Winter has come to North Carolina and, with it, a drop in crime. For a while, temporarily idle forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan is content to dote on her daughter Katy, finally returned to civilian life from the army. But when mother and daughter meet at Tempe’s place one night for dinner, they find a box on the back porch. Inside: a very fresh human eyeball.
GPS coordinates etched into the eyeball lead to a Benedictine Monastery where an equally macabre discovery awaits. Soon after, Tempe examines a mummified corpse in a state park, and her anxiety deepens.
There seems to be no pattern to these random killings, except that each mimics in some way a killing that a younger Tempe witnessed, analysed, or barely escaped.
Who or what is targeting her, and why?
Helping Tempe discover the answers is Detective Erskine 'Skinny' Slidell, retired but still volunteering with the CMPD cold case unit - and still displaying his gallows humour. But as the two infiltrate a bizarre survivalist’s lair, even Skinny’s mood darkens.
And then Tempe’s daughter Katy disappears.
Electrifying, heart-stopping and compulsive, this is Tempe’s most personal and dangerous case yet . . .
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COLD, COLD BONES is the 21st novel in Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan series, and the first I have read. I am usually loathe to jump into the middle of a series, particularly one so long-running, but I didn’t feel lost and the novel can absolutely be read as a standalone. Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who helps police investigations by studying the bones of the deceased. She has a grown daughter, Katy, who has just returned from her second tour of duty in the United States Army and Tempe is helping Katy set up her own place. I felt that I got to know the characters very quickly, the slight tension between the mother and her adult daughter. Tempe narrates the story and Kathy Reichs writes her in a very conversational, familiar way; she addresses the reader directly, as a confidant; ‘You get the picture…’
When Tempe finds a human eyeball in a package left on her doorstep, a startling enough discovery, she finds map coordinates etched in miniature on the surface, coordinates which lead her and, retired, cold case detective, Skinny Slidell to the location of a head which went missing from a dodgy crematorium a few years earlier. Then a mummified corpse is found hanging from a tree, in circumstances which echo a previous investigation in which Tempe was involved. Tempe begins to suspect that someone is intentionally mimicking her previous cases to target her.
Not having read any of Kathy Reichs’ previous work, I am unsure whether the echoed murders are those that constant readers are familiar with, but, again, my enjoyment was unimpaired as Tempe recalls each, initially with some confusion and then growing anxiety when it becomes clearer that the killer is targeting not only Tempe but also those close to her.
COLD, COLD BONES is an exciting and thrilling mystery. I enjoyed the characters, particularly the relationship between Tempe and Skinny. The crimes reminded me of the likes of the movie Seven. There is some body horror, macabre humour, particularly from Skinny, and just enough red herrings and assorted creepy suspects to keep the reader guessing. The novel works because of the skill in which Kathy Reichs writes Temperance Brennan. This may well be a series I have to go to the beginning of…
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Kathy Reichs’s first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. Kathy was also a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama Bones, which is based on her work and her novels. Kathy uses her own dramatic experiences as a forensic anthropologist to bring her mesmerizing thrillers to life. One of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Kathy divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Québec.
Thanks to @RandomTTours, @simonschusterUK, @Tr4cyF3nt0n, and @KathyReichs
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