"There is a small village in France that is well known for pate de foie gras . . .and bones. Boasting the largest concentration of prehistoric fossils in Europe, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac is the home of the prestigious Institut de Prehistoire -- where eminent scientists study and squabble ...and perhaps, on occasion, commit murder."Professor Gideon Oliver knows bones. That's why the mild-mannered sometime-investigator is the forensic specialist the Chief Inspector in Les Eyzies calls when a local dog emerges from a nearby cave carrying parts of a human skeleton -- and a not-all-that-long-ago-interred one at that. But murder piles on murder -- and surprise upon electrifying surprise -- following Gideon's arrival, as his search for answers leads him quickly, into the darkest corners of the scientific community ... and sets him on a shocking trail of death, greed, and deception nearly forty thousand years in the making.