The Bones of the Story

A Novel

By: Carol Goodman

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

The twisty locked-room mystery from two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning author Carol Goodman, about a group of former classmates trapped on their college campus—with a murderer among them.

""One of the best and smartest locked-room mysteries I've read in a long time. A page-turner with both heart and brains. Don't miss it!""—David Bell, New York Times bestselling author of Try Not to Breathe and She’s Gone

One by one, their pasts will reveal the deadly truth...

It’s been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a female student and the distinguished Creative Writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the double tragedy. Now, the college President is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims from all those years ago.

On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the commemoratory event. But as a storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni who were the last ones taught by the esteemed professor. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears.

When an alumna dies in a shockingly similar way to the story she wrote, and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past. Will the secret of what they did twenty-five years ago be revealed? Will any of them be alive at the end of the weekend to find out?

Fantastic plot and writing

I generally avoid stories about writers and writing programs, but this one is the best literary murder mystery I’ve ever encountered. It even has a homage to And Then There Were None, but is wholly its own and not derivative like so many of the recent retellings of Christie’s most famous novel.

Just Ok

Story was alright, narration much better.
I am just not a fan of protagonists that are submissive or passive.

Dead Poets Murder Mystery

What happens when a group of friends return to their small college for a special occasion? We follow Nell (Ellen) in present and in flashbacks as the group of friends go through college together, all wanting to be writers, and vying to be part of a special writing society on school. Present time, who is killing them off- one by one? How does it all tie together?
I enjoyed the story and narration - this was an enjoyable listen with some good twists!

Good plot.

Easy to follow, author plays fair, not overly complicating things and introducing too many characters. I liked the switching between “now” and “then” for each chapter. Narration was tolerable b/c of a great story. I like a narrator’s voice without much variation between characters. It’s an audio book not a radio play. When a female tries to make her voice sound like a male character with a deep voice it just sounds silly and annoying.

Fun but predictable plot, annoying main character

I enjoyed the fun plot, funny side characters and descriptions of the slightly gloomy, beautiful setting. I thought the character of Laine was well explored- she's a bit of an archetype but a well fleshed out one. The main character was self loathing for no apparent reason, endlessly gullible and apparently lacks a spine until the action filled climax (action which was totally ill-fitting with the overall tone). Also I almost never guess the bad guy correctly but I did this time which made the mystery less fun for me. Great performance from the narrator, she was perfect.