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Joe Donovan #2
Bone Machine
"Waites stands out in the field of young British noir writers . . . with his bruised characters, raw-edged dialogue, and extraordinary night vision."-Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review The body is discovered in an abandoned burial ground: a young woman, blond, ritualistically mutilated, apparently. Her eyes and mouth have been crudely sewn shut.
The police come up with a suspect quick enough: the victim's boyfriend, Michael Nell, who has a notoriously uncontrollable temper as well as an incriminating record of violence against women. His lawyer, however, is not convinced that Nell is a killer.
All Joe Donovan has to do is prove the truth of Michael Nell's alibi. The job proves not to be routine, as Donovan's inquiries lead him and his crack team of operatives deep into Newcastle's murky underworld of child-trafficking and prostitution. When the second body shows up, the former investigative journalist knows he's up against more than local gangsters.
Still bearing the scars of his own crushing history since the disappearance of his six-year-old son three years before, Donovan now finds himself enmeshed in the dark biography of an elusive, deranged serial killer whom he can profile but cannot identify. The killer meanwhile obliges the authorities with maddeningly cryptic clues to his twisted, deadly intents, but all the while time for the next young, unsuspecting victim is fast running out.
The police come up with a suspect quick enough: the victim's boyfriend, Michael Nell, who has a notoriously uncontrollable temper as well as an incriminating record of violence against women. His lawyer, however, is not convinced that Nell is a killer.
All Joe Donovan has to do is prove the truth of Michael Nell's alibi. The job proves not to be routine, as Donovan's inquiries lead him and his crack team of operatives deep into Newcastle's murky underworld of child-trafficking and prostitution. When the second body shows up, the former investigative journalist knows he's up against more than local gangsters.
Still bearing the scars of his own crushing history since the disappearance of his six-year-old son three years before, Donovan now finds himself enmeshed in the dark biography of an elusive, deranged serial killer whom he can profile but cannot identify. The killer meanwhile obliges the authorities with maddeningly cryptic clues to his twisted, deadly intents, but all the while time for the next young, unsuspecting victim is fast running out.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
6 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Martyn Waites
44Ìýbooks108ÌýfollowersMartyn Waites (b. 1963) is an English actor and author of hard-boiled fiction. Raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, he spent his post-university years selling leather coats, working in pubs and doing stand-up comedy. After a stint in drama school, Waites pursued life on the stage, performing regionally in theaters across England. TV and commercial work followed, and he continued to act full-time until the early 1990s, when he began writing his first novel: a noir mystery set in the city of his birth. Mary’s Prayer was published in 1997, and Waites followed it with three more novels starring the same character, an investigative journalist named Stephen Larkin.
Since then he has divided his time between acting and writing. After concluding the Larkin series in 2003, he created another journalist, troubled reporter Joe Donovan, who made his first appearance in The Mercy Seat (2006). Waites� most recent novel is Speak No Evil (2009). Along with his wife and children, he lives and works in Hertfordshire, a county north of London.
Since then he has divided his time between acting and writing. After concluding the Larkin series in 2003, he created another journalist, troubled reporter Joe Donovan, who made his first appearance in The Mercy Seat (2006). Waites� most recent novel is Speak No Evil (2009). Along with his wife and children, he lives and works in Hertfordshire, a county north of London.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 30, 2025
First 300 pages 3.4; last 180 pages 3.8
August 1, 2012
While a book first published in 2007 does not seem like a common choice for a book review I challenge you to name one book by Martyn Waites. Stop Googling. If you named one you are likely from England, if not, you are like everyone else who is missing out.
Bone Machine is one-part To Catch a Serial Killer and one-part Public Service. The Historian captures his prey, young attractive women, who he ritualistically rapes and tortures, but not before he sews their eyes and mouth shut. His motives are left unknown for 450-pages, but once the dots are connected it is a rather dark dive into psychosis. His victims of course lead the police, who like most novels are portrayed as bumbling alcoholics and only have sights set on an arrest, not stopping a killer.
Newcastle private investigator Joe Donovan leads a gang of misfits on a case that leads them straight into the heart of the murder investigation. Donovan is the central character to Waites P.I. series, similar to America's Alex Cross series in many ways.
While I compare him to Patterson because of the overall type of crime portrayed in his story, Waites is clearly unique as a noir writer and seen as anything but a rip off.
While the book takes you on a colorful descriptive journey throughout Newcastle, England I only have one reservation with the book. The story fo the Historian is the main background of the book, but much of Joe Donovan's crew is searching for and defending a woman sold into the international sex trade who can ID a wanted war criminal. Waites ultimately connects the two cases, only very loosely through a minor character that really could have been anyone. It almost comes together as a curious coincidence of chance rather than a major connection of crime.
What it really amounts to is two very good short stories tied into the same book with the investigative team handling them at the same time. Instead of two independent short stories, Waites unfortunately makes this a book with 100-pages of intense introduction of both crimes and 100-pages of non-stop conclusion with 300-pages in the middle trying to piece together two different story arcs that grow slow and stagnant at times. Had it been a collection of two separate 250-page stories they would have been a much faster read and more enjoyable saga.
As much as the genetic fussing of two stories may have seemed negative it really had little effect on my enjoyment of the story, more so how much the book gripped me. Waites offers fans of James Patterson a deeper and more descriptive read, if you have read Patterson you know exactly what I mean. But you will find in Waites work the same dark and brutal crimes that Patterson frequently explored in his earlier Cross novels.
There are several other books in the Joe Donovan Thriller line and I have already checked two out of the local library. I highly recommend checking out his work, but I will drop one follow-up caveat. Be ready to open your mind to a different culture, as much as England is our neighbor they still have a different culture at times. Be ready to learn some new phrases, accept alternate spellings and be willing to research a bit of government process to fully understand the book, or you can just read over the confusing terminology and accept it for what it is, different. But if cops without guns, misspelled pyjamas and futbol are going to make you gripe then stay in your own secluted world that crime can not happen outside of America in a novel.
Bone Machine is one-part To Catch a Serial Killer and one-part Public Service. The Historian captures his prey, young attractive women, who he ritualistically rapes and tortures, but not before he sews their eyes and mouth shut. His motives are left unknown for 450-pages, but once the dots are connected it is a rather dark dive into psychosis. His victims of course lead the police, who like most novels are portrayed as bumbling alcoholics and only have sights set on an arrest, not stopping a killer.
Newcastle private investigator Joe Donovan leads a gang of misfits on a case that leads them straight into the heart of the murder investigation. Donovan is the central character to Waites P.I. series, similar to America's Alex Cross series in many ways.
While I compare him to Patterson because of the overall type of crime portrayed in his story, Waites is clearly unique as a noir writer and seen as anything but a rip off.
While the book takes you on a colorful descriptive journey throughout Newcastle, England I only have one reservation with the book. The story fo the Historian is the main background of the book, but much of Joe Donovan's crew is searching for and defending a woman sold into the international sex trade who can ID a wanted war criminal. Waites ultimately connects the two cases, only very loosely through a minor character that really could have been anyone. It almost comes together as a curious coincidence of chance rather than a major connection of crime.
What it really amounts to is two very good short stories tied into the same book with the investigative team handling them at the same time. Instead of two independent short stories, Waites unfortunately makes this a book with 100-pages of intense introduction of both crimes and 100-pages of non-stop conclusion with 300-pages in the middle trying to piece together two different story arcs that grow slow and stagnant at times. Had it been a collection of two separate 250-page stories they would have been a much faster read and more enjoyable saga.
As much as the genetic fussing of two stories may have seemed negative it really had little effect on my enjoyment of the story, more so how much the book gripped me. Waites offers fans of James Patterson a deeper and more descriptive read, if you have read Patterson you know exactly what I mean. But you will find in Waites work the same dark and brutal crimes that Patterson frequently explored in his earlier Cross novels.
There are several other books in the Joe Donovan Thriller line and I have already checked two out of the local library. I highly recommend checking out his work, but I will drop one follow-up caveat. Be ready to open your mind to a different culture, as much as England is our neighbor they still have a different culture at times. Be ready to learn some new phrases, accept alternate spellings and be willing to research a bit of government process to fully understand the book, or you can just read over the confusing terminology and accept it for what it is, different. But if cops without guns, misspelled pyjamas and futbol are going to make you gripe then stay in your own secluted world that crime can not happen outside of America in a novel.
May 24, 2010
PROTAGONIST: Joe Donovan, information broker
SETTING: Newcastle, UK
SERIES: #2 of 2
RATING: 4.0
I have to admit to a bias against books featuring serial killers. For some reason that I can't fathom, these kinds of books have become enormously popular in the last few years. As a result, they tend to be formulaic. The only way to stand out is to raise the level of deviancy of the killer. Thus, when I saw that Bone Machine had a serial killer who enjoyed doing things like sewing together his victims' eyes and mouths, I was prepared for an unsatisfactory reading experience. Thanks to the accomplished writing of Martyn Waites, I ended up finding Bone Machine to be a riveting read.
Former investigative journalist Joe Donovan has formed a company called Albion which is a team of "information brokers". They do investigative work, generally for solicitors. They are similar to private investigators but don't use that label. The team consists of Peta, who was a policewoman; Amar, a talented technical guru who is susceptible to drugs and other addictions; and Jamal, a young teen who Joe has pulled in off the streets and who adds his own street skills to the mix.
A young woman has been found brutally murdered. The immediate suspect is her boyfriend, Michael Nell, who has a reputation for violence against women. His lawyer hires Albion to find support for Nell's alibi. They find that Nell is indeed an unsavory character; he is into sado-masochistic sex and often uses prostitutes to satisfy his urges. Nell is the kind of guy that you HOPE will be guilty, he's so unlikable. But when a second body appears, and he has no connection to the victim, it appears increasingly likely that there's an entirely different perpetrator at work.
Parts of Bone Machine are gritty and quite graphic. Between the serial killer who mutilates his victims in horrible ways and Michael Nell and his sexually deviant acts, the book can be tough going. What kept me reading was Waites' skill at building flawed characters who you have to care about. Joe himself is a bit of a mess; three years earlier his 6-year-old son was abducted, and he continues to hope against hope that he is not dead. The various members of Albion all have their own issues to deal with. Some of the secondary characters were a bit too stock, especially the Serbian bad guys; however, the fact that the core Albion team was so well developed more than made up for that.
Waites keeps the pace moving, and after a point, I found I couldn't put the book down, in spite of some sections which made me feel a bit squeamish and the fact that I glommed on to who the killer was the moment he was introduced. The back cover of the book calls Bone Machine "neo noir". I'm not exactly sure what that term means, but I do know that, despite my initial reservations, this book really worked for me. It may have been unpleasant, but it was certainly compelling.
SETTING: Newcastle, UK
SERIES: #2 of 2
RATING: 4.0
I have to admit to a bias against books featuring serial killers. For some reason that I can't fathom, these kinds of books have become enormously popular in the last few years. As a result, they tend to be formulaic. The only way to stand out is to raise the level of deviancy of the killer. Thus, when I saw that Bone Machine had a serial killer who enjoyed doing things like sewing together his victims' eyes and mouths, I was prepared for an unsatisfactory reading experience. Thanks to the accomplished writing of Martyn Waites, I ended up finding Bone Machine to be a riveting read.
Former investigative journalist Joe Donovan has formed a company called Albion which is a team of "information brokers". They do investigative work, generally for solicitors. They are similar to private investigators but don't use that label. The team consists of Peta, who was a policewoman; Amar, a talented technical guru who is susceptible to drugs and other addictions; and Jamal, a young teen who Joe has pulled in off the streets and who adds his own street skills to the mix.
A young woman has been found brutally murdered. The immediate suspect is her boyfriend, Michael Nell, who has a reputation for violence against women. His lawyer hires Albion to find support for Nell's alibi. They find that Nell is indeed an unsavory character; he is into sado-masochistic sex and often uses prostitutes to satisfy his urges. Nell is the kind of guy that you HOPE will be guilty, he's so unlikable. But when a second body appears, and he has no connection to the victim, it appears increasingly likely that there's an entirely different perpetrator at work.
Parts of Bone Machine are gritty and quite graphic. Between the serial killer who mutilates his victims in horrible ways and Michael Nell and his sexually deviant acts, the book can be tough going. What kept me reading was Waites' skill at building flawed characters who you have to care about. Joe himself is a bit of a mess; three years earlier his 6-year-old son was abducted, and he continues to hope against hope that he is not dead. The various members of Albion all have their own issues to deal with. Some of the secondary characters were a bit too stock, especially the Serbian bad guys; however, the fact that the core Albion team was so well developed more than made up for that.
Waites keeps the pace moving, and after a point, I found I couldn't put the book down, in spite of some sections which made me feel a bit squeamish and the fact that I glommed on to who the killer was the moment he was introduced. The back cover of the book calls Bone Machine "neo noir". I'm not exactly sure what that term means, but I do know that, despite my initial reservations, this book really worked for me. It may have been unpleasant, but it was certainly compelling.
November 3, 2012
I loved Martyn Waits use of Newcastle space and solid socio-political theme in earlier novels like MARY'S PRAYER and CANDLELAND - the former of which owed something to Ted Lewis and GET CARTER. But he's grown to maturity as a writer with the Joe Donovan series, setting standards that we crime writers need to live up to. This book is simply great. Waits fulfils what I (in my movie script writing classes) call "fiction of the sociological imagination" in that he places a protagonists journey of moral self discovery (in the Aristotelian sense) at the intersection of history and the social structure.
February 21, 2013
This gritty Northern thriller hits all the right notes: jaded, tortured hero, the "love" interest and a homicidal maniac. This book kept me guessing - I loved it. Joe Donovan is a brilliant creation and the girl trafficking subplot was an excellent addition to the serial killer story.
June 12, 2016
This book took me over a year to read. It has several stories going on together and they don't connect they just run parallel to each other. Pick one and write about so you reader can get into the story and it doesn't take a year to finally force yourself to read the book
November 16, 2009
This man writes books that grip you and make you unable to put them down. Non stop action, but intelligent.
July 29, 2011
The book is a bit too neatly wrapped with interconnections, but I definitely enjoyed it, it was well-written, and for the genre, a good book
January 18, 2012
Scary stuff!!
January 17, 2013
Not my normal type of book. Only read because its set in newcastle, but really enjoyed it.
April 9, 2022
"We're born, we live, we die, we go under the earth. And sometimes we're remembered, but most often those graves become forgotten or lost or hidden. And the living don't care, they just keep going, walking over the dead, not knowing who or what is underneath them. All those lives, all those deaths...just...food for the bone machine. To keep it going. Why? It doesn't make sense, does it? No, we must be something more. We have to be. And I have to know. [...]
I need to know. And you're going to tell me. You're going to show me the truth."
~~A photograph of the docks in Newcastle, England. Two storylines dance around each other in Waites novel. One contains the quote above--police are searching for whomever is responsible for the abduction, mutilation, and murder of a young woman. Their search touches on another storyline--the importation and then sexual exploitation of Eastern European young women. They enter England packed in shipping containers, and are unloaded at the Newcastle shipping yards.
First two sentences: She could no longer tell whether her eyes were open or closed. All was darkness.
My two cents: I tagged this novel as horror for a reason. Reading it before bed may lead to nightmares or difficulty falling asleep. Unfortunately, there is a dark underbelly to our world, and Waites peers down into it with his narrative. Even at over 450 pages, I was invested enough in the story arc to quickly flip the pages, and not be tempted to skip ahead. Waites writes prose with authority, and realistically depicts his characters. There's a fairly large tease at the end to entice readers to pick up the next book in the series, but the story for this book was wrapped up nicely. I had a few ideas as to who the villain was, but didn't put all the pieces together until the reveal. Overall given 3 stars or a rating of "good." Recommended as a library checkout if you like thrilling mysteries that border on noir.
Other favorite quotes: But her eyes. They kept the nightmares in their fragile cages, locked but not securely; the key too close at hand, the bars too easy to snap.
~~They ate at the hotel restaurant. The food was passable, the drinks studiedly non-alcoholic, the conversation light and diversionary. Like two ice skaters dancing on an unsafe, cracked lake, willfully ignoring the huge elephant sat in the middle.
~~Emotions churned painfully inside him, like a washing machine full of bricks on a fast spin.
~~Turnball grinned what he assumed was a supremely confident grin, completely unaware of the baked bean husks and lumps of un-masticated sausage that lay nestling in the front of his teeth.
I need to know. And you're going to tell me. You're going to show me the truth."
~~A photograph of the docks in Newcastle, England. Two storylines dance around each other in Waites novel. One contains the quote above--police are searching for whomever is responsible for the abduction, mutilation, and murder of a young woman. Their search touches on another storyline--the importation and then sexual exploitation of Eastern European young women. They enter England packed in shipping containers, and are unloaded at the Newcastle shipping yards.
First two sentences: She could no longer tell whether her eyes were open or closed. All was darkness.
My two cents: I tagged this novel as horror for a reason. Reading it before bed may lead to nightmares or difficulty falling asleep. Unfortunately, there is a dark underbelly to our world, and Waites peers down into it with his narrative. Even at over 450 pages, I was invested enough in the story arc to quickly flip the pages, and not be tempted to skip ahead. Waites writes prose with authority, and realistically depicts his characters. There's a fairly large tease at the end to entice readers to pick up the next book in the series, but the story for this book was wrapped up nicely. I had a few ideas as to who the villain was, but didn't put all the pieces together until the reveal. Overall given 3 stars or a rating of "good." Recommended as a library checkout if you like thrilling mysteries that border on noir.
Other favorite quotes: But her eyes. They kept the nightmares in their fragile cages, locked but not securely; the key too close at hand, the bars too easy to snap.
~~They ate at the hotel restaurant. The food was passable, the drinks studiedly non-alcoholic, the conversation light and diversionary. Like two ice skaters dancing on an unsafe, cracked lake, willfully ignoring the huge elephant sat in the middle.
~~Emotions churned painfully inside him, like a washing machine full of bricks on a fast spin.
~~Turnball grinned what he assumed was a supremely confident grin, completely unaware of the baked bean husks and lumps of un-masticated sausage that lay nestling in the front of his teeth.
July 16, 2023
Not my favorite genre.
June 22, 2012
The plot, although off to a slow start, picked up quickly and was unputdownable (if there isn't such a word already, there should be). I wasn't impressed by the writing which was at times awkward. Similar to Dan Brown, who had brilliant stories to tell but I do wish he'd have taken more time to weave his words together. Still, an excellent read.
December 6, 2012
Thank you to the author and Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ for the free copy of this book.
Want to read
April 18, 2010look at slave trade and interesting so far in dark sense
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