The Blessed Bones by Kathryn Casey
Detective Clara Jeffries #3

Clara Jeffries is settling into her job as Chief of Police in Alber, Utah when this book begins. She has been working her way through police files that were shuffled under the rug and filed away in hopes of finding a few cases that are still within the statute of limitations that might allow prosecution so that justice can be found for some who may not have found it under a different administration. She is reading the file of a young boy beaten by his father when she is notified that bones have been found on a construction site and heads out to begin investigating.

What I liked:
* The complexity of the story:
- The bones investigation
- The young pregnant girl we meet early on and how her story progresses
- Clara’s life
- The case of the battered boy
- The romance and how it is progressing between Clara & Max
- The US Marshall that stuck his oar into the investigation
* Clara: strong, independent, aware, capable, loved her family, apostate-outcast, loving, has an intriguing but difficult backstory, someone I admire and want to know more about.
* Max: Chief Deputy, father, widow, “lost boy”, loves Clara, capable, tenacious, interesting and a good match for Clara.
* Hannah: runs a shelter for women, a good friend, provides a service that is needed in the community.
* The setting that includes the polygamous patriarchal prophet oriented background that seems so foreign and fraught with issues that will provide fodder for future books.
* That Clara is still on her quest to find Christina Bradshaw
* Wondering about the ominous messages/notes Clara is receiving
* That progress has been made in the romance between Clara and Max
* The interest I have in finding out what will happen between Clara and her family
* That there was a happy ending for a few – though not all
* It seemed realistic and I felt part of the story.
* Knowing that this type of community does exist today.
* Looking forward to the next book in the series.

What I didn’t like:
* The people and situations I was meant not to like
* What was happening to the young pregnant women in this book
* Knowing that Alber leaders were able to get away with all that they did.
* Having to wait for the next book in the series.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Note - I received this digital arc for free as a courtesy of Net Galley and Bookouture publishers in return for an honest feedback.

Rating - 3/5

The Blessed Bones by Kathryn Cassey is the 3rd book in Detective Clara Jefferies series. The title was quite intriguing and despite it being the 3rd one in the series, I decided to read it. And it was okay - ish only. The mystery plot was interesting and ended in a cliffhanger, highlighting the possibility for another sequel in the series. The story addressed a grueling and brutal crime mystery of missing person and a homicide that is solved by Detective Clara Jefferies and her team. It is a bit dark and graphic and address a whole lot of amazing and relevant need - of - the - hour themes like religion cult, martial abuse, rape ( quoted indirectly ) etc. It is absolutely more real than it ever can get and I totally loved that part of the reading experience.

However there were quite a many references from the previous two books that it became a bit difficult to comprehend the storyline despite a reasonable language vocabulary. The book definitely cannot be read as a standalone if we are enjoy it properly. The narrative pattern also was a bit different and kept switching between third person and first person that at times, I had to go back and forth to decipher whose perspective is being addressed there at the moment. Also there were quite a few grammatical errors that I was able to note as well.

The book is definitely a fabulous read for all those who have read the previous two books. And I would recommend this title to older readers primarily for the type of mature crime that it covers.

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Favorite Quotes:

He’s super tall, like a tree. And he had on a big hat. And he showed Mom the picture, and she got upset. Madder than she used to get at my dad before she threw plates at him and we left him.

Listening to her, I thought about how my ex-husband had threatened me just a night earlier, saying he’d ban me from Heaven. I considered how beautiful faith could be, but also how a tiny minority, those who falsely claimed to be religious, sometimes tragically misused it to manipulate others. It brought to mind the Bible verse about wolves in sheep’s clothing.


My Review:

This was an intense read, full of brutal and vile men hiding behind a ridiculous religion to abuse their children and wives, and idiotic women who enabled and allowed it to continue. It boggles my mind but it continues to happen all around the world to varying degrees. The storylines were all taut with tension, active, and fraught with desperate and nightmarish situations, intrigue, painfully realistic and jaw-dropping cruelty, and extreme frustration. It was a real page-turner and my brain was rippling with curiosity, distrust, and wild theories. I was so wrong, and actually quite happy about it. Kathryn Casey weaves dark, itchy, and cringe-worthy tales and agilely does so with an uncommonly insightful skill set that kept me reading even though I was flinching. She has mad skills.

After the discovery of human bones at a construction site, police chief Clara Jeffries realizes that the biggest challenge might be identifying the victim, a young pregnant woman. Several local girls have gone missing over the past few years, but their families refuse to cooperate with law enforcement. I absolutely love this series. This book gives us a little more information than we've had before about Clara's past. She also spends more time with her mothers and her siblings. Like the other books in the series, the crimes are disturbing and I found myself really hurting for the characters. The crimes and motives feel more serious and real than in the cozy mystery series I usually read.

Wow wow this book! Just amazing from start to finish. I could not put it down. Brilliant writing. Tense. Pact. Thrilling. Absorbing. Packs a punch. Loved from start to finish. Do read this one.

This is my third Detective Clara Jeffries book, so it’s pretty clear that I like this series, so I’ll start from that point of view. This is the third book in the series, but it can be read as a standalone, the author does a good job bringing readers up to speed with what you need to know.

This was probably my favorite on the series so far, as it dealt with several intensely suspenseful mysteries/subplots, while carrying along the character development we’ve had in the previous installments. The main mystery with the found girl was really interesting, with a second subplot to go along with it that I don’t want to spoil but really kept me flipping (er...swiping) pages. There were a couple of twists that I did not see coming.

As for Clara, I was very excited to see that we got to find out more about her past, as well as see her open up even more in the present. She is beginning to move past the intense trauma she went through and in this installment, she faces some really hard things.

Overall, this was a great addition to the Detective Clara Jeffries series- perhaps the best yet! I highly encourage you to check out this series, and this book of course!

This series keeps getting better, once I started reading I didn't want to stop. It is a well written story with many twists and turns. I look forward to reading more

The Blessed Bones by Kathryn Casey is a suspenseful crime thriller, taking place in a small town in Utah called Alber. The most interesting thing happening there is the plethora of plural marriages in the area. Chief Clara Jacobs is the product of one such marriage and was in that sort of relationship until she ran away and went to the police academy. She has returned as chief and a great many people have not accepted her return, including her own other. It is a difficult situation and Clara sometimes wonders why she does it. She has a boyfriend she loves. Max was previously a member of the sect and is currently Chief Deputy of the Sheriff's Department, as well, but he had been asked to leave because he was a male and they had too many men looking for second and third wives, to allow a young man to stick around. He had been widowed and had a young, daughter, Brooke, to care for. Clara had been looking at an old file about a little boy who had been abused when the call came in that a body had been discovered at a building site: little more than bones, really. They'd had come young women go missing so she was always interested in that. She was to meet Max at the site. He had wider authority because he was a county sheriff and she was city police. They worked together. When they arrived, they met a retired US Marshal, Ash Crawford. He had no authority but was due their respect. It all got very convoluted.

It was a complicated investigation but a successful one, uncovering way more than they could have hoped. Clara was a good cop but she carried a lot of baggage. Driving by her ex-husband's ranch was just about more than she could do. When she finally visits her ranch, on a police matter, she is shocked at how she felt. Max wants to bring their relationship out into the open, to his daughter, and to the public. She is hesitant. She is like a dog with a bone when it comes to investigating. She keeps after it until it is done. This is a complicated investigation but finally it is all uncovered. She is skilled at that. This was a terrific book. It not only was a good mystery, but opened up the doors to understanding how these folks think and what it feels like. This is original as far as I know, which deserves kudos in itself, teaching and expanding people's horizons. I really enjoyed this book and will be reading more in this wonderful series.

I was invited to read a free ARC of The Blessed Bones by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #netgalley #theblessedbones

I usually don’t cry when I read a thriller. I can be on the edge, thriller, adrenaline and blah blah but heart breaking is not a term I think can be applied to a thriller but this is an exception.
This is one the most emotionally charged, heartbreaking and gripping story I read in a long time.
A story about power, abuse, greed and coming to term with the past trying to rebuild bridges.
An excellent thriller where long buried secrets come to light and stories from the past and the present mix.
Clara is a great characters and I love her character arc and she rebuilding bridges with her family. She’s and will be an outcast in the closed community but she’s able to face the ostracism and the hostility.
Max and Doc are other two characters I love as they are able to relate to woman even if they are at the same level.
The mystery is complex and there’s various subplot, it will take time and patience to find the culprit and give justice to the victims.
I can’t wait to read the next story as it promises to be as interesting as this one.
A gripping story that I strongly recommend
Many thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

😊 This twisty, exhilarating crime thriller had me guessing as it jogged along. I thoroughly enjoyed The Blessed Bones, a deeply engrossing tale of mystery, religious tension and suspense.

Clara Jefferies was at Dallas PD for three years and was very much respected as one of the toughest members of the team, working on some of their most difficult cases. Growing up in Alber, Utah, Clara used to belong to the Mormon community and spent years avoiding her hometown. Back in Alber and having been promoted to Chief of Police, Clara knows that she still has a long way to go before she is fully accepted again and trusted by her community. When she is called to a scene on private land, a ski resort construction site in the mountains, she is astonished... until she learns that the bones of a girl and a baby have been found. Clara has recently been working her way through the cases of young pregnant girls who have vanished from Alber. An ex-US Marshall, Ash Crawford is also present at the construction site and offers to help, telling Clara and Chief Deputy Max Anderson he knows the forensics team and can hasten the DNA analysis and other results, but Clara is suspicious of his motives. When she spies Crawford praying over the bodies, she suspects that he knows more about the victim than he’s letting on. Then another pregnant girl is reported missing, and Clara ramps up her search.

Kathryn Casey has a very appealing style of writing, and the characters she creates are very credible. For me, Clara comes across as someone with great tenacity and passion for her job, as well as possessing a strong sense of justice. The Blessed Bones was a well-plotted and comfortably paced mystery that certainly kept me turning the pages as it touched upon the life within a polygamist community. I liked the way that the author combined Clara’s personal history and situation with the investigation. The complex, layered story was full of twists and turns, and the various unfolding of events and revelations made the book even more absorbing. This was a mesmerising story of exclusion, lies, concealment and harboured secrets, and the ending was unexpected.

Would I read more in this series from Kathryn Casey? An emphatic... yes! 😊

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Bookouture via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

The Blessed Bones is the third book in the Detective Clara Jefferies Series by Kathryn Casey. This is the first book from the series that I have read and I found it easy to understand what was happening. I will be going back to read the previous two books because I am interested to learn more.

I loved Clara and I found it really interesting to learn about her family. My heart broke when I found out about all of the awful things that she went through and the way she was treated after. I really liked Max and I was rooting for the two of them from the beginning because I think that they were great together.

I liked the polygamy aspect especially learning about the religious beliefs of fundamentalist mormons and the way the families are ruled by the husband. There was a line in the book where someone said that they would ban Clara from heaven which I found to be funny because it was so weird to me but I think it is an actual belief in that faith.

The twists and secrets blew my mind. I never thought that the book was going to end that way at all. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book

I recieved an advanced copy for free, and this is my honest opinion.

The Blessed Bones is the third instalment in the Detective Clara Jefferies series, set in her hometown of Alber, Utah. Clara has reluctantly returned to Alber, a town populated by Mormon fundamentalists known as Elijah’s People who practice polygamy, as the Chief of Police. She left ten years ago due to being labelled an outsider and apostate which made her job of investigating crime extremely difficult as the community shunned her because she left the faith and refused to talk or open up to her. It has also caused friction within her family and the relationships are beyond strained. Unbelievably she has even received anonymous, threatening hate mail; some people are determined to drive her back out of the area but this time she is adamant she is staying, no matter how difficult it is, to try and patch things up with her family. She and Chief Deputy Max Anderson are called to investigate when skeletal remains are found at the site of a ski resort currently under development on a nearby mountain. When they look more closely they find that not only is there seemingly the decayed body of a young woman but her unborn baby too. She was initially called in as she has been searching for a girl from the start of the series. Clara has recently been working her way through the cases of young pregnant girls who have vanished from Alber; there are quite a few and the police force has tended to ignore them but Clara believes everyone deserves justice.

An Ex-US Marshall Ash Crawford is also present at the construction site and offers to help them telling Clara and Max he knows the forensics team and can hurry the DNA analysis, and other testing, along, but Clara is suspicious of his motives. Meanwhile, she is also working on cases she found stashed away in a back room that no one had bothered looking into before. A historical case of abuse turns strange when the father of the victim, a young boy, tells her that he no longer knows where the boy and his sister, the one who reported the domestic abuse, are claiming they ran away but this is obviously fishy. Can Clara get justice for all of these overlooked victims, and will those in the community actually co-operate with her and the multiple investigations? This is a riveting and compulsive addition to a brilliant series, and I would say that it's the best instalment to date. What I enjoy about it is the originality of the community and the unique plots that come from it; the culture and way of life of the Mormon sect are fascinating and adds a refreshingly different edge to these stories. Several plot threads are running parallel to one another and I was surprised that they were all equally as absorbing, and Clara makes an engaging protagonist. We learn more about her and her life when she was part of the community and this intricate detail makes her richly developed. Her tenacious attitude is to be admired as she refuses to let being shunned get in the way of investigations. An engrossing, pacy and thoroughly entertaining read. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of this book via Netgalley and for letting me take part in this tour. I haven't read the first two books in this series but this wasn't an issue.

Clara recently returned to her home town and is still struggling with her past. She thinks she has come to terms with it but it is still holding her back in a way. I felt like this book was a real turning point for Clara. I really liked Clara. She has been through a lot but is now so much stronger. She is ready to take on the world and won't stop until she's caught the SOB who's been killing these poor girls.

I really liked Max I think he is great for Clara and they work really well together. He knows just how to calm her and balance her out. I look forward to seeing what happens next with these two.

The case was a horrific one. It showed the worst of humanity. The worst of our greed, our selfishness and our callousness. It also showed how some people are trapped in a world they don't want to be in.

It took me a little while to get going, I'm not sure if this was because it was the third book or the pace was just a little slow to start but I was soon turning page after page desperate to find out what happened to those poor girls.

Detective Clara Jefferies is still trying to get use to being back in Alber and there is still a lot of resistance because she is considered an outsider now. Clara use to live in Alber which is a polygamist town and her family all still lives there and after things that transpired in book one she is now the new Chief in Alber.  She has been getting a lot of hate mail and from one person in particular but nobody knows who it is but it's very threatening.

She gets called in on a case that isn't exactly in her district but it's close by and because she has been looking for a missing girl since the first book and they have found a buried body they called her in. Her friend/semi-boyfriend is the detective over their and he is the one that called her in. When they get there though they find an ex-US Marshall trying to hone in on the case. He says that he can help with getting her DNA, etc. ran faster with his connections and the Doc wants his help and Max doesn't seem to mind, but there is just something about him Clara doesn't trust. 

The body is of a young girl and it's mostly bones so she has been there a while and she was pregnant as there was little bones with hers. Clara doesn't think her missing girl was pregnant but she couldn't be for sure and so she starts looking in the databases for missing pregnant girls. Meanwhile, she is also working on some old cases because when she took over she found a whole room full of cases that nobody did anything about because of the corruption with the police and those who ran the town. She found a case with a young boy who was abused and that one of his sisters was the one that turned it in but nothing was ever done about it and it's been to long to really prosecute it unless they can go a different angle, but first she has to figure out what happened to them because as far as the father is concerned he doesn't have those kids, they ran off and are no longer a part of the family. 

So there is a lot going on and there is also some issues with her relationship with Max and how he wants everyone to know but she wants it hush hush for now. I really like how the author can put so much into the book and still make it all come out very well. 

I really love the Clara, she has overcome a lot from living in this town when she was younger, getting help getting out from under it and being brave enough to come back when she was needed and then staying. Because of a lot of thing that happened when she was younger (being married off to a 60 something man when she was just a teenager) it has her putting up a lot of emotional barriers that she is having to learn to bring down. I also really like Max who was actually her childhood crush who was kicked out of Alber because they do that when they have to many boys so that they can have enough women for having the extra wives. (It's very messed up) I think they make a cute couple. Some of the other secondary characters are pretty interesting and then there are those I really want to smack, like her mother, who is so stubborn and won't bend for anything. 

Though I was pretty sure I knew kind of where the mystery was going it was still kind of surprising. It really makes me curious about a commune type town like this and if they are really run like this and so corrupt in their hierarchy that many of the men can get away with such horrible things. It sure makes for a pretty great series.

This series has quickly become a favorite and I look forward to the next one especially with how this one ended with an ominous threating letter! Highly recommend this series! I also think it should be read in order to understand and get the background on the town.

This is a great series and I think this is my favourite book so far.
Clara and Max are called out as some bones have been found at a construction site. On closer inspection, there are also bones of a newborn baby with its mother.
Alongside the investigation Clara is looking into a historical case of abuse but is having problems tracking the victims down.
We also have chapters about a home for soon to be mothers and it appears not all is at it seems here.
There’s someone showing a keen interest in the case and Clara does not trust him as he’s a retired Marshall and she can’t understand why he’s so keen to help.
There’s lots going on in this book including one of Clara’s mothers being taken into hospital. Clara knows things need to change for her estranged family, but will they accept her help?
I loved the final few chapters and was literally on the edge of my seat.
This is a great read that I highly recommend.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

4.5/5

The Blessed Bones by Kathryn Casey is my favorite installment of the Detective Clara Jefferies series yet!! I loved this book so much, and it was filled with plenty of action and mystery. I love that Clara finally decided to face her past and stop running from what scares her (albeit for a good reason). We learn a lot more about what happened before she fled Alber, and it was nice to get to know her better even if it was at times hard to read. My heart hurt for her and it made me appreciate her as a character even more than I already did. There is a bit of romance in this one again even though it isn't mentioned in the synopsis, and I always love the relationship between Clara and Max. There are plenty of serious topics in The Blessed Bones, but Casey always infuses the perfect amount of wittiness and humor right when you need it the most.

Really there were a lot of hard things to read in this book in general, and I feel like it might the heaviest book of the series so far. I was very intrigued to learn where Casey got the idea for the plot, and I really appreciated the note about this at the end. The Blessed Bones is incredibly realistic and I think that made it even harder to read, but I was glued to the pages and it was an incredibly quick read. The last sentence gave me chills, and I am really excited to see where the next book will take Clara and what kind of trouble she will find herself in because you can tell it is coming. The plot was complex, Casey's writing was incredible, and there isn't much not to love about The Blessed Bones. I highly recommend checking out this series if you haven't already. This is book 3 of the series and they all build on each other so I find it best to read in order, but whatever you do - you should pick them up!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Clara Jefferies has returned to Aber, Utah, as a Detective, she ran from an abusive husband as one of the sister wives (not legally married) 10 years ago – there is a lot of mistrust as she has turned her back on her faith and ‘husband’ – but she is done running and is slowly working on building her relationship with her siblings and hopefully at some point her mom.
Bones of a young girl are found in the mountains, not just her bones but also those of the teenager’s unborn baby. In her search she discovers more “runaway” girls, child abuse, and an underground railroad that helps women and children escape the polygamist life. As Clara is searching for missing girls, she has to face the man that abused her, and start taking steps to leave that horror behind.
Book 3 in the Detective Clara Jefferies series, and the first book I read. You can certainly read this book as a standalone, but if you are like me you will want to read the other after too!

I want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for letting me read this great book early!

When Detective Clara Jefferies returned home to Alber, Utah, she knew it would take a long time to convince the closed community to trust her. Then she’s called to private land up in the mountains, where a new ski resort is being built as the bones of a young girl have been found. And hidden in the dark depths of the grave are the remains of a baby too. Digging into the town’s missing persons files, Clara is shocked to discover that pregnant girls have been going missing for years. And when she spots Ash Crawford, the first cop on the scene, praying over the bodies, she begins to suspect that he knows more about the victim than he’s letting on. Then another pregnant girl is reported missing, and Clara ramps up her search, racing to find her alive.
This is the third book & another page turner. Clara is now Chief of Police in Alber, the town she ran from a decade ago & she’s now considered an apostate. I thoroughly enjoyed this book set in a polygamous town, it gave an insight into a way of life which is totally alien to me. There were plenty of twists & turns in this engrossing read. I really like Clara & find her a strong, character & with her partner Max they form a formidable duo. An interesting well written book which flowed well & had me engrossed
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

As a stand-alone this is a good thriller and an excellent page turner. When taken as a series, the underlying plot feels repetitive, highlighting the ill treatment of women in a polygamous group. I think the author should come out of this atmosphere in her next book.

This is book three in the series with Detective Clara Jeffries. This was a great read and builds on the characters already introduced. Can’t wait for book four.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.