It’s sweltering in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Temperance Brennan, still recovering from neurosurgery following an aneurysm, is battling nightmares, migraines, and what she thinks might be hallucinations when she receives a series of mysterious text messages, each containing a new picture of a corpse that is missing its face and hands. Immediately, she’s anxious to know who the dead man is, and why the images were sent to her.
An identified corpse soon turns up, only partly answering her questions.
To win answers to the others, including the man’s identity, she must go rogue. With help from a number of law enforcement associates including her Montreal beau Andrew Ryan and the always-ready-with-a-smart-quip, ex-homicide investigator Skinny Slidell, and utilizing new cutting-edge forensic methods, Tempe draws closer to the astonishing truth.
Tempe Brennan is back with complete surety, like meeting up with an old friend after a couple of years I sank into this new story and was fully immersed throughout.
The forensic detail is ever fascinating and entirely accessible, the case is darkly addictive and Tempe herself is going through a sea change in both a physical and mental sense which adds huge emotional levels to the narrative.
Kathy Reichs is of course a brilliant plotter and a beautiful writer, twisting and turning events in unpredictable and intelligent ways. Keeping the reader turning the pages, the themes explored here are highly emotive and done in a hard hitting, utterly authentic yet always sensitive way.
I loved it. The afterword allows that there is a fair bit of author in character, given that the fact that A Conspiracy of Bones felt somehow more vivid than what has gone before is hardly surprising- for such a long running series the quality has never faltered and I for one hope to read many more Tempe Brennan novels in the years to come.
Recommended. If you’ve not tried these yet simply pick any one up. You’ll be hooked before you know it.
You can purchase A Conspiracy of Bones (Simon and Schuster) Here.
Happy Reading!
