The Bones of Amoret - bookrastinating.com

Paperback, 328 pages

Published March 13, 2022 by Stitched Smile Publishers.

ISBN:: 978-1-945263-95-8

In this enigmatic follow up to his critically acclaimed debut novel The Cuts that Cure, Arthur Herbert returns to the Texas-Mexico border with this saga of a small town’s bloody loss of innocence.

Amoret, Texas, 1982. Life along the border is harsh, but in a world where cultures work together to carve a living from the desert landscape, Blaine Beckett lives a life of isolation. A transplanted Boston intellectual, for twenty years locals have viewed him as a snob, a misanthrope, an outsider. He seems content to stand apart until one night when he vanishes into thin air amid signs of foul play.

Noah Grady, the town doctor, is a charming and popular good ol’ boy. He’s also a keeper of secrets, both the town’s and his own. He watches from afar as the mystery of Blaine’s disappearance unravels and rumors fly. Were the incipient cartels responsible? Was …

In this enigmatic follow up to his critically acclaimed debut novel The Cuts that Cure, Arthur Herbert returns to the Texas-Mexico border with this saga of a small town’s bloody loss of innocence.

Amoret, Texas, 1982. Life along the border is harsh, but in a world where cultures work together to carve a living from the desert landscape, Blaine Beckett lives a life of isolation. A transplanted Boston intellectual, for twenty years locals have viewed him as a snob, a misanthrope, an outsider. He seems content to stand apart until one night when he vanishes into thin air amid signs of foul play.

Noah Grady, the town doctor, is a charming and popular good ol’ boy. He’s also a keeper of secrets, both the town’s and his own. He watches from afar as the mystery of Blaine’s disappearance unravels and rumors fly. Were the incipient cartels responsible? Was it a local with a grudge? Or did Blaine himself orchestrate his own disappearance? Then the unthinkable happens, and Noah begins to realize he’s considered a suspect.

Paced like a lit fuse and full of dizzying plot twists, The Bones of Amoret is a riveting whodunit that will keep you guessing all the way to its shocking conclusion.

1 edition

Stephanie Jane reviewed The Bones of Amoret by Arthur Herbert

Gripping historical mystery

5 stars

I love taking a chance on previously unknown-to-me authors and thereby stumbling across a five star novel that I might never otherwise have discovered. This is exactly what happened with Arthur Herbert's new historical mystery, The Bones Of Amoret. I have been lucky enough to visit Texas twice so the book's setting appealed greatly to me. Once I started actually reading, I found that our narrator, Noah, had such an engaging tone and chatty style that I was immediately captivated. The Bones Of Amoret consists of Noah recounting to a journalist, decades after the events occurred, what he witnessed around the time Blaine Beckett's disappearance and how the small town of Amoret was affected.

Herbert obviously has a lot of knowledge of the area in which his novel is set and the people who live there. This lends a real depth to the novel, and the 1980s references are …

I love taking a chance on previously unknown-to-me authors and thereby stumbling across a five star novel that I might never otherwise have discovered. This is exactly what happened with Arthur Herbert's new historical mystery, The Bones Of Amoret. I have been lucky enough to visit Texas twice so the book's setting appealed greatly to me. Once I started actually reading, I found that our narrator, Noah, had such an engaging tone and chatty style that I was immediately captivated. The Bones Of Amoret consists of Noah recounting to a journalist, decades after the events occurred, what he witnessed around the time Blaine Beckett's disappearance and how the small town of Amoret was affected.

Herbert obviously has a lot of knowledge of the area in which his novel is set and the people who live there. This lends a real depth to the novel, and the 1980s references are frequent enough to give the book authenticity without becoming jarring. I can't say much about the story itself because I daren't risk inadvertently spoilering such a compelling mystery, however the plotlines are so deftly planned d paced that Noah's discoveries and revelations kept me glued to the pages. I even woke myself up a couple of hours early in order to continue reading before my day got underway. The Bones Of Amoret is that good!

CoffeeAndThorn reviewed The Bones of Amoret by Arthur Herbert

Review of 'The Bones of Amoret' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A story about a decent man. The author wants you to know that he's a decent man, notwithstanding that he's the main suspect in a murder. He's a doctor who risks his own safety and reputation to help indigent Mexican immigrants. A kindly liberal soul, supportive to the outcast and the pariah. Husband to a Mexican refugee and adoptive father to her mentally disabled son. But trouble does not spare decent men. Everyone is vulnerable. And the investigation of the murder will uncover many old secrets, old infidelities, old betrayals. Everyone is fallible.

It's one of those books that takes you by the hand and leads you wherever it wants you to go, and you trust it completely. Told in the first person, as the doctor recounts the tale to a journalist, decades later, it's sometimes a slow who-dunnit and sometimes a pacey character study. One is quickly caught up …

A story about a decent man. The author wants you to know that he's a decent man, notwithstanding that he's the main suspect in a murder. He's a doctor who risks his own safety and reputation to help indigent Mexican immigrants. A kindly liberal soul, supportive to the outcast and the pariah. Husband to a Mexican refugee and adoptive father to her mentally disabled son. But trouble does not spare decent men. Everyone is vulnerable. And the investigation of the murder will uncover many old secrets, old infidelities, old betrayals. Everyone is fallible.

It's one of those books that takes you by the hand and leads you wherever it wants you to go, and you trust it completely. Told in the first person, as the doctor recounts the tale to a journalist, decades later, it's sometimes a slow who-dunnit and sometimes a pacey character study. One is quickly caught up in his emotional world as criminals start to close in around him and his family, and in a state that still has the death penalty, he faces the possibility that the fingers pointing at him will succeed in pinning the blame.

I don't know Texas, or anywhere remotely close to it, but reading the book I had a strong sense of place, landscape, culture. The characterisation is superb. The book has a large cast, but each character is vividly distinct and compelling. I wanted a different outcome, but when the outcome came, it was deeply satisfying.