Twenty Blue Devils, Aaron Elkins
Twenty Blue Devils, Aaron Elkins
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Twenty Blue Devils

Author: Aaron Elkins

Narrator: Joel Richards

Unabridged: 8 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/30/2019


Synopsis

The dead man is the manager of Tahiti's Paradise Coffee Plantation, producer of the most expensive coffee bean in the world, the winey, luscious Blue Devil. Nothing tangible points to foul play behind his fall from a cliff, but FBI agent John Lau, a relative of the coffee growing family, has his suspicions. What he needs is evidence, and who better to provide it than his friend, anthropologist Gideon Oliver, the Skeleton Detective? Gideon is willing to help, but surprisingly—and suspiciously—both the police and the other family members refuse to okay an exhumation order. As a result, Gideon, to his surprise and against his better judgment, finds himself sneaking into a graveyard under cover of night with John, a flashlight, and a shovel.

Gideon prefers his bones ancient, dry, and dusty, but the body he must examine had lain in the tropical sun for a week before it was found and then buried native style—shallow, with no casket—so it is not exactly his . . . well, cup of tea. But it is not the state of the remains that bothers him the most, it is the deeper human ugliness that his examination uncovers: subtle clues that do indeed point to foul play, to mistaken identity, and to a murderous conspiracy that may have percolated through the family for decades—and brewed a taste for murder.

About Aaron Elkins

Aaron Elkins is a former anthropologist who has been writing mysteries and thrillers since 1982. He won an Edgar for Old Bones, as well as a subsequent Agatha with his wife Charlotte, and a Nero Wolfe Award. His major continuing series features forensic anthropologist-detective Gideon Oliver, "the Skeleton Detective."

The Gideon Oliver books have been (roughly) translated into a major ABC-TV series and have been selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Literary Guild, and the Reader's Digest Condensed Mystery Series. His work has been published in a dozen languages. Elkins and his wife live on Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

Although he has been a full-time writer for some time now, he also remains active in real-life forensics by serving as the forensic anthropologist on the Olympic Peninsula Cold Case Task Force.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kathy

Having really enjoyed two of these Gideon Oliver books it came as quite a surprise to find one that can only be described as absurd. That's a shame because there are only four from the series that are available through Kindle Unlimited and this does not bode well for the next book up. I had a hard ti......more

Goodreads review by Karen

What does an old Hawaiian curse, the West Coast mob, a coffee plantation in Tahiti, an "accidental" death in New Zealand, and the FBI have in common? They are all linked to FBI agent John Lau. His family own the coffee plantation in Tahiti where a series of odd events have taken place and one of his......more