Lead Review

• Book: Tall Bones
• Location: Colorado
• Author: Anna Bailey

Review Author: Tina Hartas

Tall Bones by Anna Bailey, psychological thriller set in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Tall Bones is set in a place that epitomises the unpleasant side of small town America. There is a homophobic, racist, fire and brimstone preacher presiding over a pretty strange community. An outwardly respectable mill owner who is desperate for his son to win a sports scholarship to college, and who has a penchant for teenage girls. A Vietnam war veteran, greatly troubled by what he witnessed there, now beating his children into a fear of God. A Mexican family, minus the father who was driven from the town in a racist attack a few years back. And the local drug dealer – a Romanian gypsy (who doesn’t exactly fit in…) and lives in a trailer park.

When a teenage girl goes missing in the woods after a party – and is presumed dead – there is thus no shortage of suspects. What follows is a great psychological thriller as false trails are laid and fear and suspicion take over the town. An evening curfew on the children is imposed. Mob rule takes over (aided by a pretty complacent police department). Acts of violence are committed against those who turn out to be innocent. Slowly the story unfolds, one clue at a time, until the murderer is exposed.

Tall Bones is a quite scary book. It’s easy to see how rumours and suspicions circulate in a small and frightened community. Old angers and mistrust come again to the fore. The town will never be the same again.

Definitely recommended for those who enjoy a good psychological thriller.

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