siblings, New Zealand, Māori, suspense, suspicion, law-enforcement, family-dynamics, friendship, forensics, PTSD, cultural-exploration, cultural-heritage, curse, murder, murder-investigation, relationships*****

A Maori curse, a skeleton uncovered, a hiking excursion, a rockslide, a reconnection with a brother from away, a new murder, more danger. Definitely riveting!
Alexa Glock is a forensic odontologist living and working in New Zealand on a visa from the US. Her brother from their home state in the Carolinas has come to decompress from problems at home and reconnect with Alexa while trekking a difficult trail. First Alexa finds a skeleton of a murdered man, then everything goes wrong. Then her brother finds the body of a currently missing hiker. Bring in the law enforcement team (by helicopter). Fast paced and with lots of things to learn. I love the realistic detailing of this beautiful country including hiking trails and violent weather.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Alexa and Charlie Glock (‘like the gun’) grew up in North Carolina. As children, Alexa suffered some severe burns leaving scars still evident in adulthood. Went to college. He became an accountant, married, had two kids, now lives in Atlanta. She ended up becoming a forensic scientist with a special interest in teeth. Unmarried. Took in internship with the North Island Forensics Service Center in New Zealand and stayed when she was offered a job. She is in a relationship with Bruce, a senior detective based in Auckland. Charlie and his wife are recently separated. Brother and sister are not real close.

To strengthen their relationship, Charlie agrees to fly to New Zealand where they will take a popular multiday through hike (a ‘tramp’) in Fiordland National Park (on the South Island). Trampers can go it alone for primitive camping or they can sign up for a ‘luxe’ tramp, a guided trek where they’d sleep indoors and get prepared meals each day. They choose the primitive tramp, but quickly learn the two groups are interconnected.

Trampers take off at their leisure and arrive at cabin/campsites whenever they get there. Charlie and Alexa get separated leaving Alexa to fend for herself that first day. Weather and landslides are common issues and both further separate Alexa from Charlie. A rockslide obscures the track and Alexa must do some serious rock-hopping to traverse. As she concludes a successful traverse of the rock field, she rests in the forest, and something catches her forensic eye – a piece of bone. Curious to see if the bone in animal or human, she digs it from the earth and in doing so, finds more bones, and not just fragments. Whole ribs and some long bones. And the ribs look to have been damaged by a knife.

The local indigenous Maori feel that disturbing bones isn’t to be done, but she bags a couple fragments (what forensic scientist travels without their evidence bags?), marks the location, and plans to get them sent to her lab. While taking care of business, a helicopter buzzes her location even to the point of dropping a sack full of riff rock near where she is working. Intentional or trying to stabilize the landslide?

She reaches the luxe tramper destination and meets up with Charlie. The luxe host is counting heads and is one short. An Auckland orthopaedic surgeon who gifted her office staff with this adventure. A search is initiated. Charlie and Alexa find the doctor. Looks like she fell off a possibly defective rope bridge over a roaring creek. After some tense cliff challenges, the doctor’s body is pulled out. Alexa does a cursory exam and notices two holes in the doctor’s back, both about the size of the end of a trekking pole. The question is no longer did she fall, but was she pushed.

In one day of tramping, Alexa has stumbled into two potential murders. One fresh, the other a cold case. Once Alexa gets the bit, she returns to full-scale forensic mode. Local law enforcement is called, and a possible murder requires a senior detective and her current flame, DI Bruce Horne, is helicoptered in to manage the investigation into both crimes.

I chose this book for two reasons. First, the story is set in the wilderness, on a through hike, which I like to do. No place I’d rather be than in the forest. Second, the principles are from North Carolina, where I live (props to the author for her accurate NC geography). The story, once the investigations get going, is routine police procedural work. There are some hairy wilderness moments, some touchy helicopter encounters, and the attempts at mending the strained brother-sister relationship. Not to mention, the importance of her burn scars. The author is a former middle school reading specialist in Durham, NC who spent a year in NZ with her family. This book is the third of three (so far) Alexa Glock Forensics Mystery titles that are published by Poisoned Pen Press.

Available February 15, 2022.

I read this book as an ARC.
The Bone Track is set on the South Island of New Zealand on a famous hiking trail. An American brother and sister, Alexa, have chosen it as a break from their lives. The sister is a forensic investigator for the police in Auckland who is anxious about both her fitness and wants to reconnect with her brother, Charles, who is visiting.
When the two were separated by a mudslide, Alexa discovers a skeleton who has clearly been murdered after she was nearly swept away. Soon after that incident, she narrowly avoids being murdered herself. Later another person is found dead in the raging waters of a creek.
The book starts slowly but is worth reading on as it picks up considerably.
The siblings hope to connect is severely strained by Alexa's efforts to investigate the two cases when she has little time for Charles.
The main characters are well defined in a large cast. The plot is deep and nasty, and the tension is tangible.
I enjoyed it but wouldn't rate it as a page-turner that would keep me up until the wee hours.
Recommended to those who like a mystery that is challenging to solve with the forensic details adding much to the story.

Very good book. Held my interest throughout the story. I would recommend this for anyone interested in science

This is an exciting book set in the 'wilds' of New Zealand. The main character is a a forensics expert who always takes some of her tools along. While trekking she experience a landslide that uproots a skeleton that she has a chance to investigate before she needs to get out of the danger zone. When she gets to the next shelter she reports the bones and finds out another trekker is missing. Scary bridges, nasty weather, and not so nice guys make the solving of the crime difficult.

Lots of personal angst among the characters. This is part of a continuing series. I'm now going back to read the older books.

Strong and vivid imagery, and a character-centered thriller. Avid readers of this genre will enjoy The Bone Track.

Although the book appears to be the third in a series, it can be read independently without complications.
Forensic scientist Alexa Glock finds herself in the middle of the New Zealand mountains with two corpses (a skeleton and a fellow hiker).
An entertaining thriller, with great characters and very interesting background information about New Zealand.

272 pages

4 stars

Alexa Glock and her brother Charlie are taking a hike together in the lovely mountains of New Zealand. It has rained quite a bit and there are landslides in the area to which they are going. It has been several years since Alexa has seen her brother and she still feels guilty over childhood traumas.

Alexa works for the Forensic Service Center in Auckland, NZ. On her way up one trail she loses sight of Charlie - and everyone else - and is caught in a landslide. Once she regains her balance, she notes a skeleton buried in the mud and debris. It is a man. It hasn’t been there long because she can see the amalgam fillings in his teeth. He has stab wounds in his rib area. She must get somewhere so she can call in the team.

She finally stumbles to the lodge and learns that one of the guests is missing. Her name is Dr. Diana Clark. Charlie and Alexa join the search team. Charlie has a harrowing accident. A body is spotted. Alexa hurries back to the lodge and the police are called. They will be there in the morning. Meanwhile, the body is transported back to the lodge. Alexa looks at the body and discovers that it wasn’t an accident. It was murder.

More police are called in. Along with them is DI Bruce Horne. Alexa and Bruce have a distinct attraction to one another. Things begin to go awry. Mysterious things occur.

As Bruce, Alexa and the team work their way through the guests and the evidence. They get some firm clues.

The action picks up to a fever pitch as the police close in on their suspects.

This book is very well written and plotted. The transitions were smooth. This is a very good book that keeps the pages turning as the reader must find out what happens. The descriptions of the New Zealand mountains were wonderful. So colorful and descriptive that the reader can almost imagine that they are there. I had my doubts about Alexa at first. She seemed skittish and jumpy. I wondered if her imagination was getting away from her. She eventually smoother out and I came to like her better. I liked that the book talked about her and Charlie’s history.

I want to thank NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for forwarding to me a copy of this wonderful book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.