Review: "Beastly Bones" by William Ritter

William Ritter had me hooked on his characters when I read his debut novel Jackaby earlier this year. Jackaby is a brilliant detective and expert in the supernatural bearing a strong resemblance to Sherlock Holmes. Abigail is a young woman who ran away from home in search of adventure whose attention to the ordinary makes her an invaluable assistant to Jackaby. Jackaby and Abigail return in Ritter's second novel, Beastly Bones, and Abigail gets a little more adventure than she bargained for. Beastly Bones begins with Jackaby and Abigail responding to a case of a woman's cat that has turned into a fish. They are soon set on a new mission, however, when they begin to investigate a mysterious set of fossils found in the countryside. Like with Ritter's first novel I found the characters of Abigail and Jackaby to ultimately be more compelling than the actual mystery at the heart of the Beastly Bones. But, Ritter did begin to bring together several plot threads in an interesting manner by the end of the book which serve as a nice set up for the next entry in the series. Overall, an excellent second book. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reader copy.