Bog Queen by Anna North

genre: historical fiction/contemporary fiction

A patch of mossy bog.  A forensic anthropologist.  A Celtic Druid living on the cusp of a new historical age.  As we switch between storylines in this sparse and interesting story, we don't just have to imagine the life of a bog body, we get to experience it as threads between time uncover mysteries that have sat untouched for centuries.

This scratched a particular itch for me, as someone who is strangely fascinated by bog bodies and other crazy old human remains.  Our anthropologist is far more comfortable with the dead than with the living but as she finds herself a part of a conflict over land-use and the preservation of an ancient living organism, the issues become far less clear cut than her mind would like.   I liked the directions this book took me and the things I got to think about while read.  Just a good story that ties us both to our past and to the ground we stand on.