Berkley
Published October 28, 2025
Reviewed by Barbara Fister
Syd Walker, a Cherokee anthropologist employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has returned to her residence in Rhode Island after the traumatizing events she experienced back home in Oklahoma (recounted in Blood Sisters, 2023). She discovers a message on a work phone left behind by her retired boss that leads her to sneak over a wall to visit a possible grave site at an exclusive club where, apparently, native remains have been uncovered. The anthropologist who plans to excavate them may have been trained at Harvard, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing and doesn’t take seriously the ethical duties owed to the deceased woman’s people, the Narragansetts who still live in Rhode Island. Syd is appalled to learn that her boss was excavating native remains and artifacts at the club for decades without informing the tribe or the BIA. Before long, the bones that she has begun to help excavate disappear, as does a young woman from the tribe, a disappearance the authorities refuse to take seriously.
The Founders Society where the excavations have been secretly undertaken is an organization with a long history, dedicated to preserving the heritage of the first White colonists. They have an unnerving way of assuming the native peoples encountered by their ancestors vanished long ago, and the land the society members now occupy is a legacy to celebrate. Some of them want to build a museum that will include the excavated remains and artifacts and make the argument that it will be good to include Native history in their project. Syd is repulsed by their arrogance, but goes along to ensure that the remains are treated appropriately, pretending to be on board. “Stolen land. Stolen people,” she reflects. “Stolen remains. Unhealed, the echo never stops.”
Her former boss had spent summers training youth attending a Founders Society camp to help with the excavations. She takes on that job, helping the kids understand the significance of their work as she digs into the activities of the Society. Something is very wrong, and she is determined to uncover its secrets. “Below ground or above, I gather information, catalog and look for fact patterns, for correlations, for the stories in the bones.” Ultimately, her goal is to reunite the indigenous ancestors with their people today, even if the Society has other plans.
The Bone Thief is a complex, absorbing, and sometimes demanding book. As the second in the series, it weaves in events from the previous book that enrich Syd’s fictional world, but may be somewhat confusing to those new to it. That said, the author does an excellent job of inventing a sinister historical society to contrast with the protagonist’s native perspective. Lillie weaves into her story the past and present of the Indian nations native to New England, communities that predate colonization and are still fighting for recognition. Readers will find the multiple strands of the imaginative story are drawn together in a satisfying resolution with a heroine they will be glad to have gotten to know.