Product Description

Under the microscope, the outer bone surface is a moonscape of craters...'Preliminary diagnosis?' 'Deformity of the bone. Maybe. Cortical destruction on a metacarpal. Maybe. Localised infection? Systemic disease process? Postmortem destruction, either purposeful or natural? A combination of the above? I don't have a diagnosis...' The skeleton is that of a young girl, no more than fourteen years old - and forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is struggling to keep her emotions in check. Coroner Yves Bradette is being evasive, insisting the bones are ancient and of no interest. But it doesn't quite add up, and a frustrated Tempe is convinced that Bradette is hiding something...It's not Tempe's case; she's overwhelmed with more urgent work in the lab...But the nagging in her subconscious won't let up. A memory triggered, deep in her hindbrain - the disappearance of a childhood friend; no warning, no explanation...Working on instinct, Tempe takes matters into her own hands. But she couldn't have predicted where this case would lead, or the horrors it would eventually uncover...Can Tempe maintain a professional distance as the past catches up with her in this, her most deeply personal case yet?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114284 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk
Kathy Reichs is something special. Since achieving a secure position in the upper echelons of crime writers, she has refused to rest on her laurels and (with only the occasional misstep) has consolidated her success with a series of novels that subtly finesse the formula that has gleaned her so many readers.

Bones to Ashes is the latest title to add lustre to her reputation. Dr Temperance Brennan is examining the skeleton of a young girl, and finds herself losing the necessary distance she tries to maintain from all the cases she works on. Are the bones deformed or diseased? Or has some post-mortem damage been wrought upon them? Coroner Yves Bradette seems prepared file this information in the Dead Letters Department -- an ancient case, with no current relevance. But (as so often before) Tempe has other ideas, and something is stirring in her synapses -- a mystery involving the disappearance of a childhood friend. Matters are complicated when Detective Andrew Ryan (assigned to an allied case) asks Tempe to help with three missing persons – a trio of unidentified female corpses. Is there a serial killer at work?

There is often a defining moment when the work of a much-loved author imperceptibly becomes over-familiar, and readers have less enthusiasm for their work. Thankfully, on the evidence of Bones to Ashes, that day is quite some time in the future for Kathy Reichs, as all the elements that have made her books so involving are still being polished and refined here. Followers of Temperance Brennan need not hesitate to add this to their collection. --Barry Forshaw

From the Inside Flap
Under the microscope, the outer bone surface is a moonscape of craters…

‘Preliminary diagnosis?’
‘Deformity of the bone. Maybe. Cortical destruction on a metacarpal. Maybe. Localised infection? Systemic disease process? Postmortem destruction, either purposeful or natural? A combination of the above? I don’t have a diagnosis…’

The skeleton is that of a young girl, no more than fourteen years old – and forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is struggling to keep her emotions in check.

Coroner Jean Bradette is being evasive, insisting the bones are ancient and of no interest. But it doesn’t quite add up, and a frustrated Tempe is convinced that Bradette is hiding something…

It’s not Tempe’s case; she’s overwhelmed with more urgent work in the lab… But the nagging in her subconscious won’t let up. A memory triggered, deep in her hindbrain – the disappearance of a childhood friend; no warning, no explanation…

Detective Andrew Ryan is working a series of parallel cases, and requires Tempe’s forensic expertise. Three missing persons, three unidentified bodies – all female, all early- to mid-teens... Could there be a serial killer at work? Was Bradette’s skeleton another in this tragic line of young victims? Or is Tempe over-reacting, making connections where none exist? Can she and Ryan put their personal tensions aside, and stop the killer before another young girl falls prey?

Working on instinct, Tempe takes matters into her own hands. But she couldn’t have predicted where this case would lead, or the horrors it would eventually uncover…Can Tempe maintain a professional distance as the past catches up with her in this, her most deeply personal case yet?

From the Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

A great whodunnit... again!,
After the previous two books of the Temperance Brennan series ("Break No Bones" and "Cross Bones"), I was starting to despair that the series had gone into an irrevocable nosedive. But "Bones to Ashes" brings back a slightly tauter writing style and some serious whodunnit puzzles. There's also a lot of what I call "whatdunnit"; that is, sometimes the reader doesn't even know what has happened for sure, which only deepens the mystery.

My only beef with the current book is the character of Harry, Tempe's younger sister. She is one of the most irritating, annoying, and unbelievable characters to ever appear in mystery fiction, and her presence in the story is very distracting. Don't kill her off, please, Ms. Reichs -- that would give Tempe even more angst -- but please leave her at home. I would also recommend "The Fates" by Tino Georgiou. I just finished it and can't stop talking about it> Must read.

Slightly better anthropology triller!
I think I read Kathy Reichs books because I'm a science nerd who likes whodunits, but I'm getting increasingly irritated with her books I'm afraid.

I finished "Bones to Ashes" by Kathy Reichs today. It's about a bone expert (Temperance Brennan) who studies bones to see if she can work out how someone died. Reich's books alternate between Montreal and North Carolina (her character's an expert for both cities) and this book is set in Montreal.

This book focuses on two cases. One focuses on some possibly old bones with weird markings on them (Brennan almost convinces herself they might be the bones of a friend who disappeared when she was 14), the other focuses on dead bodies that turn up in a frozen lake. The bones by some miraculous coincidence turn out to be related to her former friend's brother-in-law.

It's the tenuous connections that allows Brennan to be inserted into cases she shouldn't really play and part in. It is these tenuous connections that have started to irritate me, however. How many times is she going to find a reason to back herself into a case? She's managed to do it in all of Reich's books so far, and I'm inclined to suspect that she's going to carry on doing it until her readers say 'enough.'

Th other thing that has started to irritate me is the fact that Reichs has a tendency to stop and have temporary reminders about the plot at regular intervals during the book. It's almost as if the expects the reader to walk away from the book for a while and come back, where they left off, some time later. The only good thing about this book is that this book does it slightly less than the other Reichs' books I've read.

If you can over look my grumbles, you might like this book. Sadly, however, I can't and so I've probably decided that I won't read any more of Reichs' books for a while.

Poetic Analysis and Forensic Anthropology Track Down the Fate of a Canadian Friend
Bones to Ashes reaches back to roots in Longfellow's poem, Evangeline, and Dr. Temperance Brennan's childhood to solve an old mystery, whatever happened to Tempe's missing Acadian friends, Evangeline and Obeline. To do so, literary analysis, forensic anthropology, breaking encryptions, and diatomic sampling will be required.

As the book opens, you are carried back to Tempe's youth and her friendship with Evangeline and Obeline. Quickly, the book returns to the present as Tempe returns to work in Montreal to find a backlog of bones to examine. At that, Hippolyte Gallant who works on cold cases persuades her to look at one more set: some bones sitting in a police station that don't interest the local coroner. That set fascinates Tempe because it seems to be from a girl about Evangeline's age when she disappeared. Could this be Evangeline? That concern leads Tempe to investigate with her sister Harry's help into what happened to Evangeline.

Meanwhile, Andrew Ryan, Tempe's estranged lover, is working on a floater who may be linked to three missing persons and two unidentified bodies. Could there be a serial killer involved? Bit by bit, Tempe and Ryan connect the dots in unexpected ways. Will they reconnect personally? Ryan is pretty busy taking care of his junkie daughter and is put off by having seen Tempe's husband put his arms around Tempe. But at least they still share a cockatiel, Charlie, who provides some of the humor in the story.

As usual, the science is wonderful and five star in this book. As occurred with Break No Bones, the story and the rest of the writing creak in several ways that are hard to discuss without giving away the plot. The main weaknesses show up in these areas:

1. The Tempe-Ryan relationship seemed artificial and didn't ring true to me.

2. Harry's behavior and language were way over the top for me. Once again, it didn't ring true in several places.

3. The solution to Evangeline's disappearance is tied in part to a way of thinking that seems more than a little unlikely. I didn't buy it.

4. Basic facts about the suspects are poorly investigated. It seemed uncharacteristically sloppy for these characters.

The ties to Acadia are poetic and appropriate. That part of the story worked well.

If you are a big fan of the series, you'll probably think this is not one of the strongest stories. But you'll be glad you read it. Learning more about Tempe's childhood makes the story memorable for fans of Dr. Reichs' writing.