Crowbones is the Eighth installment in author Anne Bishop's The Other's series. This series takes place in an alternative North America called Thaisia. In the world of the Others, humans are not the dominant predator, and must live—sometimes uneasily—alongside vampires, shape-shifters, and other even deadlier beings. When Elders become aware of a problem that might endanger the terra indigene or wild country, they call on a particular kind of Elder to come and investigate. They call on a powerful hunter, a savage hunter, and that Elder comes to that place to find and eliminate the contamination.

And the hunter who is here is a primal, ferocious Elder called Crowbones.

"Crowbones wears a cape made out of feathers of the fallen and carries a gourd filled with the bones of the taken. If you hear the rattle, rattle of the gourd, it's a warning that Crowbones is coming to get you because you've been a bad Crow. Or, you're an enemy of the Crowgard."

The story returns to Lake Silence, and the town called Sproing. Vicki DeVine is the owner/operator of the Jumble. She's also the Reader that was chosen by the terra indigene after she met the Lady of the Lake in Lake Silence. When Vicki decides to host a gathering of friends and guests for Trickster Night, at first everything is going well between the humans and the Others. But then someone arrives dressed as Crowbones, the Crowgard bogeyman. When the impostor is killed along with a shape-shifting Crow, and the deaths are clearly connected, everyone fears that the real Crowbones may have come to The Jumble-and that could mean serious trouble.

Chief Wayne Grimshaw calls Vicki a trouble magnet, but like Meg in the Lakeside Courtyard, Vicki is simply the linchpin that connects the terra indigene, the Elementals and Elders and the humans in the Village of Sproing. To "encourage" humans to help them find some answers, the Elders and Elementals close all the roads, locking in suspects and victims alike. Now Grimshaw, vampire lawyer Ilya Sanguinati, and Julian Farrow, owner of Lettuce Reed, have to figure out who is manipulating events designed to pit humans against Others-and who may have put Vicki DeVine in the crosshairs of a powerful hunter.

To make matters even more twisted, Vicki receives a call from one Meg Corbyn, the cassandra sangue who can see the future. Don't get excited, it's basically one page of warnings and then she's gone. It's up to Vicki to decide how to get the message to the right people before it's too late to stop the killings from spreading. We also get a one page apology from one Simon Wolfgard to Vicki in the form of a box of books. A reminder that this story takes place after the Great Predation decimated the human population. Most humans are wary off offending the Others for fear they will no longer be left alive.

Crowbones is told in multiple narratives, so please make sure you take good notes so that you know who the important characters are. I also recommend reading Lake Silence before reading this book so you know why one of the main characters seems to be protected by the most dangerous creatures in the world. I apologize to nobody for cheering when a bunch of very bad people found out who you can mess with, and who you can't. If there are still people who don't take the Others serious after villages were wiped clean of humans, then they get what they deserve.

Crowbones is a direct sequel to Lake Silence, a novel in the world of the Others. It follows Vicki, who runs a resort in a territory controlled by the Others. It is also a murder mystery, where vampires, shapeshifters, and other paranormal entities are involved.

It was fun and full of intrigue, there was never a boring moment. With multiple POVs, I normally have one character I prefer to read from, but in this one, I loved all of them. The friendships between the characters all felt believable.

The villains were not as hateful as in Lake Silence, but I appreciate that because they also have POV chapters, and it would have been terrible reading those chapters.

There were some things left unanswered, like who wrote the message on the door, and what did the prophecy mean? These did not hinder my enjoyment, but they still left me wondering.

I hope we get another book that follows these characters because I love them!

Crowbones is the latest addition to Anne Bishop’s The Others series, and just like the previous installments, it’s an instant favorite for me. I love this series, I will read anything set in this world. This newest novel takes us back to Lake Silence and Vicki DeVine’s rustic resort where a simple Trickster Night gathering unexpectedly leaves our main gang with a mystery to figure out before more bodies turn up. While I love the main series (books 1-5) I’ve really enjoyed these past three books and their monster-of-the-week vibes, while still adding to the overall in world lore and goings on.

Anne Bishop does such wonderful job of depicting the complexities of humanity—the good, bad and middling. The Others as characters are always complex. They can go from funny and endearing to vengeful and dangerous in a heartbeat. We even get a few cameos from some of our favorite characters from previous books! A full five stars, this is a series I read again and again and it always delivers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ace/Berkley Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm just going to gush because I've read 7 other books in this series and this is the first time we've been privy to the thoughts of any of the Elementals! There are perspective chapters and interactions between them and everything! THE BEST.

Now, on to how spectacular this addition to the series was! This time, we're back at The Jumble with Vicki and her human/terra indigene settlement/experiment. When you have a mixed community of humans, Others (who can shift to other physical forms) and Intuits (humans who get strong feelings about places or people), when something bad happens, there are a lot of early warning systems.

What if the danger is already there, though? Danger big enough to bring a boogeyman from the Others' folktales out of hiding. To hunt. Crowbones is gonna gitcha.

If you've read the series to this point, I'll have you know there are some satisfying things that happen in this one! It also looks like we may be heading back to Lakeside soon (fingers crossed!!)!

I will anxiously await the next one and possibly re-read this when it's out in audio. The audio is great, by the way!

Vicki Devine has been running her rustic resort, The Jumble, for several months now. She has finally gotten the hang of mixing human guests, Crowgard helpers, locals, and the Others. Planning a Trickster Night (think Halloween) for the visitors and assorted friends seems like good fun. Where Vicki goes, calamity tends to follow, according to police chief, Wayne Grimshaw. He has labeled Vicki as the main trouble magnet in the wild country lakeside town of Sproing. The party is all fun and games until a legendary Crowgard monster, Crowbones, seems appear at the door. While this Crowbones turns out to be a pretender who pays a deadly price, soon it is clear that the real bogeyman has arrived in the Lake Silence area because some bad things are happening and certain signs make it evident.

Crowbones is not just after bad humans like the Others generally; but, terra indigene who are behaving badly too. Vicki’s Crowgard friends are terrified of the legendary justice bringer even though they have done no wrong. Several guests, who seem to be troublemakers, ramp up the turmoil. When the Elders and Elementals lock down the area to prevent anyone from leaving, Vicki is stressed to the max trying to keep everyone happy…and alive. The locals know better than to mess with the area terra indigene and Elementals; however, new comers to the town of Sproing seem to be agitators as well. Chief Grimshaw, bookstore owner Intuit Julian Farrow, and Ilya Sanguinati spend a lot time trying to wrangle the local population and all the disasters occurring with humans and even non-humans behaving badly.

Ilya has the added stress of some young vampires fostering in his group known as a Shadow. Vampire teenagers seem to require as firm a hand as their human counterparts. It becomes clear that the predicaments at the Jumble this time may have started elsewhere, part of a disturbing trend in Thaisia. Humans may be put at risk from the deadly discipline the Elders can mete out such as the Great Predation culled much of the human population the previous year.

Vicki DeVine still faces the challenges of overcoming mental abuse from her odious ex-husband. With this new round of suspicious deaths, the main house and cabins full of people, some of whom are royal pains, and her mixed feelings for Julian, any or all of these situations threaten to send Vicki into one of her epic meltdowns. Locals know that if Vicki is upset or harmed, the Others will wreak vengeance on the perpetrators. As the Reader for the Jumble who is essentially the bridge between the terra indigene and the humans, Vicki’s role is quite vital to maintain the peace. New information is given about some of the mysterious Others from the preceding book, LAKE SILENCE, who feel quite protective of Vicki.

Fans of this series will be thrilled with not only this very enjoyable new story, but some Lakeside Courtyard interactions with favorite characters. I thoroughly enjoyed LAKE SILENCE where the main characters are first introduced, and so was quite pleased to spend happy hours with friends, new and old from the Others Series back in the village of Sproing. This story is full of Ms. Bishop’s signature thrills, chills, and dark humor which will delight readers of the Others and World of Others series and as always, leave us wishing for more.

I was so excited to see that Anne Bishop had written another book the world of the Others series. While definitely not for everyone, these books just make me happy and so I continue to tear through them as soon as I can get my hands on them. I've decided that one of the things I love about these is that humans are not the apex predator. This opens up the opportunity for all kinds of interesting story lines. While I think you could read this book without having read the others, you will certainly get more from it if you've read the earlier ones.

Shifters, fae, and vampires, oh my! Don’t forget the murders.

Crowbones is a great new installment in the Others series by Anne Bishop. Her knack for fantastic world building is on full display in this latest book in the spin-off to the original Others series. Vicki, a human living in a world of dangerous monsters should be used to seeing grisly murders, right? Well, not when there’s a possibility of a dangerous vigilante in town. Mysteries surround her and her tow, and if you’ve read the other books, you don’t want to miss this installment.

It's been more than a couple of years since we've gotten an Others book from Anne Bishop. I didn't realize how much I missed this series / world until I sat down and started reading Crowbones. I think after the ending of the main series, it was difficult to know how to leave those beloved, establish characters and move to a spin off. I don't know if matters were helped in the fact that the first spin-off Lake Silence dealt with one new set of characters and the second spin-off Wild Country dealt with another new set of characters.

Regardless, Crowbones takes readers back to Lake Silence and does a lot for continuing to build up those characters. It begins a few months after events that found Vicki DeVine running to the small community of Sproing after her divorce in order to run a small resort.

Now, the community around Lake Silence is getting ready for Trickster Night (aka Halloween). But things turn when one of the Crows seems to recognize an old urban legend in the flesh. The titular Crowbones who wears the feathers of the fallen and takes the bones of the guilty and is feared amongst the terra indigene.

Crowbones has come to Lake Silence because there is a contamination and it's set upon ferreting it out. With lots of tourists in town for Trickster Night there are a lot of suspects. The human protectors of Lake Silence have to work quickly to dig out the threat before the terra indigene decide to wholly take matters into their own hands.

I feel like we've been here before with this series. There's always some person or thing that threatens the tentative balance between the humans and the terra indigene or "The Others" as they're often referred. While it's not new territory, Anne Bishop always adds such depth to the world and the inhabitants of it. Always giving readers an interesting glimpse into the sort of futuristic, dystopian look at the world. I'm always intrigued by the mystery of it all, and honestly I love seeing justice being served to the bad guys (in whatever form that may take).

Even after so long from its predecessor book, I was still able to quickly remember the previous events and each character without a huge info dump. I'm not able to do that with many series that have long breaks between books, it's a true testament to Anne Bishop's fine writing style. I also loved getting to see these characters again and begin to build up those connections

Now that we're back in the world of The Others, I just want to stay here longer. I'm very interested to see where the next book will take us.

If, like me, you're a fan of this series, you'll love getting to immerse yourself in the world again. I would go so far as to say that you could pick up this up without having read the other books, but a lot of the enjoyment is going to hinge upon being familiar with the setup.

Anne Bishop has an exquisitely unique and haunting way of getting to know characters and showing the reader what is important. Crowbones is a wonderful and downright scarily done fantasy with such amazing worldbuilding, I can't even put it into words.
I love the world Bishop has created and I cannot wait for more.

If you enjoy suspense and mystery along with some fantasy, read Crowbones in The World of the Others by Anne Bishop. While it may be even more enjoyable if the first couple of books in the series are read first, it can stand alone. It will give the reader the desire to read the The Others series as well as the two preceding books in this offshoot series as the characters, settings and stories are addictive!

The last book of the Others may have been the only one that was not 5 Stars for me but all of the other books in this series have been like mana from Heaven for a reader like me and deserve something more than 5 Stars and this one was no different as far as quality and staying up very late reading because I could not find a good stopping point. This is a bit different in that it is basically as VERY complex "whodunnit" and she feeds you enough information that you never get the whole story correct in your head until almost the last pages (as it should be) but I do have one warning and that would be this :

DO NOT START THIS SERIES AT THIS BOOK

there is a lot of background you need to know to really appreciate this story and get a 5 Star experience. You may notice I said very little about the story itself and that is not by accident, I could not think of much to say in a review that might not be a bit spoilerish so you will just have to take my word for it that this book makes the high mark set by the earlier books in this series and I can only hope she will come back to this world very soon.

Loved, loved, loved this book & so very happy to return to The Other series, I've missed them. While Meg & Simon from the Lakeside Courtyard will always be my favorite, I have enjoyed the continuation of the series outside of the Lakeside Courtyard. Vicki DeVine and the cast of characters in The Jumble are entertaining and Trickster Night brings out the weird and mayhem & murder.

The plot is dark, as you would expect, but there were fun times also. Vicki is a delight and I loved how much the Crows played in this story.

I hope there will be more books in this series & that we don't have to wait long for the next one.

I received this advance review copy from from NetGalley for my honest review.

Crowbones continues the story of innkeeper and domestic and sexual assault survivor, Vicki DeVine. Tensions between the Others and the humans heat up after the Crows' boogeyman shows up outside the inn. It follows the same formula as the other books and series in this world, so if you liked those, you'll like this one, too. The vampires and Intuits play significant roles, the Old Ones/Elders get involved, and there's a sweet, barely-there romantic sub-plot.

"In this engrossing and gripping fantasy set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Others series, an inn owner and her friends must find a killer - before it’s too late....

Crowbones will gitcha if you don’t watch out!

Deep in the territory controlled by the Others - shape-shifters, vampires, and even deadlier paranormal beings - Vicki DeVine has made a new life for herself running The Jumble, a rustic resort. When she decides to host a gathering of friends and guests for Trickster Night, at first everything is going well between the humans and the Others.

But then someone arrives dressed as Crowbones, the Crowgard bogeyman. When the impostor is killed along with a shape-shifting Crow, and the deaths are clearly connected, everyone fears that the real Crowbones may have come to The Jumble - and that could mean serious trouble.

To “encourage” humans to help them find some answers, the Elders and Elementals close all the roads, locking in suspects and victims alike. Now Vicki, human police chief Grimshaw, vampire lawyer Ilya Sanguinati, and the rest of their friends have to figure out who is manipulating events designed to pit humans against Others - and who may have put Vicki DeVine in the crosshairs of a powerful hunter."

Just the titled gives me a frisson of anticipation.

A follow-up to Lake Silence, Anne Bishop returns readers to the world of The Others. With an inn full of guests on Trickster Night, Vicki DeVine has enough on her hands to deal with. She definitely doesn’t need a knock at the door that reveals not children looking for candy but someone dressed as Crowbones, the Crowgard bogeyman. When the imposter turns up dead along with a member of the Crowgard, the Others seal off the town of Sproing to locate the murderer. Like a bizarre game of Clue (the kind where some of the characters are more likely to have claws rather than a candlestick), Bishop moves Vicki, police chief Grimshaw, bookstore owner Julian, and vampire pair Ilya and Natasha around the town along with the murderers. A solid and a well-crafted whodunit, Bishop excels at keeping the large cast in order and the plot moving. A solid purchase for any fans of The Others series.

I fell for Anne Bishop's world of The Others in 2016 and have read them all since then. Written in Red, the first book was published in 2013. The rebellion of "Humans First and Last" was a sort of prescience of the Maga movement.

There are 5 books in the first series and 3 in the Lake Silence series--all set in the world of The Others.

Crowbones is the 3rd in the spin-off series set in Lake Silence (and I enjoyed it and the first two books in the spin-off), but not as much as the first books in the original series.

I recommend beginning with Written in Red, I didn't and had to go back and pick it up back in 2016. It's a strange world that fits in a weird way with many of the chaotic problems of our current world--almost like an allegory, given the way things have changed since Bishop published the first book. The world of The Others is urban fantasy unlike any of the others I've read.

NetGalley/Berkley Publ.
Urban Fantasy. March 8, 2022. Print length: 384 pages

In Anne Bishop's latest addition to the World of the Others, Crowbones, we get to revisit Vicki, Julian, and the
other residents of Lake Silence as they get ready for Trickster Night at the Jumble. Fast paced action, couldn't put it down - hoping for more books in this series!.

Oh, I was so happy to be back in the world of The Others. It’s been too long!

Now, I will say that you shouldn’t start here. You should read her other books and you’ll be glad you did. There’s so much to understand about this world.

For those of us who are already invested in this world, this is an absolute treat!

The plot is dark, of course, but there are moments that are just so much fun. Vicki is a delight and I’m always happy when the Crows (and crows) play a part in the story. I was very worried for some of our characters and really enjoyed meeting some new ones – human and not.

I truly hope that I don’t need to wait as long for the next book. I love this series and this addition to the author’s world was wonderful!

*ARC via Publisher

Once again back at the Jumble. I will forever be in love with the quirky heroines of the Others stories. You adore the characters and even grow to love the ones that terrify.

This is one of my favorite non-romance series and I was so excited that Anne Bishop took us back to Lake Silence.


This latest novel in The Others series takes us back to Lake Silence and Vicki DeVine in the Jumble.   The Jumble is a rustic lakeside resort which was originally created to allow the terre indigene, or earth natives, to observe and learn from humans on how to blend into human society.    Vicki DeVine was given what was thought of as this worthless property in her divorce settlement and during the past summer, her ex-husband and his cronies tried to take it back, to their detriment.

Since then, Chief Wayne Grimshaw calls Vicki a trouble magnet, but like Meg in the Lakeside Courtyard, Vicki is simply the linchpin that connects the terre indigene, the Elementals and Elders and the humans in the Village of Sproing.  Without Vicki who holds the very important title of Reader,  the terre indigene would have little interest in the health or safety of the humans surrounding Lake Silence.   The earth natives, Elders and even the local Elementals have an interest in Vicki DeVine and have protected the human who they consider one of theirs.

So of course when someone wants to court trouble with the terre indigene around in this part of Thesia, they go to The Jumble where they know many terre indigene hang out.   Vicki just happened to mention Trickster night to the Crowguard who are very excited to be a part of the festivities and even those terre indigene who can't completely pass as human come to the door to get the special treats of mouse bits being given out besides the hard candy for human children.   Then someone shows up dressed as Crowbones, the Crow bogeyman, which freaks the Crows out.    But messing with the terre indigene in the Wild Country isn't good for your health and something takes care of the troublemaker.

A Hunter has been following a contagion around the Finger Lakes for awhile now and has tracked it down to the Village of Sproing.   The Elders have cut off the roads leading out of  Sproing until the Hunter can locate and eliminate this contagion.   The humans are worried about what is about to happen to their Village after the Great Predation decimated  the human population, and the humans aren't the only ones who are concerned since the  terre indigene like the shifters and the vampire are trapped in the Village too.   The contagion needs to be found fast but the question is will Grimshaw or Crowbones get there first?  And if this contagion is human created, will the Elders allow Grimshaw to deal with it by human law or will they take care of the threat which has touched their own and how far will their purge go this time?

The best part of this story, which you might not catch right away, is the fact that the Crows are busy crowing about how they helped Grimshaw bring down the bad guys over the summer and now it seems all of the terre indigene  want in on a police investigations.   Vicki and the Crows watch a lot of cop & crime shows and they obviously share these stories with the other terre indigene who live around the lake and this seemed to have influenced all of the terre indgene who live near The Jumble, including the Elders and the local Elementals.  As Grimshaw, Julian and Ilya investigate the crime scenes and interrogate suspects, everyone wants to be part of the investigation from the Elemental pony Fog hiding a crime scene from the locals, to one of the Coyotes sniffing a body to identify who has been there,  to Aiden, the fire elemental sticking around for the questioning  of suspects and asking "Are you playing bad cop, Chief Grimshaw?"  Generally, terre indigene have no interest in human stuff but now they all coming out and asking "This is investigating? Like in the human stories?" and they all want to be able to tell their friends they were part of investigating just like in the stories.   It is hilarious!

I just love this series and have re-read it several times.  In fact, I immediately re-read Crowbones and caught some things I missed the first time.    I wish there were more stories.   I was so excited to head back to The Jumble and spend time with Vicki, Julian, Grimsham and Ilya again.   Lake Silence was book 6, or the first in The World of The Others spinoff. But then Book 7, Wild Country, took us to the Town of Bennett which was talked about in Book 4.  Since we left, Lake Silence and the Village of Sproing behind, I thought we were done with the Jumble which was disappointing because these were such a great group of characters and I wanted more.

This world of The Others is so creative and the characters that Anne Bishop writes for us are so fleshed-out that I want to spend more time with them. I can't even tell you where I would want to go in the next book because I want to catch up with all our old favorites but maybe there are new friends just waiting to be found..