{"id":6740,"date":"2025-10-21T06:36:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6740"},"modified":"2025-10-21T06:36:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:36:57","slug":"vanessa-lillie-the-bone-thief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/vanessa-lillie-the-bone-thief\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanessa Lillie: The Bone Thief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Syd Walker #2<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is the second novel following Syd Walker, an archaeologist for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). \u00a0It has the same strengths and weaknesses as the first novel, but the strengths are many, and overcome the weaknesses.\u00a0 The weaknesses:\u00a0 Syd jumps into danger and neglects her pregnant wife to an annoying degree.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve ever watched the TV show The Closer<\/em> and been frustrated by Brenda\u2019s treatment of her husband and parents while still admiring Brenda\u2019s skills as a detective, you\u2019ll experience the same feelings here. You\u2019ll admire Syd while at the same time you might be thinking to yourself \u2013 get home to your wife!<\/p>\n

The plot, however, is rocket powered, and the stakes are high, and seem particularly poignant and resonant in our present political climate.\u00a0 Syd is a Cherokee but has relocated to Rhode Island where she works with the Narragansett tribe.\u00a0 As the book opens, Syd has discovered a skeleton and wants to dig for it when she\u2019s warned off by the owners of the camp where it\u2019s been found.\u00a0 They ultimately bring her back in to excavate, demanding she perform the task in just one day.\u00a0 When that day is over, and she\u2019s uncovered the skeleton of a female, certainly a member of the Narragansett tribe, Syd is whisked to the Founder\u2019s Country Club to explain her find.<\/p>\n

The Founder\u2019s Club is filled with people who descended from the first pilgrims, people who view America as their discovery.\u00a0 Syd has a different view, seeing the \u201cdiscovery\u201d of America as an obliteration of her people.\u00a0 But Syd is torn.\u00a0 She wants to share the history of what she\u2019s discovered, and the Founders are planning an elaborate museum, with the centerpiece to be the skeleton Syd has just unearthed.<\/p>\n

Syd has a decision to make.\u00a0 She decides to take on the role of the trickster, appearing to adjust to circumstances to ultimately bend events in her preferred direction.\u00a0 She agrees to teach at the camp associated with the club, taking over from the last director, Bud, who has retired-slash-disappeared.\u00a0 She\u2019s feeling very uncomfortable, though, as she thinks back on two young interns from a few years back, one of whom, Naomi, is missing.\u00a0 Syd also takes on the task of finding Naomi as she feels a massive weight of guilt, despite her perhaps minimal impact on the girl\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

When the skeleton Syd unearthed is stolen, she has yet another task: the Founder\u2019s Club asks her to find it for them.\u00a0 She\u2019s very uneasy, pulled by conflicting loyalties, and this is the strength of this novel:Lillie is able to really drill into Syd\u2019s feelings of discomfort as she works for people she doesn\u2019t align or agree with; as she digs for bones with campers who are untrained; and as she searches for the missing Narragansett girl, Naomi, whose relatives and friends aren\u2019t so sure they want Syd looking for her.<\/p>\n

Lillie is excellent at portraying the grief of Naomi\u2019s family as well as the strength of the Narragansett people as they struggle to maintain a foothold in white society, despite a lack of jobs and the push back of a conservative establishment.\u00a0 The author shows, not tells, about the crushing and extinction of a culture by the pilgrims who arrived way back in the 17th century, showing, not telling as well the story of the entitlement felt by the descendants of those pilgrims.\u00a0 This is a well told adventure story, really, and while Syd\u2019s personal life exists (as well as personal issues remaining from the last novel), the story is really Syd\u2019s dedicated search for the bones, for what\u2019s going on at the Founder\u2019s Club, and for Naomi. As with the last book Kleenex was involved toward the end as Lillie is very deft at powerfully portraying human emotions and connections.\u00a0 Syd is a wonderful character, if impulsive.\u00a0 Despite the frustration I feel with her, I still enjoy reading these books and look forward to the next one.\u00a0 —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Syd Walker #2 This is the second novel following Syd Walker, an archaeologist for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). \u00a0It has the same strengths and weaknesses as the first novel, but the strengths are many, and overcome the weaknesses.\u00a0 The weaknesses:\u00a0 Syd jumps into danger and neglects her pregnant wife to an annoying degree.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[113,189,2314,2315,1276,670,2313,2312,1350],"class_list":["post-6740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-archeology","tag-berkley","tag-native-american-culture","tag-rhode-island","tag-robin-agnew","tag-suspense","tag-syd-walker","tag-the-bone-thief","tag-vanessa-lillie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6740"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6759,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6740\/revisions\/6759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}