Skeletons that appear old are found in the basement of a pizza parlour in a building that has a history which brings rivals Tempe Brennan and detective Luc Claudel to spar against each other again. This is classic forensic science/detective stuff with Tempe’s love interest, Andrew Ryan, being somewhat evasive too, all adding to a tremendous plot. She is really very good indeed.
Tempe Brennan has come to Montreal from Charlotte in early December to testify as an expert witness at a trail. As Forensic Anthropologist for the province of Quebec, that's part of her job. She should be going over her notes, but she's freezing her behind off instead, digging in the basement of a pizza parlour. Not fun. Not with all the rats. And the cold. And, now, the skeletonised remains of three people, three young women. When did they die? How did they get there? Homicide detective Luc Claudel, never Tempe's greatest fan, believes the bones are historic. Not his case, not his concern. The pizza parlour owner, the Prince of Pizza as Claudel calls him, found some nineteenth-century buttons with the skeletons, another indicator of the bones' probable age. But Tempe has her doubts. Something doesn't make sense. She'll look at the bones in her lab and do Carbon 14 testing to establish approximate age. And she can analyse the tooth enamel to tell approximately where the women were born. If she's right, Claudel has three recent murders on his hands. Definitely his case.
Detective Andrew Ryan, meanwhile, is acting mysteriously. What are those private phone calls he takes in the other room, and why does he suddenly disappear just when Tempe is beginning to trust him and to hope he might be past of her life? Looks like more nights at home for Tempe with a good book and Birdie the cat. As Tempe searches for answers in both her personal and professional lives, she finds herself drawn deeper into a web of evil from which there may be no escape. Women have disappeared never to return-Tempe may be next.
Kathy Reichs is forensic anthropologist at the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Quebec. She is one of seventy-five anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. Dr Reichs serves as Vice President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and is a member of the National Police Advisory Council (RCMP/GRC) in Canada. A professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she is a native of Chicago, where she received her Ph.D. at Northwestern. She now divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal and is a frequent expert witness at criminal trials.
When speaking of writers that have most influenced me, it’s safe to begin at the beginning. My mother Kathy Reichs has written eleven London Times best selling books and fostered the television drama Bones. I am incredibly proud of her talents, and her pride in mine has sweetened my success. My defection from Lawyer Camp (my father and brother are lawyers) to Writer Camp was heralded with joyous open arms by my mother, and the best part is enjoying it together. We don’t agree on everything, and we write about vastly different subject materials. But some day I may just cave in to her pestering that I “put a dead body” in one of my books so we can write something together! If you haven’t already, try her latest book, Devil Bones.
Maxim Jakubowski's view on TEMPERANCE BRENNAN...
Created by Kathy Reichs, Tempe Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who shares her time between North Carolina and Montreal, and has now appeared in almost ten novels where her medical examinations of bones and other sinister discoveries always send her on a trail of murder, peril and grief. Her latest outing is in 206 BONES.
See below where Kathy Reichs, bestselling author and forensic anthropologist, discusses how forensics have influenced her career. This was filmed at London's Barts Pathology Museum.
