owner is found murdered, with a single mysterious puncture wound to her neck. Then, in nearby Gad's Valley, dinosaur bones from a recent dig go missing, and an unidentifiable beast attacks animals and people, leaving their mangled bodies behind. Policeman Charlie Cane, exiled from New Fiddleham to the valley, calls on Abigail for help, and soon Abigail and Jackaby are on the hunt for a thief, a monster, and a murderer. 

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I was lucky enough to be granted an ARC of Beastly Bones from NetGalley and I read Jackaby just a couple of days before I read Beastly Bones and that was a wise decision since the story in this book picks up right where we left Abigail and Jackaby in the last book; A woman with an ailing cat. Well, ailing is probably the wrong word, the cat is slowly turning into a fish. But Abigail and Jackaby have a bigger fish to fry than then the catfish because dinosaur bones from a recent dig has gone missing and they together with exiled police detective Charlie Cane/Barker must find the missing bones. But odd things are happening at the site and something is attacking both animals and people.

This sequel to Jackaby was a real treat. I liked Jackaby very much, but the story was more interesting in this one. We have already got to know Abigail, Jackaby, Charlie, Jenny and Marlowe in the first book so instead of getting to know the characters as one does in the first book we get into action from page one. Of course, we get to know new characters along the way in this book like Hank Hudson a skilled trapper and Nellie Fuller a reporter, but I feel that the story in this one is better since it is more multilayered. We have the obvious bone theft, but there is a mysterious man that seems to be behind it and also the mystery of Jenny and her murder. Not everything gets answered in this book and the book ends with a cliffhanger. But that is alright, it only makes me more eager to read the next book. On a side note, there is some romance in this book, well some flirting between Abigail and Charlie, but that is just fine. It's not rushed in, it is not instalov, it's sweet, in a good way.

When it comes to YA is this the best I have read in a long while and I'm looking forward to reading more books in this series.

I received this copy from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review!