Baby Bones

In Baby Bones, Author Donan Berg&#39;s latest, newly elected Sheriff Jonas McHugh dashes up the embankment to avoid contaminating the skeleton with his vomit. On the day the Silver County, Iowa, Auditor certified his special election victory, Jonas would&#39;ve never envisioned, in all of his thirty-five years, the challenges&mdash;his K-9 partner eats poison; picket line violence strikes Jove Foods, a major employer; a Jove employee fishing discovers a skeleton with fetus remains; a booby-trap puts him on crutches; the coroner fears abortion vigilantism; and two women emerge as marital prospects for bachelor Jonas who lives with married sister.<br><br>The fledging sheriff can&#39;t afford to alienate a close-knit county electorate and must battle office personalities and four influential townspeople. Events intertwine to present obstacles to his solving a multiple crime spree. Any failure will expose him as ineffective, and doom re-election chances.<br><br>The twists and turns provide an exhilarating reader&#39;s page-turning ride, bumps included. More than a thriller, although it is that, Author Berg in his Third Skeleton Series Mystery adds compelling characters, any one of which could be your neighbor.<br><br>He&#39;s the author of previous five-star rated full-length murder mystery novels with romantic subplots, all of which involved different skeletons: A Body To Bones, The Bones Dance Foxtrot, and Abbey Burning Love.