Dying on the Vine (A Gideon Oliver Mystery)

This is my sixth book in this series and they never disappoint. Great story and characters plus entertaining dialogue. Lots of Tuscany info and descriptions too. Plot kept me guessing right till the end. I'm looking for the next book now

A welcome return to Gideon Oliver, the Skeleton Detective, after a too long absence. Gideon, visiting old friends in Italy with his FBI friend John Lau, and their wives, finds the family's Patriarch and his wife have died under mysterious conditions. Always curious, Gideon asks to see the bones, and finds discrepancies between the official version of what happened and what the bones say. The book continues through the ins and outs of family rivalries, inheritance issues, official inqueries, and the ever Lecturing Professor attitudes of Gideon to the amusement and enlightenment of all concerned. A fun read, an informative one as all Elkins books are, and a twist at the end no one sees coming. Well worth the read for anyone who loves Arron Elkins work, Physical Anthropology, Forensic Anthropology, Italy, Italian food, wine and customs. Do read it.

This a good book and it is full of a light humor which is comforting and rather rare in an aging author. God knows we need that! I just read the last Connelly and I swear I could hear the joints of the author crack! Not here, Elkins is still young at heart, thanks for that! The story is set in Italy, mainly in a winery near Florence. Contrary to the feeling of other reviewers, I feel the region is very well described. The attitudes, the traditions, the good and less good restaurants, the modernization of wineries and the shift in concepts of wine producers, the museums well known and forgotten, it is all there and probably took a lot of work. As in each of the Gideon series, the hero is confronted to the bones of people who could have committed suicide or who could have been murdered. The scientific reasoning is interesting to follow, and you can enjoy Italy from your armchair. I specially enjoyed remembering my own excursions in local museums and the comments about Italian cooking. Outstanding as it is, the American visitors start to long for their own country's cooking. It is so true that after a while we all want to return to our home habits! The mystery is set in 2011. It feels however like the 1980s to me (that is when the big wineries worldwide started to change; also the emigration from Sardinia after a vendetta is more 1940-60s than the 70s in the book). It is as if Elkins had updated some of his souvenirs and transported others through time. It is all right, though, it makes the book rich. Elkins has not allowed his hero to go into DNA stories (good, we have enough already), but he does not use mass spectrometry either, which I regret.

This book is probably a bit better than a three-star-outing for Gideon Oliver, but I have just finished rereading Elkins' three Chris Norgren books, and so Gideon Oliver, as much fun as he is to spend time with, just can't compete. Elkins is a good writer, and he tells an engaging story with charming backgrounds. I have read that he and his wife, Charlotte (sometimes his co-author), travel a lot, and it shows in the easy and appreciative way he weaves in a sense of a place and its people. Dying on the Vine has Gideon and his almost-too-perfect wife, Julie, along with their friends John and Marti Lau, visiting other friends at a winery in Italy. As always, the story has lots of odd little forensic details -- this time spun out at just a bit too much length -- that help Gideon, the Skeleton Detective, provide information to allow local police to solve a murder. The Italian setting is delicious, the Italian-American police officer Gideon works with is engaging, Julie just shows up to smile and eat, and John Lau decides to be a bit boorish abroad. If you're a Gideon Oliver fan, this is a pleasant read.

There is nothing more i can add Love the characters, the setting, and the great twists that only Aaron Elkins can do.

I've read and enjoyed all of the Gideon Oliver books. The latest follows the normal course of the series. Gideon and his wife, Julie, are enjoying a foreign trip. Gideon is presented with a set of skeletal remains which have been misinterpreted or overlooked by the local authorities. After he makes some astonishing scientific observations and deductions, he succeeds in deciphering the mystery. The guilty party is discovered and brought to justice. It's kind of a formula, but one that I, at least always find very enjoyable. Anyone who enjoyed the earlier books will enjoy this one, too. Since this is evidently the first Amazon review, I should say that I do not know the author and am not being compensated for writing a positive review. If I ever meet the author, I'll be happy to share a bottle of good Italian wine with him. And I hope he continues the other series he has started with his wife, about the art expert.

Dying on The Vine is a wonderful, intricate entry into the Gideon Oliver series. Set in Tuscany, and dealing with a family-owned winery, the mystery is involved, the characters well-drawn, and the food -- don't read if you're hungry. Aaron Elkins is as adept in culinary description as he is in the bone jargon. The Italian police helping out on the murders are of terrific help to Gideon and John Lau. And the the simmering relations between the winery group add a marvelous touch of intrigue. And Gideon is in his element as the Skeleton Detective. A must for lovers of the series, and for any newcomers.

Gideon and his wife, Julie, are vacationing with friends in Italy. While the women are attending a cooking school, Gideon is invited to give some lectures on forensics to an international group of law officers. When Gideon remarks that they should practice with real bones, an Italian officer, offers a body that's been released to a funeral home. This gesture, however, evolves strangely when Gideon discovers that the body reveals that the police investigation has the cause of death wrong: she was not shot and then pushed down a cliff; she was pushed first and then shot afterwards. But why shoot a dead person? A good question, and one that consumes the rest of Gideon's time. This is a wonderful read with a fascinating cast of characters! You'll be glad you read it.

Well up to Elkins' usual excellent standard.

久しぶりに大好きなギデオン・オリヴァー・ミステリーの新作を読めて満足しています。 内容も面白かった。 ただ、前半部が少し冗長に感じたので星4つです。 作者には元気でいてもらって、また次の作品を楽しみに待ちたいと思います。