Make No Bones

In this seamlessly plotted corker of a mystery, Edgar Award winner Elkins reprises his ``skeleton detective,'' forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver, in a seventh outing that might well have been subtitled ``Whose Bones Are These, Anyway?'' Here Gideon receives an invitation to the sixth biennial ``bone bash and weenie roast'' of the Western Association of Forensic Anthropologists, to take place at the Whitebark Lodge in Oregon. The last WAFA conference held at the Whitebark Lodge, 10 years earlier, ended tragically when Albert Evan Jasper, irascible mentor to four of the attendees, died in a fiery bus crash on his way out of town. Or did he? As a highlight of this conference, Jasper's charred remains will be on display for viewing and study, but shortly after their unveiling, a number of alarming events occurring in rapid succession require all of Gideon's forensic powers: the bones disappear, a badly decomposed corpse is found in the woods and one of the original four attendees is murdered. What really became of Jasper and which remnants, if any, are his? Readers who like their humor dark and their gumshoes smart are sure to enjoy the ``bone bash.'' (Dec.)