Old Bones

The novel opens with a late-night murder on a Paris waterfront. A well-dressed man meets a cyclist who has robbed a grave in a Paris cemetery, retrieving human remains. After inspecting the stolen goods, the man stabs the cyclist, chains a scooter to his body, and slides the corpse into the Seine before disappearing by cab.

On the same day in California, historian Clive Benton breaks into a condemned mansion linked to the infamous Donner Party, a group of American emigrants trapped in the Sierra Nevada in 1846–1847 who resorted to cannibalism. In a hidden attic, Clive discovers a long-lost journal written by Tamzene Donner, wife of the party's leader, George Donner.

Weeks later, Clive approaches Nora Kelly, an archaeologist at the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute. The journal records directions to a mysterious "Lost Camp" where 11 people were stranded and conditions descended into extreme cannibalism and madness. Clive proposes that Nora lead an expedition to find the site using the journal's landmarks, including the rocky profile of an old woman on a cliff. When they pitch the idea to Dr. Jill Fugit, president of the Institute, Clive reveals a secret he withheld from Nora: One of the emigrants, Jacob Wolfinger, was carrying a chest of 1,000 gold coins minted in 1846. Two fellow travelers, Reinhardt and Spitzer, murdered Wolfinger and stole the chest but died at the Lost Camp, leaving a treasure now worth an estimated 20 million dollars to collectors. Nora is annoyed but Fugit approves the expedition.

Meanwhile, in Albuquerque, newly minted FBI Special Agent Corinne "Corrie" Swanson begins her probationary period under Supervisory Special Agent Hale Morwood. Her first active case arrives when a man is found shot execution-style at a Civil War cemetery on federal land. The upper half of the corpse in the coffin below, that of a woman named Florence Parkin Regis, has been sawed away and stolen. Swanson discovers that graves of two other Parkin relatives have recently been disturbed, and that a living descendant, young lawyer Rosalie Parkin, has vanished from her Scottsdale home, where a massive pool of blood was found. All share a common ancestor: Albert Parkin, who died at the Donner Party's Lost Camp.

In May, the expedition departs for the Sierra Nevada. Nora's team includes Clive and two research assistants. Near Truckee, California, they meet outfitter Ford Burleson and his crew, including Jack Peel, a devoutly religious wrangler, and Drew Wiggett, a young assistant wrangler. Cook Maggie Buck tells a ghost story about Samantha Carville, a child from the Lost Camp said to haunt the forest. After days of searching, Nora discovers a human molar in a test pit in Poker Canyon, where a recent rockfall suggests the old woman's profile crumbled from the cliff. The team moves camp and begins excavating.

Swanson visits the dig site but cannot identify Parkin's remains among the commingled bones. The excavation yields dramatic finds: skulls with anvil strike marks, damage from bone being broken against a hard surface, along with cooking marks and evidence of brain extraction. Clive discovers two skeletons with gold coins in their boots, only 10 total, which Nora identifies as likely belonging to Reinhardt and Spitzer. She argues the killers kept pocket money while hiding the bulk of the treasure elsewhere. Using advanced archaeological software, Nora identifies remains almost certainly belonging to Albert Parkin but withholds this from Swanson, reasoning that alerting the FBI without DNA confirmation could disrupt the dig.

Distressed by the excavation of human remains, Peel confronts the archaeologists, arguing the bones deserve Christian burial. After Clive dismisses him harshly, Peel vanishes overnight, taking bones including Parkin's skull and Samantha Carville's skeleton. When Burleson discovers the concealed gold secret, he forces Nora to reveal the treasure to the full team. Wiggett discovers Peel's body at the base of a cliff, surrounded by the stolen bones and a half-built stone cairn; Peel had been constructing a wilderness grave. Swanson investigates and suspects murder, noting head contusions that may predate the fall, but the coroner rules the death accidental. The team recovers the scattered bones but finds Parkin's skull missing.

Days later, Wiggett disappears from his tent and is found dead in a rock crevice with strangulation marks. Swanson orders the camp evacuated as a massive storm approaches, and the team descends to Truckee. During a final evidence sweep, Swanson discovers an old fire ring in a side canyon containing a Dunhill cigar butt. Nora realizes Clive smokes Dunhill cigars and once mentioned a split tree near the trail not visible from the main path, suggesting he visited the site before the expedition. When they check Clive's room at the inn, he has fled before dawn, stealing a horse and rifle. In his room, Nora finds a death almanac written by Asher Boardman, the preacher who escaped the Lost Camp, listing the dead with Latin notations.

Despite the storm, Swanson and Nora ride after Clive. From a ridge, they observe him concealing a cavity at the base of cliffs in the "red zone," a sector left unsearched because a snow cornice, an overhanging ledge of wind-packed snow, loomed above. After he rides away, they descend to investigate. As they begin removing rocks, evenly spaced gunshots ring out: Clive is deliberately shooting at the cornice. The avalanche buries both women. Nora digs free and believes Swanson is dead. Clive appears with the rifle and forces Nora toward the dig site at gunpoint, carrying a blue artifact box. Fugit rides up, revealing herself as Clive's partner. Clive reveals the gold was merely a distraction; the real prize is in the box. Fugit shoots Clive in the head to eliminate a witness, then aims at Nora.

A shot from behind strikes Fugit, knocking her aim wide. Swanson emerges from the debris with a broken arm, Glock drawn, having survived in an air pocket. Nora tends to Swanson, retrieves the wounded Fugit, and uses the satellite phone to call Morwood for a rescue helicopter.

While awaiting rescue, they open the blue box and find Parkin's skull, not gold. Examining Boardman's death almanac, they discover that everyone who consumed Parkin's flesh went insane within days. Nora recalls a case in New Guinea where ritual cannibalism spread a prion disease, a misfolded protein that attacks the brain, is invariably fatal, and cannot be destroyed by sterilization. She theorizes Parkin carried a rare, fast-acting form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a human prion disease. Swanson grasps the implication: Such a prion could be weaponized into a devastating biological agent, explaining why a shadowy organization has been systematically collecting Parkin family remains and kidnapping a living descendant.

In the aftermath, FBI Special Agent Pendergast, a mutual acquaintance from previous cases, arrives at the dig site. Fugit has cooperated with investigators, confirming a shadowy international organization sought to weaponize the prion. Pendergast deduces the gold's location using a key insight: Reinhardt and Spitzer would have moved the chest progressively higher in the cliffs as the snow deepened. Nora climbs to the spot he identifies, about 20 feet up, and finds the strongbox filled with gold coins. The three then bury Samantha Carville in the meadow, and Pendergast suggests the partnership between Swanson and Nora might prove fruitful in the future.