The Bone Thief by Vanessa Lillie
Midway through The Bone Thief, Vanessa Lillie’s new thriller starring Cherokee B.I.A. archaeologist Syd Walker, this interaction between Syd and Shawna, a Narragansett woman who interned with the B.I.A, hit me in the heart.
“No, not artifacts, not objects … This basket is a story about how we’re connected to the land, to our own family, to our tribe. How we belong … Our belongings.”
My gaze slides over to her.”‘Call artifacts belongings?”
She places it back on the table. “That’s what they are.”
A Mystery Rooted in History
But at the Founders Society, an organization for the descendents of the colonizers of the area housed in a country club on unceded Narragansett land in Rhode Island, belongings are artifacts, and the remains of ancestors are props for fundraising events. Syd Walker begins the book by responding to a mysterious phone message left for her former B.I.A. boss, Bud, by an employee of the Founders Society. At that location, she discovers that Bud had been leading archaeological digs at Camp Quahog, the Society’s day camp for kids. And the latest find is the ancient grave of a Native American woman, who the Founders Society calls the “Indian Queen.”
Soon after, Syd joins the hunt for a missing Narragansett woman, Naomi Nootau, who disappeared from the Founders restaurant one night. Her white boyfriend, the son of Founders Society members, is the main suspect, but his parents are shielding him from the investigation.
Meanwhile, at home, Syd’s wife is pregnant, and Luna and Gracie, a formerly missing indigenous woman and her daughter, are living with them while Luna deals with the post-traumatic stress disorder from being kidnapped in Blood Sisters, the first novel in the series.
The mystery unfolds as we wonder: Who are the people who run this Founders Society? Where is Naomi? Why did she disappear? Was Syd’s boss in on all of it, or was he just trying to reduce the damage being done by amateurs on an archaeological site at this private estate? How are the site and uncovered artifacts connected to Naomi’s disappearance?
Thriller with a Purpose
As she searches for the missing woman and investigates the Founders Society, Syd begins to have visions of Naomi as a figure in the distance, her distinct figure in a white dress that screams a silent warning, a glance of a white hem disappearing down a trail. These mystical clues combine with events to lead Syd to the truth.
The Bone Thief is Vanessa Lillie’s second novel to feature Syd Walker. The first novel in this series, Blood Sisters, is a USA Today Bestseller, Target and GMA book club pick, and has been selected as best mystery of the year by the Washington Post, Amazon Editors and Reader’s Digest.
Similar to her archaeologist character, Lillie is also a proud Two-Spirit citizen of the Cherokee Nation who lives in Rhode Island. Lillie’s work entertains while lifting the visibility of the nationwide crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, children and two-spirit people.
To give an idea of the scope of this issue, the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center reports that more than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence, and over 56% of this population has experienced sexual violence.
But The Bone Thief doesn’t hit the reader over the head with these sorts of statistics. Instead, Lillie deftly creates an entertaining thriller that will appeal to fans of Nevada Barr and Tony Hillerman while enlightening her readers about the very real danger that indigenous people face every day.
About Vanessa Lillie:
Vanessa Lillie is the USA Today bestselling author of Blood Sisters, which was a Target Book Club pick and GMA Book Club Buzz Pick, as well as a best mystery of the year from the Washington Post and Reader’s Digest. The sequel, The Bone Thief, released October 28th. Her other bestselling thrillers are Little Voices, For the Best and she’s the creator and coauthor of the Young Rich Widows series set in Providence, RI where she lives. Originally from Miami, Oklahoma, she is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
Vanessa was a Sisters in Crime board member and wrote a weekly column for the Providence Journal about her experiences during the first year of the pandemic. She hosts a weekly Instagram Live show, ‘Twas the Night Before Book Launch, where she chats with authors the night before their book is out in the world.
