Bones of the Barbary Coast

The lives of two women, past and present, intersect when a human skeleton-presumably a victim of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake-is unearthed in the foundation of a Victorian home. In present time, Cree Black's forensic and research abilities are challenged by the skeleton-which apparently walked on all fours. Going back in time, Lydia Schweitzer's 1906 diary exposes the degradation of the Barbary Coast, which serves as backdrop for the victim's life. Anna Fields's narration precisely delineates these two women. She slips into working-class Brooklynese when Cree is angry and effectively expresses Lydia's incredulity when she enters a brothel where patrons are entertained by deformed humans fighting feral dogs. When Fields narrates Black's own encounter with the dogs, her reading is haggard, gasping, and entirely believable. K.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

May 8, 2006
In Hecht's less than satisfying third novel to feature paranormal investigator Lucretia "Cree" Black (after 2004's Land of Echoes
), an old family friend, SFPD homicide detective Bert Marchetti, who's nearing retirement and wishes to leave the force with as few loose ends as possible, enlists Cree's help with an unusual skeletal find—an apparent victim of the 1906 earthquake whose strange physiognomy leads the forensic anthropologists on the case to dub him the Wolfman. The detective's motives become suspect when Cree realizes that his agenda may include settling scores with a deformed radiologist Marchetti believes is an unpunished murderer. The chance discovery of a 19th-century diary enables Cree to piece together some details about the Wolfman, but the two main plot lines never quite mesh, and her risky actions belie her reputation for being levelheaded.

May 1, 2007
Hecht sets and maintains a slow pace in his third Cree Black novel (after "Land of Echoes"), much to the story's detriment. Dusting off the literary chestnut of using flashbacks to tell a tale from two perspectives (present day/distant past), Hecht illuminates the tale of an eerily wolfman-like skeleton entombed after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. When an old family friend and cop (Bert "the machete" Marchetti) calls Cree for aid on a case, she brings her open-mindedness, Ph.D. in parapsychology, and sensibility as a researcher to the task. In the process, Cree stumbles upon the diary of Lydia Schweitzer, a Victorian-era tender heart. Lydia's up-close-and-personal episodes with the wolfman humanize the considerable forensic anthropology aspects of the book. Driving the action is damaged tough-guy Bert and his deadly feud with a creepy, scarred radiologist. Consider Nevada Barr's aptly titled "Flashback" for an effective example of flashback as literacy device. Read by Anna Fields, "Bones" is a marginal purchase; recommended only for libraries where the two prior titles did well.Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford

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