Bone

Comments from George C. ChesbroAs with many of my novels, the notion for Bone was borne of a sense of outrage---this time over the sorry state of affairs in a country as wealthy as the United States where so many impoverished, mentally ill people are forced to live on the streets. I had my setting; being a mystery writer, I naturally had to have a mystery, as well as a corpse or two. I did more research on this novel, on amnesia as well as the milieu of the homeless in New York City, than for any other. The opening scene came to me almost at once, but the rest came very gradually; I was halfway through the first draft before I even discovered where Bone came from, and what he did. SynopsisBone is a member of New York City's legions of the homeless. The past year of his life has been spent wandering the streets of Manhattan, mute, without memory, a street person among thousands of others---but one with a particular gleam of purpose in his eyes. Bone seemed to stand out from the drifting crowd, and one reason was certainly the ancient and rock-hard human femur he had carried with him everywhere.But after a year, another trauma reactivates the first---restoring Bone's voice but again wiping clear his memory. Bone is now not only bereft of his true life, but has no idea of the purpose of his wanderings during the past year. His problems are multiplied by NYPD Lieutenant Perry Lightning, convinced that Bone is the man responsible for the hideous series of beheading murders among the city's homeless population, which began shortly after Bone was first seen on the New York Streets.With the help of Anne, a lovely and concerned social worker, and Zulu, a seven-foot-tall street performer, Bone gradually puts back the pieces of his lost world---and confronts his connection with the string of vicious killings.A kaleidoscope of fascinating characters---including street cops, street thugs, and street people---populate George C. Chesbro's masterful new thriller of alienation and horror.---From the dustjacket of the Mysterious Press edition.