Review Detail

Mr Robert’s Bones is set in New Orleans in the days and weeks before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. It succeeds very well in conjuring up the setting and atmosphere of this fascinating city at that moment in time (I visited New Orleans myself just weeks before Katrina hit, and I loved the evocative descriptions of the city.)
It’s a tale of buried treasure, ghosts, villains and skulduggery. It’s also a story of racism and injustice, and how the past casts its shadow over the present.
The three central characters are children – two white sisters and one black boy – and for that reason, as well as the setting and the theme of racism, it very much reminded me of To Kill a Mocking Bird. Both books employ a similar whimsical approach to their storytelling.
The prose skims lightly across the story, brushing against it, and sometimes pulling away to view the characters from afar.
At first I wasn't sure what to make of this book, but after a few chapters I realised that it was a humorous and often charming story. For example, the main villain is a Mr Tyler Rex, or T. Rex to those who know him well. There are many poignant moments too, especially involving the interactions of the three children with each other and with their parents.
The book is a novella of around 150 pages, and it would perhaps have been nice if it could have been developed into a full length novel, or at least a longer work, perhaps by elaborating on the past events that are described in the book, and giving some of the characters a little more rounding out.
In the end I decided to rate the book at 4 stars, because although it’s a very enjoyable read, I found the prose sometimes a little too florid for my taste, and also there are occasional sudden changes of tense that I found disconcerting. Perhaps most readers wouldn't be bothered by this, and I would thoroughly recommend giving it a try.
I would definitely read more by this author.