Gideon Oliver, the forensic an­thro­pol­o­gist saddled with the un­for­tu­nate nickname of the "Skeleton Detective" by the press, is on vacation in the Scilly Isles, with his wife Julie. She’s par­tic­i­pat­ing in a small biennial colloquium organized by an eccentric Russian mil­lion­aire.

Naturally, he happens upon a bone fragment, which leads him to a dis­mem­bered corpse, who turns out to be an attendee of the previous colloquium.

The main characters are likeable and, despite the somewhat gruesome de­scrip­tions of skeletons and post­mortems, it’s an enjoyable, well-plotted whodunnit.