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Mystery of the Bones (Snow and Winter 4)
By C.S. Poe
Emporium Press, 2019, 2020
Five stars

Sebastian Snow really is an irritating character. Every time that idea crossed my mind as I read the 4th book in the Snow/Winter series, I also realized that this was exactly the author’s intention. It really has nothing to do with Sebastian’s oddball obsession with the old and the weird—because that defined my life and career as well. And it’s not due to Sebastian’s rare and extreme color-blindness, which creates a fascinating undercurrent. What C.S. Poe wants to remind us is that, in spite of a loving father, who cherishes and has always cared for his unusual son, Sebastian is filled with anger. A child who was ridiculed and bullied, Sebastian carries deep internal self-doubt; something that is being addressed, remarkably, by Calvin Winter. Calvin understands complicated, and Sebastian understands Calvin’s complications just as thoroughly.

This is the essential foundation of understanding the emotional dynamic of these books, and I am impressed by Poe’s consistency and attention to her characters. OF course, the particularly gruesome and hair-raising murder mystery of this book doesn’t hurt. There is a certain comic quality to the story arc, largely due to Sebastian’s flailing and snarkiness. It is augmented by the secondary characters—his assistant Max, his neighbor Beth, his father William, and Calvin’s partner Quinn. These are small but richly observed roles, each of them understanding Sebastian in a way that keeps him anchored.

I have to say, beginning a mystery book with the unexpected delivery of a head in a box is sort of out there. It sets a deeply morbid tone that doesn’t quite get noticed by everyone until later on, when things get really dark and frightening. You’d think it would raise a bigger flag than it does right off the bat. This is part of Poe’s deft handling of multiple plot threads. Sebastian’s life is weird enough that the head, in and of itself, doesn’t immediately suggest something enormously disturbing beyond the fact of the head itself. I love that. The darkness creeps in until it is claustrophobic.

Poe is a master of distraction, which keeps both the characters and the reader slightly off-balance through the entire story. None of these books are “cozy� at all, and that makes them special. The surprise is that they are very romantic, which is, in the end, what keeps us reading.