| Plot Summary of Liquid Bones |
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"The people living on the outskirts of Bismarck, North Dakota rarely see a crime worse than petty theft. So when a couple of residents disappear, no one guesses that they were murdered. Five key characters piece together the story: Emilia is a recent college graduate, broke, and on her way to North Dakota to care for her last living relative. Luke is an art dealer whose real passion is snowboarding. Gavin is a basketball player-turned-coach with a guilty conscience, and Caleb, a theology student, is tormented by unpredictable and unwarranted visions. The final character, known as “The Emperor of Ice Cream,” is a former psychiatrist and hypnotherapist who turns into a seemingly deranged killer, creating an unusual pattern to determine his victims.
The novel opens with the Emperor's account of his first murder, the victim being an escaped prison convict. Believing that a prisoner would hardly be missed, the Emperor indulges a murderous fantasy, and then cannot stop there. He becomes a serial murderer. As a literature aficionado (hence the title he gives himself), the Emperor of Ice Cream uses a book of poems to determine his next victims. Page by page, he finds someone who fits the poem, and kills that person. He keeps the bodies in an abandoned house in the woods of North Dakota. There, he is discovered by Emilia, who became stranded when her car broke down. She does not fit the profile of the next intended victim, so he cannot kill her. Instead, he makes her forget what she saw in that house.
Luke, Caleb, and Gavin find Emilia unconscious in her car shortly thereafter, and they take her to Luke's house in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Just as the Emperor intended, she does not remember seeing dead bodies in the house in the woods, and she is afflicted by the gap in her memory. The five characters' lives become intertwined in a series of events that lead to the shocking identity of who the Emperor really is, and what becomes of the dead bodies otherwise known as the Emperor's victims.
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Cassie, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Liquid Bones |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 30%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 10%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 30%
Tone of story
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
How difficult to spot villain?
- Story partially from villain's perspective
Time/era of story:
- present (2000-2010)
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 70%
Murder of certain profession?
- doctors/patients
Kind of investigator
- amateur citizen investigator
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- feelings towards family/friends
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- unemployed
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
How much violence does he/she use?
- a little
Ethnicity/Race
- White/American
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- accused criminal
Eccentric:
Yes
- obsessed
- eccentric
- emotionally unstable
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a substantial amount
Motive of antagonist
- kicks
The antagonists are:
- evil doctors
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- West
Prairie?
Yes
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee
Style
Person
- rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths?
- 3-4
Unusual forms of death
- impaled
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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