Missing Bones: An Adventure Mystery Novel

Description

148 pages
Contains Illustrations
$12.95
ISBN 1-895592-05-4
DDC jC813'.54

Publisher

Year

1993

Contributor

Reviewed by Dave Jenkinson

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Review

Unfortunately, an attractive, exciting cover illustration plus a
promising plot premise are not enough to salvage this very badly written
juvenile mystery. Sixteen-year-old Ruth Kernel is a summer reporter for
the Weekly Star newspaper in Drumheller, Alberta, and her boss, Mr.
Briggs, has assigned her to research the thefts of valuable dinosaur
bones and eggs from the Tyrrell Museum and nearby digs. When Mr. Briggs
is viciously beaten by a baseball-bat-wielding skinhead, Ruth wonders if
the attack might somehow be connected to the “missing bones.”

Because Tessier fails to introduce any suspects other than the
skinhead, a character readers first encounter on the book’s third
page, the story is virtually devoid of suspense. Consequently, beyond
waiting for the bad guy’s eventual and inevitable capture, and perhaps
learning his identity and motivation, there is little to hold readers’
interest. Though the book does introduce half a dozen other
“supporting” characters, their connection to the plot is mostly
tenuous, and their portrayal is often highly inconsistent. Instead of
offering middle-schoolers the “red herrings” a mystery demands,
Tessier just provides aimless digressions, such as Ruth’s ramblings
about her father’s development of a new steak tomato or her frequent
reader-directed “lessons” about dinosaurs and their habits.
Additionally, Tessier’s practice of writing almost totally in the
present tense produces a monotonous sentence rhythm, and much of her
dialogue, especially that of her juvenile characters, comes across as
stilted, wooden, and unbelievable. Not recommended.

Citation

Tessier, Vanna., “Missing Bones: An Adventure Mystery Novel,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed March 28, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/19204.