I struggle giving a book this violent 5 stars, but it was just that good. Well-written, expertly paced, complex story and characters, and no f-words in sight. Luca Veste has earned a new fan and loyal reader in me.

Thank you to Sourcebooks for a free digital advanced copy of this book via Netgalley.

All over the country, children are warned away from certain areas, with tales of horror and the bogeyman. These stories are told to keep the children safe until they become street-wise. But what if those stories told to control children were true and the bogeyman really did exist?

The Bone Keeper is a mixture of horror and your regular, police procedural crime thriller. The story features real locations around Liverpool and Merseyside. As Luca puts it…

“All the locations found in this book exist; however, some minor details have been changed or expanded to better tell this story.”

I liked how this book started with the song chanting among children…

The Bone Keeper’s coming. The Bone Keeper’s real.
He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t feel.
He’ll snatch you up. And make you weep.
He’ll slice your flesh. Your bones he’ll keep.

… echoes of this song repeat throughout the book and they had a creepy, taunting effect on me. I stop reading the book and the song suddenly springs into my mind. I found the song both catchy and haunting at the same time. The Bone Keeper’s home and patch is in the woods, any woods that are dotted around urban landscapes. These haunts are very easy to picture anywhere in Britain and are very popular with dog walkers like myself. The Bone Keeper is very easy to relate to, especially when I am daydreaming with Charlie the Pug as we stroll through woods together.

I thought The Bone Keeper developed the urban legend really well. I loved how it played out a culture and a cult following. There was plenty of danger and horror along the way. I found it creepy with lots of feeling woven into the plot.

The central character is DC Louise Henderson but this is not your usual Police story. Character development of Louise was very good and there are many surprises along the way.

I found this book to be creepy and imaginative, yet for all the knife-wielding action it was still a fun, horror read.

The Bone Keeper has a great ending, all the seeds have been sown and if the homeless population appears to be shrinking, you read it here first! This urban legend was a great idea for a book, it was well developed and thought out. I think The Book Keeper is a GOOD read which gets 4 stars from me.

So you may think, I have listed all these good things about The Bone Keeper, how come I have not given it 5 stars? Simple, I found this book GOOD but not outstanding. Sometimes an author throws so much content into a book, it makes your brain buzz rather than simply entertain. Classic books get 5 stars and rightly so. The Bone Keeper is very worthy to read and would make a good film. I think Luca Veste has a lot of talent and I would be happy to read more from him.

Luca Veste is known for his Murphy and Rossi series which also take place in Liverpool and which I absolutely love because I am an ex scouser. Indeed one of the books actually revolves around my old parish church, so I was fascinated with the whole storyline. However, on to the Bonekeeper. This is a stand-alone book and is one creepy story - as Veste’s stories usually are. Detective Louise Henderson is assigned to a case after a woman is found with horrific injuries claiming to have fled the bonekeeper. Twenty years earlier, four kids went into the woods looking for this bonekeeper but only three came out. So I was hooked on this suspenseful and chilling plot and found myself reading every spare moment. I found the plot is excellent, the characters are well fleshed out and the ending is satisfying. I would recommend
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoyed this novel. The suspence starts early and contiues to build. I cound not put it down! Thank you Netgally for providing me with a copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC I received. This has not influence my review.

This book reminded me of an extended episode of Criminal Minds, back when it was still good with the original cast. While more graphically violent than I prefer the story itself was good, and I liked the writing and the main characters.

“That’s the thing about evil. It never announces itself. Just festers and lives among the normal. The clean.”

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Sourcebooks Landmark. Trigger warnings: death, torture, body horror, blood, gore, rape, necrophilia, abduction, assault, anxiety, mental illness.

The Bone Keeper is the local urban legend of Liverpool, stories told over generations about an otherworldly figure who kidnaps children in the woods and flays the flesh from their bones. When Caroline staggers out of the forest with grievous injuries and claims to have escaped the Bone Keeper, the legend becomes suddenly, terrifyingly real. Louise and her partner are assigned to investigate the case, and they struggle to piece together numerous deaths and disappearances as more bodies turn up in the woods. Is someone using the Bone Keeper’s myth for their own agenda, or is it possible that every story has some truth to it?

I love anything to do with urban legends, but I have lukewarm feelings about thriller/mysteries, and The Bone Keeper falls slightly short of average. The Bone Keeper mythology has a lot in common with every boogeyman story we heard as children, which is part of what makes it accessible and part of what makes it forgettable. Veste’s mythology didn’t strike me as all that interesting or original, and there was never a point where I felt the legend was real enough to be frightening–let alone understand why Louise is frightened by it. The book hinges on the question of whether the myth could be true or someone is twisting it to cover their tracks. Either way, it’s an interesting message about how certain stories never really die.

The book straddles the supernatural and the crime thriller, but this ambivalence keeps it from doing justice to either side. If the Bone Keeper is supernatural, then it’s supernatural done poorly; he’s not terribly frightening, and we have no clear sense of his power. If the Bone Keeper is a human killer, then he’s too otherworldly to be plausible. Numerous people are inexplicably paralyzed by fear when confronted by him or somehow separated from groups of people. Either way, I didn’t buy it. There are also mysteries surrounding Louise and Caroline’s histories with the Bone Keeper that (perhaps purposely) add to the confusion. Rather than thinking it was a good reveal, I mostly just struggled to figure out how Louise’s brother could both have been kidnapped by the Bone Keeper and died in a fire that took her whole family. (It’s explained, but it’s unnecessarily obscure for most of the book.)

Unfortunately, the novel doesn’t offer much else. The writing is distracting and full of ill-placed fragments and modifiers and abrupt transitions. The characters are fairly unlikable. Louise randomly assaults people and manipulates her partner. I think her partner is supposed to be charming, but the dialogue is alternately bland or awkward. There’s no shortage of gory crime scenes or segues into a killer’s POV, which help keep things moving, but there are a number of thriller tropes, including an implausible romance and Louise’s deteriorating mental health over the course the investigation. Strangely, Louise and her partner aren’t even the most important detectives on the case. Fans of the genre might find more to enjoy about it, but I was relieved to be finished. For a similar take on how urban legends interact with reality, I’d sooner recommend Mister Tender’s Girl by Carter Wilson.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

Thank you to Source Books for my advanced digital copy!

The Bone Keeper is part urban myth, part police procedural. Twenty years ago four teens went in search of The Bone Keeper in their local woods. Only three came back. In the present day a woman is found wandering the streets with terrible injuries. She claims to have escaped The Bone Keeper. DC Louise Henderson is called in to investigate. Her colleagues are skeptical that The Bone Keeper is real, but when a body is unearthed the case becomes more serious than ever.

I enjoyed this book and found the urban myth angle to give it a deeply unsettling tone that worked well. Louise is a complicated character and her inward struggles are quite fascinating. I just found my mind wandering throughout the novel, and it was a hard book to pick up for some reason. I also started to lose interest once the action really began, which I'm sure shouldn't have been the case. The ending also went a little off the rails for me and I was completely lost. I think others will enjoy it though, and overall I found it to be a rather fascinating read. I also think it would make a good TV adaptation, especially with the Liverpool accents!

The Bone Keeper steals children, slices them up and as you can probably guess, hangs onto the bones. The 4 children dare each other to walk through the tunnel where the Bone Keeper lives but only three of them come out the other side. Forward twenty years and a woman is found wandering round the streets covered in slash marks and saying that the bone keeper did it. DC Louise Henderson starts to investigate whilst dealing with her own issues and trying not to let herself believe that the Bone Keeper might actually be real.
This was a superb book that kept me absolutely engrossed.
The Bone Keeper is set in Liverpool and this is a place that is as much a part of the book as the story itself. I can’t say I was particularly fond of the central character Louise, in fact I found her rather insipid, with very little that actually made me care about her at all. I did however like her partner Shipley, and the way the characters interacted.
Whilst for fans of the Murphy and Rossi series this is a bit of a departure I would definitely recommend it if you like fiction that scares.

This was a good book with enough creepy to keep you interested. I loved the plot twists and turns and it kept me guessing till the end .
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

The Bone Keeper by Luca Veste this book starts off with 4 young teenagers daring each other to go through a tunnel and get to the other side... ..sounds easy right? Only 3 made it all the way through....we have all grown up hearing urban legends and myths passed down from generation to generation and this one ranks right up there with ones I had heard as a kid. Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers at Simon and Schuster for allowing me to read this ARC book and give my opinion.

Something is out in the woods. Something that is killing people in gruesome ways. Inspired by an urban legend, Veste has written a crime novel with creepy and suspenseful parts. «The Bone Keeper» is a mix between a police procedural, serialkillerthriller and a horror story.

The book starts intriguing, but the build up is a bit slow. I did not find myself racing through the pages. The last part of the book is the most suspenseful and there is a huge surprise in the end. I though «the Bone Keeper» was an enjoyable read at times, but there are sequences I did not find believable concerning some of the character’s motivations.

The main character, Louise, is fascinating and original. I have not come across many crime novels where the female protagonist has an anger-problem. Unfortunately I found the other characters lacking in depth and I could not get emotionally invested in the story.

(This review was posted on my instagram @bokelskerinnen the 9th of February)

The Bone Keeper's coming
The Bone Keeper's real
He doesn't stop
He doesn't feel
He'll snatch you up
And make you weep
He'll slice your flesh
Your bones he'll keep.

This is the stuff of every child's nightmares. But what happens when the nightmare continues as you become an adult? Is it a myth .. or is it real?

The opening chapter describes how 20 years ago, four young teenagers wandered into the woods, daring themselves to face The Bone Keeper. Only 3 came out on the other side and have never been seen again.

DS Laura Rossi believes in the myth. She knows there have been many deaths. She knows that The Bone Keeper wants her to come to him.

She has a secret ... one that she cannot share. And then the bodies are found.

This is a creepy crime thriller that will send shivers down your spine .. especially if you had a boogie-man when you were a child. Once started, I found it hard to put it down for any length of time. There's this sense of fearful apprehension underneath the palpable suspense. The story premise is excellent with a stunning ending.

Many thanks to the author / SOURCEBOOKS Landmark / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

4.5 Stars

What a fun novel! Having never read anything from this author, I didn't know what exactly to expect. But the blending of horror, folklore, and police procedural is exactly what I like.
This book worked for me in every aspect, I thoroughly enjoyed the fully realized, small town boogeyman aspect.
There were a few twists and reveals that seemed to come out of nowhere, but they work well enough in the story.
Definitely will be checking out more from Luca Veste in the future!

This is the first book I have read by Luca Veste and I enjoyed it. It was a dark story, and it gave me the chills. I like a book that keeps your attention and this one did. I still have the creeps after reading it. I think the writing was well done and descriptive.

I can't wait for the sequel because cliffhangers drive me crazy. Otherwise it was a great thriller novel.

For readers who used to watch Castle and miss the early days of Kate Beckett and Richard Castle's days of solving crimes together, Luca Veste's latest is the novel that will fill that void. Detective Shipley and Detective Louise Henderson have a relationship that mirrors that of Beckett and Castle. They complement each other well and generally solve the problem or mystery at hand. Shipley and Henderson's mystery is in regards to the infamous "Bone Keeper" legend that everyone in the community grew up with; however, this time, a woman comes out of the woods looking like she'd been attacked and is singing the "Bonekeeper Song". Through a series of unexpected, but not wholly rewarding turns, Shipley and Henderson work to get to the bottom of this mystery -- and might solve a couple of cold case murders along the way.

This was an ok read. It just didn't hold my attention like the other thrillers that I have been reading lately have. The writing was good, though.

The Bone Keeper is a British police procedural that opens very strongly, and is initially flavored with a dash of urban (really suburban or village, rather] horror/legend about the death-bringing Bone Keeper who lives in the woods and...well, you get the idea.

The first three chapters are great--atmospheric and creepy--but then it descends into a mess of telling instead of showing, reveals that are obvious from the go, and a conclusion that I think is supposed to be unsettling but I found tiring and unconvincing.

The biggest problem with The Bone Keeper is the increasing suspension of disbelief that's required to make the whole novel "work," and I couldn't make that leap.

The Bone Keeper by Luca Veste is a crime thriller.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Sourcebooks/Landmark, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My Synopsis:
The Bone Keeper is a myth that has been around Liverpool for decades. A boogeyman to frighten children to keep them out of the woods. A monster that has been blamed for almost every missing person in the last 30 years.

When Caroline Rickards comes out of the woods with numerous injuries and slices of her skin missing, no one believes her when she says she escaped from the Bone Keeper. But Caroline is hiding something. Her past is tied to The Bone Keeper, and she has never shared that information with anyone.

When a body is found in the area where Caroline was found, things start to get strange. But only DC Louise Henderson is convinced they shouldn’t give up on the theory that a monster is out there. She has a lot of convincing to do. Her past is also tied to The Bone Keeper, but those memories are buried deep in her mind. She may have to allow them to the surface if she wants to solve this case.

Meanwhile more bodies are discovered, and more murders are occurring. The public is getting a little nervous.

My Opinions:
WOW. This is the first book I have read by this author, but will be looking for more. Apparently there is a series out there calling my name. This book however, is a stand-alone novel.

Touted as a crime/mystery/police procedural, I am tempted to add horror. This book had it all.

The characters had their secrets, which really kept the reader guessing. The boogeyman myth was handled really well, so that the reader felt he was right around the corner. Suspense was non-stop, with an air of creepiness never far away.

The writing was good, the plot great, and the overall result was riveting. Loved it.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Louise Henderson is investigating the sudden appearance of a young women who seems to have been tortured during her captivity before escaping her ordeal. She has emerged from the forest singing a children's rhyme that is related to a local legend about The Bone Keeper. A song that Louise is familiar with from her own childhood. A childhood that ended with the death of her parents and brother in a house fire. The investigation concludes in a very twisted way that has Louise questioning blocked memories of her youth and the events leading up to the deadly fire that ended her childhood.

The story jumps back and forth in time and sometimes it isn't clear whose character story is being recounted. Although this was very confusing at the time, by the end of the book everything was all neatly tied together.
Good story with lots of twists to keep the narrative moving forward at a good pace.