Aaron J Elkins

Detective Gideon Oliver and his wife are on vacation in Mexico when a local police chief requests his assistance on a case. After Oliver realizes the coroner has misidentified two bodies, he concludes these two mistakes are no coincidence.

When anthropology professor Gideon Oliver is offered a teaching fellowship at US military bases in Germany, Sicily, Spain, and Holland, he wastes no time accepting. Stimulating courses to teach, a decent stipend, all expenses paid, plenty of interesting European travel . . . What’s not to like? It does not take him long to find out. On his first night, he is forced to fend off two desperate, black‑clad men who have invaded his Heidelberg hotel...

Gideon Oliver accompanies his spouse to a lodge in Glacier Bay, Alaska, where there is a group of scientists memorializing a thirty-year-old glacial avalanche that killed three colleagues. Soon the sole survivor of the avalanche is found hanged in his room and shocked hikers discover human bones at the foot of the glacier. How fortunate for all that Dr. Oliver, the famed Skeleton Detective, is on the scene!

"Aaron Elkins has been hailed as "a master" (The Dallas Morning News) for his Edgarʼ Award-winning Gideon Oliver mysteries. Now, in an original new novel, he illustrates how quickly everything can go wrong when you ask: What's the worst that can happen? For Bryan Bennett, designing hostage negotiation programs is the perfect job--as long as he keeps a safe, theoretical distance. What he can't do is deal directly with kidnappers or their victims,...

"Mayan ruins in the Yucatán, a secret room in a tomb, age-old skeletons. To anthropologist Gideon Oliver, the renowned Skeleton Detective, the invitation to join the archaeological excavation of Tlaloc promises two months of paradise on Earth. That is, until an ancient series of Mayan curses against desecrators of the site is unearthed. When the first one comes to pass ("The bloodsucking kinkajou will come freely among them"), it is taken by all...

There is not much left of the irascible Albert Evan Jasper dean of American forensic anthropologists after his demise in a fiery car crash But in accord with his wishes his remains a few charred bits of bone are installed in an Oregon museum to create a fascinating if macabre exhibit All agree that it is a fitting end for a great forensic scientist until what is left of him disappears in the midst of the biannual meeting a k a the bone bash and weenie...

When forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver is invited to join an Amazon riverboat expedition with a group of research botanists, he anticipates a relaxing getaway from his academic and forensic duties in an exotic locale. But relaxation is not on the itinerary. There's stifling heat and humidity, giant bird-eating spiders, snakes, fire ants, jungle shamans, hallucinogenic plants, and corrupt military officials--all of which are expected. What isn't...

"While on his honeymoon, Professor Oliver is involved in a murder investigation at a dig site endangering him and his new wife."--Provided by publisher.

It is a headline‑making story: the discovery of a previously unknown Rembrandt. René Vachey, the iconoclastic art dealer who claims to have uncovered it, wants to make a gift of it to the Seattle Art Museum, but curator Chris Norgren is wary. Vachey is notorious in art circles for perpetrating scandalous shams; not for profit but for the sheer fun of embarrassing the elite and snobbish “experts” of the art establishment. And thanks to the web...