Skin and Bones
Patrick Flint 8 — A What Doesn't Kill You Super Series Mystery

For fans of C.J. Box, Craig Johnson, and Nevada Barr — a Summer 1978 Wyoming thriller in which a dead climbing partner washes up in Clear Creek and Dr. Patrick Flint's wife becomes the prime suspect.Dr. Patrick Flint chases a marmot off his deck, breaks his hand, falls into Clear Creek, and discovers the body of his mountain climbing partner Whitney Saylor in the water. Whitney has Patrick's business card in her pocket with a note on the back: 'his wife knows — she threatened me.' The Buffalo police are delighted to have a suspect. Susanne is taken to the station before breakfast.Whitney was carrying ancient Egyptian artifacts — a pharaonic breastplate and ring — smuggled from a Brooklyn antiques dealer with ties to organized crime. She was also researching the artifacts at the Buffalo library. She was also, apparently, being stalked by a woman named Bella Crooke who believed Patrick and Whitney were having an affair. Perry, sixteen, is doing better than anyone at keeping his head while the adults spiral. Trish gets a letter from Ben in Alaska. The artifacts may belong to King Tut.Skin and Bones is the series' most globally scaled installment — a story that moves from Cloud Peak to Buffalo to a Brooklyn antiques operation to a diplomatic negotiation involving the Secretary of State. It is also the one where Perry earns his teammates' respect without drinking a single beer, where Susanne co-authors a journal article about artifacts she can't tell anyone she has, and where Ben Jones finally drives four days to find Trish at the King Tut exhibit in Seattle.Author Pamela Fagan Hutchins grew up in Buffalo, Wyoming. King Tut fever was real. The Egyptian artifacts in Clear Creek were not. Complete series: 9 novels.Marmot chase. Broken hand. Dead body in Clear Creek. Ancient Egyptian artifacts. His wife arrested before breakfast. Dr. Flint's summer was going so well. Complete series: 9 novels.