One of the problems with going into a book like Dance of the Bones without ever having read a book by the author in either series it is associated with is that you always feel late to the party. At least that is how I felt. I haven't read either series that the two detective characters are featured in, but I was hoping this would work as a stand alone. Unfortunately for me, it didn't hold up well. The author did put in a lot of background, but I kept feeling like I was playing catch up. Too much to enjoy the story. There were also too many characters to keep track of in the beginning. Again, that probably comes from the merging of two series into one book. 
 The premise of the story is that these two detectives end up helping each other solve a "cold case". The problem is that the reader already know what happened. You find out in the prologue. So, for me that kind of killed the thrilling part of it. I probably would have preferred solving the cold case with them. So, in the end it was just an OK read for me. 
 The one good thing that I can say about the book is that I liked both Beaumont and Walker. Enough to want to go back to the beginning and read both series from the start. Maybe once I do that, this book will be more exciting.