Jupiter's Bones finds its place among the many popular fiction mystery novels currently stacked on the grocery-store checkout racks. While not a groundbreaking literary work by any means, the novel is entertaining, and does address the public's fascination with real-life cult tragedies. The novel also uses the same strong characters from Kellerman's previous stories, a popular mystery tradition going back to Agatha Christie (Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes and Watson).

Other contemporary authors of a similar ilk include Patricia Cornwall, Sue Grafton and Anne Perry, each of whom also has created memorable characters who reign in a series of novels. Patricia Cornwall writes about Kay Scarpetta, a woman who is the chief medical examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which, interestingly, is a role Cornwall almost played in real life.

Cornwall worked as a police officer, and also landed...