With cutting-edge forensic technology, a stunning setting, and a deepening relationship between Alexa and D.I. Bruce Horn, The Bone Riddle will delight science geeks, armchair travelers, and procedural buffs who like a little romance with their body count.Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand: On a cliff overlooking the ocean and one of the largest gannet bird colonies in the world, American CEO Harlan Quinn has built his "Plan B"—a lavish estate, complete with an underground doomsday bunker. Cleaning staff finds a body in the house. It appears the victim died of natural causes but advanced facial decomposition leaves him unidentifiable. Forensic odontologist Alexa Glock is called in to identify the body via dental records.Teeth never lie.But something odd in the deceased's mouth sets Alexa and the team on a new track—to find the murderer. As they work to narrow the suspect field, a second homicide—and a stolen cache of weapons from a locked room in...

A nature trek turns dangerous when the wilderness gives up its bones...New Zealand's remote Milford Track seems the perfect place for forensic investigator Alexa Glock to reconnect with her brother Charlie, with whom she hasn't spent much time since they were kids. Their backpacking trip seems ill-fated from the start, though, when she must stop on the way to examine nine skeletons—most likely M?ori tribespeople—whose graves have been unearthed by highway construction. Before she opens the first casket, a M?ori elder gives her a dire warning: "The viewing of bones can unleash misfortune to the living. Or worse."Though Alexa dismisses his words as superstitious, they soon come back to haunt her as the idyllic hike takes a sinister turn. First, Charlie is aloof and resentful of the time Alexa has spent at work. Then a rock avalanche nearly carries her away as it reveals the skeletal remains of someone who has clearly been stabbed to death. When a...

Is the past better left undisturbed, or unearthed?When a body is found half-submerged in a molten mud pot in one of Rotorua's famous geothermal wonderlands, forensics expert Alexa Glock spots a way to prolong her stay in New Zealand, which she has been visiting for work. Teeth are her expertise, and the investigation needs her help, as other ways of identifying the body may have... melted away.Joining Detective Inspector Bruce Horne and his team, Alexa discovers that the murder victim, a city councilman, had trespassed on an island sacred to the Maori. The ancient punishment for such a transgression is disaster, demonic possession, or death... and when she visits the island to investigate, the same outcome is promised for her. Alexa doesn't believe in ancient spirits returning to exact revenge, and when another victim turns up dead she begins to wonder whether the real threat is something—or someone—much closer to home.

Alexa Glock is at a crossroads, personally and professionally.Now that DI Bruce Horne, who said he loved her, won't deny he cheated on his ex-wife, how can Alexa trust he won't cheat on her? She and her abandonment issues need some space, so she throws her hat in the ring for a position far from New Zealand: Abertay University in Scotland. Her professional crush, Dr. Ben Odden, is interested in her expertise in teeth. If he makes an offer, will Alexa bite?Meanwhile, a human skeleton has been exhumed in a quaint former gold rush town in New Zealand. A benefactor believes that the bones are that of a Chinese gold miner, and she wants to repatriate the "hungry ghost" of her ancestor to China. Alexa is called in to examine the teeth and the secrets they contain. She didn't expect to discover a hole in the skull. When another skeleton is unearthed nearby and also shows evidence of a violent death, Alexa heads to the police station to open a cold case....

Lips may lie, but teeth never doAt first, Alexa Glock's initial case as a traveling forensic investigator seems straightforward—her expertise in teeth helps her identify the skeletal remains of a hunter found on the remote Stewart Island in New Zealand. But when she realizes the bullet lodged in his skull was not self-inflicted, and then a second, shark-ravaged body washes up on Ringaringa Beach, it's clear that something dangerous is lurking in the beautiful waters surrounding the island.The disturbing sight seems to confirm what locals have hashed out in the pub: shark cage-diving, lucrative for owners and popular with tourists, has changed the great white sharks' behavior, turning them into man-eaters. Tensions between cagers and locals mount as Alexa dives into the harrowing case. While measuring bite patterns, she makes a shocking discovery that just might lead her to who—or what—is behind both deaths.