Kathy Reich releases FIRE AND BONES, the 23rd book with the main character forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan. The series is also immortalized in the TV show BONES. This story has Tempe agreeing, as a favor to her daughter, to an interview with a journalist. The subject is the procedures for collecting remains from a residential fire currently burning in Washington, DC. As always happens, Dr. Brennan is guilted into traveling to the Capitol and participating in the recovery and autopsy of the victims. Along the way, she finds another mysterious corpse that could be from the 1940s in the lower levels of the same building. The book has all the interesting scientific details the series is known for, but it felt lacking in the character interaction and measured pace that I’ve enjoyed in many of her other books. Maybe because she didn’t have any of the usual secondary characters like her boyfriend, Andrew Ryan and co-workers interacting with her? It is still a solid plot line with plenty of action, twists, impulsive decisions, and a satisfying resolution.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a twisty, unputdownable thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who finds herself at the center of a Washington, DC, arson investigation that spawns deepening levels of mystery and, ultimately, violence.
Always apprehensive about working fire scenes, Tempe is called to Washington, DC, to analyze the victims of a deadly blaze and sees her misgivings justified. The devastated building is in Foggy Bottom, a neighborhood with a colorful past and present, and Tempe becomes suspicious about the property’s ownership when she delves into its history.
The pieces start falling into place strangely and quickly, and, sensing a good story, Tempe teams with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Soon the duo learns that back in the thirties and forties the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. Though interesting, this fact seems irrelevant—until the son of a Foggy Bottom gang member is shot dead at his home in an affluent part of the district. Coincidence? Targeted attacks? So many questions.
As Tempe and Ivy dig deeper, an arrest is finally made. Then another Foggy Bottom Gang-linked property burns to the ground, claiming one more victim. Slowly, Tempe’s instincts begin pointing to the obvious: somehow, her moves since coming to Washington have been anticipated, and every path forward seems to bring with it a lethal threat.