I never thought there would come a time when I might dislike a book written by my favorite author. Call me optimist, having read almost 20 of Bellairs’ books over the past two years, I was under the impression that all of the stories in the Littlejohn series are good, if not the best.
Then came Bones in the Wilderness! The story starts on an interesting note. Sam Cheever, a seedy furniture dealer went to France to buy antiques and never returned. The missus is not worried as she’s aware of his French mistress. But weeks later, skeletal remains of a man is found and on matching dental records, it is clear the remains belong to Sam Cheever.
Superintendent Littlejohn and his assistant Cromwell go to France in search of clues.
All Thomas Littlejohn and Robert Cromwell do is drink, drink and drink! And somewhere in their free time, there is some sleuthing. Bellairs is known for writing elaborate descriptions and usually I have no issues with it. But in the case of this book, the details of the scenery and everything except the case went waaayyyy over my head.
Inspector Audibert, whom we first met in Death in High Provence and Inspector Dorange, a regular appearance in the series, could not save the story.
Honestly, I gave up at 70% through the story. I didn’t want a boring story to put me into a reading slump. I gave enough tries to follow the story but uh-huh, nope. Didn’t work for me.
This is the first Bellairs book I did not enjoy (Death Stops the Frolic was a 100 times better than this one!) and hopefully the last!
The Book Decoder 
Aww–it’s really sad when a favourite disappoints. Hope the next one is back to standard.
Yep. Never thought I would find a dud read in this series.😑
Oh no a dud Bellairs! How are you coping?
Complete heart break. Picking up the pieces from the floor.😫😫
Sounds like you need some ice cream!