A detective thriller set in an abandoned asylum? There was no hesitation as to which book I was picking for this month's first reads selection. But while The Bone Jar is a well-written and complex thriller which I really looked forward to unravelling, I didn't love it. Still, I don't feel comfortable talking it down because it's a tremendous effort for a first-time author.

With a lot happening, the book takes a while to get into as there are three or four stories going on at once with many different characters being introduced or mentioned by name. But once the stories are weaved together a little better, the narration begins to unfold through two main points of view - Detective Kirby and his formal investigation, and urban explorer Connie Darke, who is determined to help Lew expose the asylum's grisly past.

With the setting of the asylum taking precedence, the book is very atmospheric. The chilling atmosphere certainly put me on edge reading it in the dark as I lay worrying about a creeper. The asylum is described well, but it wasn't overly haunting. You can tell that Kane has an MA in Creative Crime Writing, though, as there are a lot of details in the process of the police work which I enjoyed reading about. However, the details are more around the talk in the office and instructions/process of how to keep an investigation moving forward, rather than anything too dark or gritty.

Although there are a lot of names to get your head around at first, the story is well-paced and progresses quickly, always giving new information to keep your mind ticking along with the investigation. It's definitely a story that keeps you interested and wanting to read on, even if it might not grip you entirely. You can see hints being made that you know are going to be revealed later on, so it's obvious that Kane is a great writer as The Bone Jar is certainly a well-developed and mysterious thriller.

Alongside the investigation, we also get a glimpse into the lives of Lew and Connie outside of their work. Connie is an "Urbex" - an urban explorer - relating to Kane's own fascination with the hobby which has inspired elements of her book. I found this really interesting to learn about. Kane obviously thought about how to give her crime thriller a unique angle, and this definitely helps to give her story a slight edge, especially as she's writing about something that she has a lot of knowledge about. 

We also get to learn about Lew's family life as he discovers a devastating family secret that threatens to turn his life upside down. It's great that Kane allows us to get to know him more personally. However, I still don't think that we got to see him in a more relaxed state, so it was difficult to warm to him as much as I would have liked to. 

What I liked most about this book is that Kane takes the time to tie up all of her loose ends. Too often, thrillers reveal the killer and rush the final chapters, neglecting to answer all of the questions that the author has built up to. But Kane spends a few chapters paying attention to these details. While I kept expecting the story to draw to a close after finding out who was behind the murders, I appreciate the time spent on the characters in the aftermath of it all. It manages to tie everything up successfully, while also setting a few things up for future Detective Lew Kirby instalments.

I'm certainly intrigued to learn more about him (and possibly Connie?) anyway, so I will definitely be looking out for the next instalment in this new detective series.

This novel employs one of my favorite thriller tropes which is secrets from the past coming back to haunt the present. I really liked how Kane used that idea in this novel where when the sketchy past of the hospital comes up, the investigators keep it in mind but then still look for present day suspects. They don't drop everything and start investigating a cold case from the decades before. I think this is where the other points of view were used the most effectively as they kept reminding the reader of the past while the detectives were talking to present day suspects.

I thought this novel also had some pretty good character relationships. We get some banter between Kirby and his partner, some interpersonal tension at work, and Connie's relationship with her urban explorer friends. I liked how Kirby wasn't a stereotypical jaded or grumpy detective and he didn't have any vices or any dark secret himself. As much as I love complicated heroes, it is nice to have the hero be an actual good guy. I do wish we had explored more of Connie and the urban exploration community, but we did get some good interactions between her and her friends.

The main issue I had with this book was the pacing. For the first half, it was a fairly typical police procedural. The first 2/3 of the book were pretty slow on the action, but the investigation was uncovering lies and secrets from decades prior - standard police procedural. The novel does switch points of view between a few characters, only one of whom is with the police, which gives the reader a break from the procedural elements. However, even these other points of view were paced slow as they investigated their own portions of the mystery. Now I'm fine with slow build police procedurals. I really like seeing all the puzzle pieces fall into place and seeing the detectives put it all together so I was reading along with no problems. But then the last 1/3 of the book kicked into high gear and it was super jarring. All three points of view came together in the same area but were just far enough away that they were still following their different plot threads. And each of the threads was high action so switching points of view would just continue to amp up the tension. Which, I'll admit, I would normally be totally into if the first 2/3 of the book wasn't so slow burn. It was like the first 2/3 ramped from 0 to 20 and then the last 1/3 went from 20 to 100 in just a few chapters. I have book whiplash, that's the best way I can explain it. I did appreciate how this book had the few chapters of 'cool down' after the main action conflict of act 3. I always like to be able to see how characters are able to integrate back into their regular lives after the events of the novel.

At the end, while we do find out who killed the elderly woman, there were more questions left open at the end of the book in regards to Kirby's personal life as well as Connie's sister. It felt like really obvious sequel bait and it was a bit disappointing. I have no issues with some unanswered questions, but the novel left off on such an obvious cliffhanger that it felt unfinished. The reveals at the end were also very important to the characters and it felt like those would have been better suited to be revealed before the third act and then they could have been resolved or at least explored more during the last part of the book. It felt like these last reveals were brought up and then the characters just left them aside to be dealt with later (in a sequel). In general, I'm just not a fan of the super obvious cliffhangers at the end of books. Leave enough open for me to want to explore in a sequel (like DI Kirby getting a phone call about another murder, for example) but this one left a little too much open for my liking.

Full review at https://fictionmajorette.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-bone-jar-s-w-kane.html

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC

3.5 stars rounded up

This was a good read, but I must confess that it was hard to get into and I kept dropping it many times to read something else. When I got into it, however, it was really good and I couldn't wait to Solve the mystery.

It was a book that was gory and creepy. I love psychological thrillers and this one was a very nice one. The characters were good and well written, and I think the pacing could have been faster.

We've got a murder mystery, a police procedural, and a psychological thriller all mixed together to create this gripping story. The author did a good job.

I can’t rate something I haven’t finished. But I don’t think I could anyway am not sure why but the whole plot, characters just felt flat and dull. It didn’t feel real or in anyway creepy. It just felt boring and the characters, I felt nothing for. I also didn’t like the casual swearing especially the c word unless it feels fitting and just throwing swear around a just really irritates me. I am very disappointed in this as I was hoping from the premise it would be good. But I just got bored with it and cannot carry on reading it.