Where There's a Will (Gideon Oliver Series #12) by Aaron Elkins

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Bones fascinate forensics professor Gideon Oliver. Even on vacation in Hawaii, he can't resist them. Gideon is dining with the wealthy, eccentric Torkelsson clan at the Hoalaha Cattle Ranch when the family receives some life-altering news. On a tragic night ten years before, Magnus Torkelsson vanished along with his small plane, while his brother Torkel was brutally murdered, his body burned beyond recognition. Now the wreckage of Magnus's plane has been found, along with human remains. Given his extensive experience in the area, Gideon is invited to accompany the crew to the site of the crash to try to fit the last piece into this grim family puzzle.

From the Publisher

Alex Torkelsson has just gotten word: after going missing ten years ago, Alex's late uncle Magnus's plane has been found south of Hawaii's Big Island. So too have Magnus's few skeletal remains, now handed over to the only man who can fit together the pieces of this mystery. But what forensic detective Gideon Oliver discovers could shake the Torkelsson family tree.

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Although the twisted story is locked up in family history, Elkins's wide-angle view of the spectacular adds a stunning perspective.

Publishers Weekly

In Edgar-winner Elkins's solid 12th whodunit to feature forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver (after 2004's acclaimed Good Blood), Oliver's Hawaiian vacation turns into a busman's holiday, as he and close friend John Lau, an FBI agent who's also enjoying some downtime, get involved in a decade-old mystery surrounding the deaths of two elderly Swedish brothers who owned a huge cattle ranch. One night in 1994, hit men acting for an unknown client murdered Torkel Torkelsson, then attempted to conceal the corpse with an act of arson; that same night, Magnus Torklesson and a pilot took off in a small plane, never to be heard from again. Now divers have discovered the wreckage of the long-lost plane in a lagoon, with some skeletal remains. Soon learning that none of the original police investigation's conclusions may be valid, Oliver and Lau find themselves intrigued and frustrated by the lies and evasions pitched rapidly at them by the Torkelssons' heirs, all of whom have different motives for obscuring the truth. Oliver's deductions will remind classic mystery readers of archetypal scientific sleuth Dr. Thorndyke, and his three-dimensional personality and humor will continue to attract first-timers. Agent, Lisa Vance at the Aaron Priest Agency. (Apr. 5) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Some ten-year-old remains turn forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver's Hawaiian trip into a busman's holiday. Magnus Torkelsson's surviving sister Dagmar and his four nieces and nephews all agree on what happened on the Hoalaha Cattle Ranch back in 1994. Hours after somebody-two somebodies, from the ballistic evidence-shot Magnus's brother Torkel to death and burned down the house around him, Magnus took off for parts unknown and was never seen again. Now a fortuitous invitation from Magnus's nephew Axel means that Gideon and his FBI buddy John Lau, Axel's old college friend, are on hand when Magnus's airplane turns up with his remains and those of Claudia Albert, a pilot with a past. Gideon (Good Blood, 2003, etc.) can't imagine a better way to repay the family for their hospitality than examining the bones that have spent a decade in a warm lagoon. But the conclusions that he draws from a single skeletal foot spell trouble for rancher Axel; his brother Felix, a Honolulu land-use lawyer; his sister Inge, who runs a dude ranch on her share of the Hoalaha estate, and his sister Hedwig, who's turned her spread into a holistic wellness center. Gideon is too content with the sun to spend much time with the suspects, and the plot is a little too determined to prove wrong absolutely everything you assume about Magnus's disappearance. But it all adds up to a diverting, mildly mystifying vacation.

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