Aaron J Elkins

In Tuscany visiting friends with his wife, Gideon Oliver is asked to reexamine the bones of a couple whose deaths were ruled a murder-suicide. His findings do not agree with those of the Italian police.

Anthropology professor Gideon Oliver investigates the suspicious deaths of two colleagues who were attending a conference in Gibraltar about the discovery of the skeletons of a human woman with a part-Neanderthal child.

For Bryan Bennett, designing hostage negotiation programs is the perfect job--as long as he keeps a safe, theoretical distance. What he can't do is deal directly with kidnappers or their victims, as a result of his own abduction and imprisonment as a small boy. Thirty-some years later, intense nightmares still plague his sleep, and a fear of enclosed spaces prevents him from attempting to travel. So when Bryan's boss asks him to fly to Reykjavik,...