A Blake Harte Mystery, Book 7 - Skeletons

These mysteries by Robert Innes are so good, I couldn't wait any longer to read the next book that I have, which is the seventh in the series. These "impossible" crimes are so well-plotted, one is left to wonder just how much time Innes has on his hands to come up with these unique and innovate ways to kill off people! Of course, Innes has created a just-as-unique detective that is able to look beyond the obvious and normal and deduce the strange manner in which these murders take place.  And this time around, whoo-wee, does Innes provide a doozy of a case!

A man known the Harte and the police force dies in a car accident, with numerous witnesses watching the car explode with him in it.  They were barely able to pull his wife out of the car before it went up in flames, and luckily, the only injury she sustained was a broken arm. Inexplicably, the widower thinks she sees her deceased husband, and when she runs off at his funeral (attended by a number of people, including Harte), Harte and his boyfriend follow to make sure she is alright. But when they arrive at her house, they are shocked to discover the very man they just buried choking his wife!  He takes off, and everyone wonders if what they saw was real.  Only one way to figure that out - exhume the body.  Under the cover of night (to avoid the prying eyes of the nosy townspeople), Harte and his fellow police bring up the casket from the ground.  The coffin is opened, and to everyone's shock, it is the wife's body inside!

Skeletons definitely provides an ever-twisting mystery of who is dead, who isn't, who killed them, and how?! The solution is not completely a surprise (at least, not for me), but it was rather ingenuous - I have to give Innes credit for coming up with something this unique. And the fact that the first victim is the town's undertaker, and thus someone who is well known throughout the community, adds to the mystique of the crime, since the chief of police and others seem to see a very different side to the man who Blake sees harassing and belittling his wife. Of course, it is those very differences that gave me the first clue as to what may be going on with the case...

Aside from the murder mystery, Innes continues the ever-continuing drama that is Blake Harte's life. Having recovered from his surgery in the last book, Harte and his boyfriend, Harrison, are trying to rebuild their relationship, with Harrison coming to terms with the amount of time Harte's job takes him away. But just when Blake things are beginning to settle, a call from someone in his past turns his whole world upside down! Now, not only does he have to deal with the baffling mystery of the dead seemingly coming back to life, but he has to face a possible consequence of his past that could have a devastating and deadly impact on his present.  (And no, I'm not going to spoil it and tell you what it is - but let's just say that Innes handles it in a very realistic way - Blake's reaction and turmoil over what to do is exactly the way I've seen people act when faced with the same possibility...)

Oh, and just in case you thought all of the above was more than enough for Blake to handle in one book, there is also the unexpected arrival of his landlord's son, Tom Roberts - a handsome young man who strikes up a friendship with Harrison. Blake has been concerned that Harrison doesn't really have many friends with whom he can socialize while he is at work, but as Blake watches Tom taking Harrison out night after night, seeing Harrison come home drunk, he begins to wonder if Tom doesn't have ulterior motives.  Yes, Blake's life is a regular soap opera with a seemingly unsolvable murder thrown in just to keep things interesting.

I just cannot recommend this series enough. I am always telling my friends about it and trying to convince everyone who reads mysteries to pick up the series. Can't wait to see what Innes has in store for Blake in the next book!

RATING: 10 small red books out of 10 for creating the most unique and enjoyable "impossible" crimes and writing characters that the reader truly cares about!