Dad will come back,' said Charlie quietly.
When Mrs Bone turned to him, she didn't look sad at all, in fact she was smiling.
'You know, Charlie, I'm beginning to believe you,' she said. 'After what happened to Henry, I can believe almost anything.

Bad to the Bone.

I had written two or three books before my husband noticed that in every one of them a family member was missing. He suggested that it was because my father's death, when I was five, utterly changed my world. I can only suppose he is right and that this is the reason I am drawn to a narrative where someone's life is changed by loss.

I've got a bone to pick with you.

What is in the marrow is hard to take out of the bone

It got shortened to Bone eventually,