Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

• ISBN-10: 0345544048 - Hardcover $28.00
• Publisher: Bantam (July 21, 2015), 320 pages.
• Review copy courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley.

The blurb:
In the latest blockbuster novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan investigates what looks to be a typical missing person case, only to find herself digging up bones possibly left by a serial killer, a cult, or perhaps something not entirely of this world.

Review:
I'd been a big fan of the TV show Bones but hadn't read the books on which the show is based.  It was a surprise to find that Temperance Brennan of the TV show lives a very different life from that of the novels. The Temperance Brennan of Speaking in Bones didn't grow up in the foster care system, instead she is very rooted in her family.  We meet her beautiful, smart and difficult mother, her outspoken sister, and her daughter who is serving in the military overseas.  It's clear that Brennan pushes herself constantly to care for her family and further the investigations that arise from the discovery of missing bones.  

She's still the brilliant forensic anthropologist, well respected, well connected. She's not in DC with a lively and quirky supporting cast. Instead, she's working with local law enforcement with far less resources and trying to navigate reluctant witnesses to follow missing persons cases.  

Speaking in Bones is a forensic mystery novel with a well beloved heroine who is trying to make sense of the deaths that suddenly surround her and the people that she cares about.  It's a fun read, rich with forensic and medical details and unexpected twists. While this heroine is different from the Temperance Brennan of Bones on Fox TV, she's equally endearing.

About the Author:
Kathy Reichs is the author of seventeen New York Times bestselling novels featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Like her protagonist, Reichs is a forensic anthropologist—one of fewer than one hundred ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. A professor in the department of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she is the former vice president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and serves on the National Police Services Advisory Council in Canada. Reichs’s own life, as much as her novels, is the basis for the TV show Bones, one of the longest-running series in the history of the Fox network.