Cage of Bones makes a refreshing change for me to read whilst leading strong female characters are common within thrillers I have never come across one like this. Alana the lead Detective and from whose pov the book is mainly given was instantly likeable and bery relateable. I found it enlightening to read a character with a physical disability in such a fundamentally important role within the plot.

I found myself also drawn to the supporting characters such as Rusty, Paddy and William. The fact young William really comes into his own during the investigation is really good aspect.

The story its self was strong and believable there were points I did look up and found them to be true so whilst this is fiction the author has obviously done their research on causes of death and procedure.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would definately be wanting to read more from this author. I would also look to recommend it to other readers on my tiktok channel.

Irish Garda Detective Alana Mack and her team based at Clonabee are given an impossible challenge of solving the case of who the bones belong to and then the disappearance of a man in Kerry. How are the cases connected? Why were they targeted? When were the crimes committed? Who is behind the incidents when Alana is attacked? The story is told over several time periods, which is tied in neatly with the story. I love how the characters interact with each other and how it shows as aa team working well together. All the sub plots within the story all lead to a surprising conclusion. I highly recommend this book.

Having read the first two in this series I knew what to expect and I was not wrong

What a great read. Was very gripped

Thanks for the opportunity to review

Detective Alana Mack faces one of her greatest challenges when she begins her investigation into the human remains found in a local fisherman’s crab pot. DNA analysis of the remains from the victim reveal a connection to a local woman Ciara Buckley. However, Ciara claims that both of her parents died in a fire years ago when she was a child.
Soon after the fisherman’s estranged brother is found dead, Alana learns that they were adopted and left alone when their mother vanished. As Alena races against time to find the murderer she finds her own life in danger. Confined to a wheelchair, she is attacked and seriously injured, limiting her capability to continue her investigation. Someone is trying to stop her but despite the danger to her own life, she continues her desperate search to find the killer before there are any more murders.

Irish Detective Alana Mack has an odd case dropped on her as soon as she returns from holiday - human bones in the bottom of a crab pot. She and her team have a hard task trying to establish who this was and how they may or may not fit with other attacks on family members of the fisherman who brought up his pots. Lots of forensic evidence, mostly around DNA. Horrific case going back to the days when young pregnant "naughty" women/girls were sent off to the nuns to have their babies who were then taken away for adoption to a "proper" family. No questions asked. There is also child abuse, runaways, revenge, murder, liquorice and what not. Plenty of suspicious characters, attacks on Alana as she returns home (never did really work out who that was but then I did skip read some parts). She has a good and supportive team although the new Eve is somewhat of a trial and a very bright brain, Her boss mellows, William is a star and she has a few strange relationships, not least that of ex husband who seems to have been abusive, caused her to fall downstairs with serious injuries hence she's now a paraplegic, but whom she calls when attacked as the only person whose phone number she can remember. This may have been explained more in the previous books. 3.5* rounded to 4* because of Wally! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for an arc. This is the third book in the Detective Alana Mack series and the books just get better and better. It's a fast paced, intelligent and thought provoking mystery that kept me guessing until the end. Loved getting more insight into Alana's background and why she's now in a wheelchair. Hopefully won't be too long until we meet up with her and her team again.

Alana is a fantastic character and the story, told mostly from her viewpoint turns out to be so much more than a collection of bones in a crab pot!
The story is full of small insights into the characters without ever losing focus on the main storyline and works well at drawing you into their worlds.
A great read!

Alana continues to be a formidable detective solving some impossibly interconnected web of mysteries, discoveries and murders. Reminiscent of Jeffery Devers Lincoln Rhyme series, you have a detective with a brilliant mind, but physically incapacitated, with a team of clever individuals all working together to solve the mystery.

A great fast paced read, keeping you on your toes until the very end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC! In Cage of Bones, human bones turn up in a crab cage. While the detectives are working to identify the remains, other people are being murdered or attacked. This is told primarily from the detective’s point of view and reminded me of an Irish version of Law and Order. I have not read the first two books of this series, and I feel like I would have cared about and understood the characters a little more if I had not jumped into book 3. However, it was still a good read and stood well enough on its own.

4* Solid tale, solid detective work, with a few eye-rolling bits, but a good read.

This is a first for me - a female detective in a wheelchair. It's book 3 in a series, with enough hints and clueing-in that I wasn't lost despite not having read the others.

It's a well-written, plausible tale with at the very start a host of seemingly non-linked events and characters that take a sinister turn, but there's also rather obvious points for cops and SOCOs to have considered, that they didn't, leading to a few eyerolls, and praise for a young male cop that I liked seeing from an older, more experienced cop. Most of the cops had each other's back but there was a divisive one who seemed to get people's backs up, and she seemed parachuted in without us getting the full reasons as to why. By the end of the tale she'd mellowed a tad, or seemed a little less self-important, but I couldn't really see her presence as necessary. Maybe it's to introduce a plot in a future tale?

Whilst the twists and reveals worked, parts seemed a little implausible and not by official police procedure, so I wasn't convinced by the bad guy/s or by the person who'd seemingly been targeting Alana. All did tie in in the end, but things dragged out a little. Still, it's a very good read and I'm up for more.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Storm Publishing, for my reading pleasure

Sent from AOL on Android

The third in the Detective Alana Mack series, a ‘Woman Called Ironside’ if you like and go that far back.
I love the idea of a detective in a wheelchair, I can’t imagine the issues that you would come up against, especially when visiting a scene of crime. I would love to see this explored more and how these difficulties are overcome.
A very strong beginning and a plot that headed off into an unexpected but fascinating direction.
A strong sense of team dynamics and the effect have having a dog on the team is very well written.
This is a decent crime thriller and a series which I am really enjoying, I may not be having a crab sandwich for the foreseeable future…..
Thanks to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for providing me with an Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Thank you to Storm Publishing and Netgalley for an arc of Cage of Bones. A brilliant and powerful thought provoking crime thriller.
As the last pot breached the surface of the water, the fisherman's anticipation curdled to dread. No crab clattered within – inside the cage, where his catch should have been, was a pile of human bones.
When the bones of a victim are found in the bottom of a crab pot, the bizarre case proves to be Detective Alana Mack’s toughest yet. She and her team must rely purely upon forensic clues to identify the elderly woman’s remains. As Alana negotiates the complex web of genetic links at the heart of the case, she finds herself the target of a seemingly random attack. Or is it?
This is my first book reading by Jenny O'Brien and what an amazing read. She had me hooked in from the very beginning with the discovery of bones in a fishing pot on the first page. I loved how this story was so interwoven with all her rich and colourful characters and Detective Alana Mack is a great character, she's feisty, no-nonsense and has a brilliant mind. I love how the author has you invested early on with all the characters in this story with an intricate plot, great back stories and the best was not being able to guess who the murderer was.
I was extremely impressed with the author's research for all things to do with crime, murder scenes, DNA and timelines.
The plot itself albeit intricate and cleverly spun does not leave you feeling out of your depth, O'Brien makes it easy to follow along with the story, it's not too fast paced that you miss anything.
I am so excited to now go and read the other books featuring Detective Alana Mack.
Kerry Kennedy Author

Well Jenny O’Briens novel Cage of Bones definitely kept me guessing, full of seemingly random killings the suspense does not stop and although this is book three of the detective Alania Mack series it could work just as well as a standalone novel, with just a few nods to the past stories and with out giving anything away if you want to go back and read the first two. The characters are well written and relatable, it will be interesting to see how the new detective Eve will shape up in the next book.

Love the Alana Mack series of novels.. I have read them all. . Great writing and premise. Amazing characters. Page turner. Plenty of suspense to keep me guessing.. Was a real rollercoaster ride. Definitely looking forward to the next offering. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it

I've read another in this series, but I don't think it's necessary to enjoy this book. Despite the amount of murders/ attempted murders there were also some times I couldn't help but smile. The investigating team don't just work, but are fleshed out with home lives so seem more realistic. I also love it having a main character who's disabled as so often disabled people seem to be ignored. The investigation went in all directions, with each murder/attack and there were some unusual methods involved. I found this to be a one sitting read for me.

This book is the third in a series about Detective Alana Mack. I haven’t read the first two, and it is clear I have missed some history and background, though it does still stand alone without any problem. Detective Mack is a paraplegic, but doesn’t let that hold her back in solving the murders she encounters.
We start with a crab pot containing the bones of an unknown person, and from there the murders start to pile up. It’s clear there is a connection but the perpetrator is far from obvious for quite some time. This book has all the elements of a good police procedural, and includes plenty of auxiliary plot segments to keep interest in all the characters. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good police procedural novel. I intend to read the first two to catch up on the background elements.

I've had the pleasure of reviewing all three of Jenny O'Brien's Alana Mack books and have to say each one is better than the last. She has excelled herself with this the third book in the series. It has a complex narrative the strings of which she manages admirably and brings to a satisfactory conclusion. The characterisations of Alana and the team are building nicely and the addition of Eve to stir them up a bit was genius. A thoroughly enjoyable 5* read. Looking forward to the next one.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own

Superb! Alana and her team are neck deep in one of the most twisted, convuluted and intriguing murder mysteries I've ever read. It all starts with a fisherman finding human bones in one of his lobster pots and quickly escalates into an entire family being taken out one by one, and several attacks on Alana herself. I had to laugh at the picture of Alana's horror at being relegated to a hot pink electric wheelchair instead if her usual sleek chair! Fantastic writing, lots of twists and turns as the team tries to unravel all the strands of the case and a very unusual method of committing murder. Looking forward to the next case!
Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing and Jenny O'Brien for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ireland, lobstering, procedural, local-law-enforcement, forensic-anthropology, forensic-pathology, forensics, paraplegia, unputdownable, disability, family-drama, family-dynamics, relationships, working-partners, divorced, beatings, anger-issues, premeditation, murders, investigations, cooperation, pet-dog, unpleasant-co-worker, unpleasant-suspect, determination*****

This book is part of a series of addictive and gripping crime thrillers.
Irish Garda (police) Detective Alana Mack is truly exceptional. The accident left her legs paralyzed, and the miscarriage left her with a depression that she still battles. The divorce was her choice to regain what independence she could master. And this assignment really threatens that. The murders are challenging enough, but the robbery outside her home that left her wearing a cast for a fractured wrist and the introduction of a new contentious team member nearly put her to the edge. But the rest of the team are totally on her side and they do anything and everything to support her.
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Storm Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you!
Pub Date Aug 15, 2024 #DetectiveAlanaMackBk3

Detective Alana Mack and her team are back. The third book in the series, and the books go from strength to strength.

This time the team is investigating the remains of a body found in a submerged lobster pot, and the connection between that murder and a missing ex NYPD officer, recently retired back to Ireland. With many trails and leads, the team have their work cut out as does the reader following all the twists, turns and relationships. The author doesn’t make it easy, but it’s well worth it!

A fast paced, exciting read with great characters, and Eve, a new detective to add into the mix, along with Wally super dog! Plus with each book a little more character background is revealed.

My favourite of the series so far.

Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing.