Where the Bones Lie

 

Where The Bones Lie is the most recent of several crime novels authored by Nick Kolakowski, but it’s the first one I’ve read and the first reviewed in this blog. This novel will be released early in 2025. It’s really a classic detective thriller that was a page-turner, for sure.

 

Dash Fuller was the protagonist, and he had a history of working in Hollywood’s underbelly, working for the studios and protecting stars when they got in trouble. Basically, he was a fixer. At the moment the story begins in Los Angeles, Dash is at loose ends, being tired of the dirty work that he was expected to do, work that he apparently excelled at. Mostly, he would babysit stars while they finished movie projects, making sure they did not get too much into alcohol and drugs so they could finish their projects. His efforts at being a stand-up comic were total failures because he just wasn’t funny. Then his mentor in the dirty business of Hollywood, Manny, asked him to find a couple stars who had gone missing, Karl Quaid and Amber Rodney. Fuller quickly found them in their drug infested hideaway and was there when the stars were gunned down. In his last brief effort on a comedy stage, the day before their murders, he had announced that he was looking for Karl and Amber and he offered to pay for information about their whereabouts.

 

It was in response to his request for information about the stars and their next day murder that led to Madeline Ironwood appearing at Fuller’s door. Madeline was a beautiful young redhead who dressed in a most bizarre manner. She had decided he must be a resourceful man to have found the now deceased stars and she wanted to hire him to find out about her estranged father whose body had been found in a dried up lakebed in San Douglas, California. He had been stuffed into a barrel which was only discovered when the lake dried up due to the changing climate. Ken Ironwood’s remain consisted only of his skeleton and an old wallet.

 

This was a story about Fuller’s work to solve the mystery of his client’s father, the relationship between himself and Madeline, and the surprise involvement of Manny in this case which Fuller had not seen coming. I’ll leave the rest of the details to you to read about.

 

Kolakowski has presented us with some great characters about whom I’d like to read more. The plot is well-developed and nicely revealed. Certainly, there were good and unexpected twists. I love this genre and I love Kokakowski’s latest contribution to it. The novel gets my very strong recommendation.