In Tuscany visiting friends with his wife, Gideon Oliver is asked to reexamine the bones of a couple whose deaths were ruled a murder-suicide. His findings do not agree with those of the Italian police.

Edgar® Award–winning author Aaron Elkins’s creation—forensics professor Gideon Oliver—has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “a likable, down-to-earth, cerebral sleuth.” Now the celebrated Skeleton Detective is visiting friends at a vineyard in Tuscany when murder leaves a bitter aftertaste… When Gideon Oliver and his wife, Julie, are in Tuscany visiting the Cubbiddu family, the renowned Skeleton Detective is asked to reexamine the remains of a mysterious family tragedy. Pietro Cubbiddu, former patriarch of the Villa Antica wine empire, is thought to have killed his wife and then himself in the remote mountains of the Apennines. It does not take long for Gideon to deduce that, whatever happened, a murder-suicide it was not. Soon Gideon finds himself in a morass of family antipathies, conflicts, and mistrust, to say nothing of the local authority’s resentment. And when yet another Cubbiddu relation meets an unlikely end, it becomes bone-chillingly clear that the killer is far from finished…

First in the Edgar Award–winning series “that never disappoints,” featuring the forensic anthropologist known as the Skeleton Detective (The Philadelphia Inquirer). When anthropology professor Gideon Oliver is offered a teaching fellowship at US military bases in Germany, Sicily, Spain, and Holland, he wastes no time accepting. Stimulating courses to teach, a decent stipend, all expenses paid, plenty of interesting European travel . . . What’s not to like? It does not take him long to find out. On his first night, he is forced to fend off two desperate, black‐clad men who have invaded his Heidelberg hotel room with intent to kill. And then there are a few trivial details that the recruiting agency forgot to mention—such as the fact that the two previous holders of the fellowship both met with mysterious ends. From there, it is all downhill. Gideon finds himself the target in an unfamiliar game for which no one has bothered to give him the rules. What he does have is his own considerable intellect and his remarkable forensic skills. He will need them, for he is playing for some fairly high stakes: the security of Western Europe. Fellowship of Fear is the 1st book in the Gideon Oliver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Gideon is happy to be in Mexico with his wife-until he's asked to examine the mummified corpse of a drifter thought to be shot to death. Gideon's findings reveal that the cause of death is far more bizarre. Then he's asked to examine the skeleton of a murder victim found a year earlier-only to discover another coroner error. The Skeleton Detective knows that two "mistakenly" identified bodies are never a coincidence. But if he isn't careful, unearthing the connection between them could make him another murder statistic in Mexico.

The French police call on the Skeleton Detective when a dog digs up some human bones: “Terrific” —Publishers Weekly Les‐Eyzies‐de‐Tayac is known for three things: pâté de fois gras, truffles, and prehistoric remains. The little village, in fact, is the headquarters of the prestigious Institute de Préhistoire, which studies the abundant local fossils. But when a pet dog emerges from a nearby cave carrying parts of a human skeleton—by no means a fossilized one—Chief Inspector Lucien Anatole Joly puts in a call to his old friend, Gideon Oliver, the famed “Skeleton Detective.” Once Gideon arrives, murder piles on murder, puzzle on puzzle, and twist follows twist in a series of unexpected events that threaten to tear the once sober, dignified Institut apart. It takes a bizarre and startling forensic breakthrough by Gideon to bring to an end a trail of deception thirty‐five thousand years in the making. Skeleton Dance is the 10th book in the Gideon Oliver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The forensic anthropologist known as the Skeleton Detective tackles his first four cases in the Edgar Award–winning series “that never disappoints” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Edgar Award winner and former anthropologist Aaron Elkins “thoroughly understands the art of the murder mystery” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). In these four initial volumes of the long-running Skeleton Detective series, Elkins introduces readers to his “likable, down-to-earth cerebral sleuth,” Professor Gideon Oliver (Chicago Tribune). Fellowship of Fear: Gideon accepts a teaching fellowship at US military bases in Europe—without knowing the previous two fellowship holders met mysterious ends. Now caught up in a dangerous game, this professor will need to think fast in order to survive. “Sherlock Holmes would be pleased.” —The Houston Post The Dark Place: Gideon is in Washington’s Olympic National Park and must make sense of skeletal remains, a primitive bone spear murder weapon, and alleged Bigfoot sightings before a relentless killer strikes again. “As good as it gets.” —New York Daily News Murder in the Queen’s Armes: A stolen prehistoric skull bone and dead archaeology student interrupt Gideon’s honeymoon in England. The now infamous Skeleton Detective agrees to help the police, but doing so soon pushes him and his new bride into danger. “Great stuff.” —The New York Times Book Review Old Bones: In this Edgar Award winner, Gideon is called upon while lecturing in France to examine bones found beneath the stone flooring of an old chateau in Mont St. Michel. But it’s the skeletons in a local family’s closet that could prove deadly . . .

Edgar Award–winning author: “A cunning plot, a remarkably appealing hero, some uproariously funny dialogue . . . a winning combination.” —Booklist An ancient skeleton tossed in a garbage dump is the first conundrum to rattle Gideon Oliver when he arrives in Egypt. There to appear in a documentary film, he expects an undemanding week of movie star treatment and a luxurious cruise up the Nile with his wife, Julie. But when Gideon discovers a tantalizing secret in the discarded bones—and violence claims a famous Egyptologist’s life—he is thrust into a spotlight of a different kind. Plying his calipers as the world’s foremost forensic anthropologist, Gideon’s investigation of the goings‐on leads him through the back alleys and bazaars of Cairo and deep into the millennia‐old tombs of the Valley of the Kings. As the puzzle is painstakingly pieced together, Gideon will find that the identifying traits of a cunning killer are the same now as they were in the time of the pyramids: greed without guilt, lies without conscience . . . and murder without remorse. Dead Men’s Hearts is the 8th book in the Gideon Oliver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.