Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

A Whisper of Bones
A Whisper of Bones
A Whisper of Bones
Ebook324 pages6 hours

A Whisper of Bones

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

Maude Travers gulped for air. Why had this man struck her? Why was she on this kitchen floor in this ramshackle tenement? Blinking hard she was instantly sitting back in the anthropology lab questioning her own sanity. Was that a vision? An hallucination? Could she really just have witnessed, or rather, felt the brutal beating of a woman who lived over 170 years ago, and if so, why? What was this woman trying to tell her? Compelled to understand this message, Maude juggles the running of her own business and her work in the lab. Her attempt to decipher the tale of an excavated skeleton from the former grounds of the Erie County Poorhouse consumes her. This quest is aided by the diary of the Keeper of the Buffalo Orphan Asylum, Ciara Sloane Nolan. A former poorhouse inmate herself, Ciara's duty is to defend and protect the homeless children of the city. Between the journal and the whispering of bones, the past and the present intertwine. Maude learns of widespread corruption at the almshouse, and a most horrifying secret is revealed.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 9, 2014
ISBN9781311705303
A Whisper of Bones
Author

Rosanne Higgins

Rosanne Higgins was born in Enfield Connecticut, however spent her youth in Buffalo, New York. Her experiences traveling in both the United States and in Europe as a child resulted in a love of history from an early age. She knew from the time she was in fourth grade that she wanted to be an Anthropologist and went on after earning her BA to graduate school at the University at Buffalo. Combining her two interests she studied the Asylum Movement in the nineteenth century and its impact on disease specific mortality. This research focused on the Erie, Niagara, and Monroe County Poorhouses in Western New York and earned her a Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1998 and several scholarly publications.After six years as an assistant professor, Rosanne focused on her family, husband Bob Higgins, and sons, Max and Charlie. She also opened a successful business, tapping into her love for animals with a doggy daycare. This led to charitable efforts in animal rescue. During this time, she also turned her attentions to a more personal fundraising effort following the tragic death of her older son, Max, from a rare pediatric cancer at age 11. This event inspired in her the ability to imagine the previously untold stories of personal and private sufferings.In the Spring of 2012, she was invited to join the Erie County Poorhouse Cemetery Project, undertaken by the Department of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo. While writing her dissertation in the mid 90's, Rosanne had gotten to know many of the inmates of the institutions mentioned above as she pieced together what little could be told of their lives while researching their deaths. For over 20 years, she had a desire to tell the other side of the story in a way that would be accessible to more than just the scholarly community. Rosanne's need to tell their tale has resulted in her first novel, Orphans and Inmates, which is the first in a series chronicling fictional accounts of Poorhouse residents inspired by the historical data.

Read more from Rosanne Higgins

Related to A Whisper of Bones

Related ebooks

Historical Fiction For You

View More

Related articles

Related categories

Reviews for A Whisper of Bones

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5

1 rating0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    A Whisper of Bones - Rosanne Higgins

    0cbook_preview_excerpt.html}DZ嫔#+\. xeҐ,¤?SSU٪OO眈̪r ,`˞ʯ8q""1n]>-]O]ꃿpno}lRC܅& |%/cNc:1/Swme860Sr6ys~jy)>O/n꺩>"0rzׇ b#vjZ!O4_ DBþ/4Wy.UmJY ; R!-9@1l~"}R2i8ΉOۈIAD2JG&ai!|6LPDax3EZSvz z1;F ݴkN0/'&iXжiNyMB].`E~6&Vy8FZ8587}%#fHbxÏ:r`".&6Z# Ӵ`=wuЏp03a|Nyg'rq5Zg͟>BF1$uZ}.iSh $%iEH >bw54i\L?Wq m\l|OdJLqsJ \&6XD(^ =ȿMcfZO}MSx>rtܽQ {0zni[u>tf{@i3z@O)Nmi(P%8Z~MւyjC׽ZGZ1 *u64B9RsAf@)'tpюFzG FGY`l4I4NtX>,x4Բ|bK+=:/8ɎDC -w뇁;bmZv`!Q2>j.t'37F2|24T}rg2I:[d"'N 0s":;|3@"΂;!våM\uSC&c .<Ї `6<1q\AE@7-G71kL7~ g.Ӗ`}aNjy yZ ޻{.m1MytQ5~>j̦۷ضmK#Sp}(C!  V"$f` $Ӡu4 I6{o;9y?+@|DLImRpf}?#=t'Y1HFW;$ғfn#TJ 8B4ݕʻO4ڼB% ̇r)cN NȤ?n # @yAh@3,BG".Mg8#*eh}s&tX=})QBM\`̆CV앜@m6ڱG#d7&4i%']Rͥޗ*=8Dd҆8J@8`bBmeBH B4]D9nc -WHs]7 )}_5bI\TMz({4|ShR-{T"bġ QhT='ЉXO0<iá .x~68WD^U4-+ ~C8 ,1@/{ИCzHX;pm_OQDOAh2y1]87ayPVbB-+_",a8K&]4#)=6Ѹ@y Ȅ !)‹f@q%V"LIد{sI'ed֎9@#] rO==^N|9cL3VvbPl|; ]?|,)VSvț $TakƌU3_P|2 U$"Tk94=nm^3f914ƓcV ,TQ?c8wh10?,DYjQf E3処C^m@9FȬ[^ZeV<smBk8fF3@tzjaY0~2,RҹGALIͼa6=GZYlRf$8#|9DM!;%C{P _> ㋛-)X;lexia> h`+gHJNF:MkڵxTL<iqe|-%9]7['zcl4MoO( dLc+b&? >aΡMqMA ҟW+8 K0FIws*NIn,5kAxzOk1^7!25T~φ#wFE]oO0Y<"$Z^.@m[^ܤ  \Lm$OxH"AϩuywGJ8膟*Z&6W'F+MEFiC[0>N=SeF>Ppy92~꠶&e7NǪ0d(uc+Zr %0G+6\,MRBL8'OVi9odxܔ7]KLva* dpK1̣䫞e_8pz=ٓ"@RgC:6}sZ(/Ft3\YD)ȯIVfc+rY)HŘZEgiR=ʱHE/-, N= |^Okl^~8}wpv m]ß #!k&/PzS%X})uP7\/$!"|ZbՊ RQ$V(fFZ s5'eKUnm4:Csoa,Hޖ>] }p pK KBѕT}[ +B0;\B7az彿`~ ηP|b.t6"ÂW@fou/F{&ZsQl{kGfDO}%,Vebj(x,4ҘJj S#MnTh)>bװQưʫJv|u2{3)YKxwr_ 2Γ jP8SbmmN-UG\RFwwSy+]Jʛ1wyWyea\J~l^Hy98ȫ+Iw@7,7᷊V9Dݶ>c)ѡ&cyہY6z^!TNXfn+\ɔjuC]XyhEAa!^- 0<0 t|#m vSK<s4=—+-eE;쭔4@-7soWAѳ-I%n_ #U%ce73>K&u[pAԮ1Os-iLvCl.b,TyŶS31@-.Aj]g_3OUGFL [c?U$"kcKT,[0? j)M)6 okAyMpz-K~'L=))A]HDzhzc6~Ե=qw鸬 .6f08yMV[?cMoeaq(^CI_Vᯞqj*e)ZVz_*_;s7 $;2[?0GB . ybZ4bp[΃h»izg)QƽI}@{^@Y&=8|ڬ$(XO1>Do(S?a+Ws}V-{msH<-KJO(xvZ#k9!ȮPq. [ .&:hLV0#}·fE4_1#286+1z VD}*=ElU9=ݖ\|E0z, ()Hm9;5oֲhu 5JZixF#z+໅CߧhOV5 A ehn5Vo|Xu+XNGbhr`&oY1tO+#.bɘm~^aZכsi*~@ӂ a2Zjw&?>d݂qmyqSWq#`3$ԒA;ػnrmZy7z#TaMR6UV.Jw ]XBxpE\g7ܮ=Rw&v)S*'*n+ytLu8:j2Nc=gc^{ pm7jM49I(uwUUӁY^ӊAr5-a_Γ3`ըⷫ, `]»cAdx(=TȨ|1"Vj6eS7e/>ˀݰ U&Rڳ2Hc 'o%zj V*Ӆ"`LlR,UJ\,)9wW+Cs .hf%Q^fJ%iRU}bnx@xU̮ eDh\4 lyQs<t[X䭀Uj >r+cg| ϕ{Qzi8ctfS@3m }`X5*X{Sŀ܊ >kkTnnܵIҎ2> E<)Fpo'^Z;ݴ>Zfgݙ#cv+C`M"Ɍy0f ˹ɏ R2Z}bi!fTe,GXY@J '6BR\mX5/iF+SlNc ;qyĨo+Z'#5XqjS/F~P\tn}[<+W5ˆ<70;|[ij(TGLsѮSQy%[HHǖ,s5LWVritM+^T`ep.5.اVA^ykaTIFl] Vmʔ37bS; S,\>,ukn;_}6>0Ews.5FhCpnVn2z'l1z򸖬ZW,]+/hWn?RZmHcqQ1ì23Jlt[[ܦ{YRyZj(?Q'/YX&͜sQI{k`?~7ؒ50Ti>KXTp=^"ѰV }Qғv9K x׶wU*h̐y)PKU7^6 FQL;ex^ê5fg5X[hY4+qF˕浚Z9N);kx˲/Am()nT"S"3ٱ~IflʑPJJn~JJx Ζ^SI!uvpqfj"Ɖ~?gl0 #D} }zۺś7|g4Huw?%kfMlkLg pKOsqfKjl~1D~b# aF rxʺ휟C挚E: &`/]~ᅄ&Q ip!hغ_+a|M48ɭa)4 "U{k<;j21T^^>C/8M4/8xݦ6Ah~T- aR(XH$ e4ϚGB=2j \~ip]_ 70X7 Qo| Gޖ"5_cόhkMاotme^Fx&kѪY)%c+WP}vrxXV>ܤIVeZ5i LAXD=9[oICPTwA7ߒcJ0> {Eэ0dqI(~ErhR8vJⰺzsSG_ֲ3Dev]@3OSmrYr c!:-b^ƳZ D&W2+d$ Ȫjs] ^O{䊲t3x/?W-v岶-r2cN`&v1_{xm_K福!1\l1aVb# +ɮ|snOD[/:Sݨ.4&*V7!-CdTD߿3s:˘,%Z M!̼(~]/%Ik笾BHS֔_D^tPST0jy\;:Z~8t CvsQB(2k'V qtڮ0VpN{񊜯%OkioȼRurC)Ua7"i#C2f{X+] 6[+l>g4|De
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1