Bare Bones

Bare Bones (2003) Kathy Reichs

The story starts with Tempe identifying bones found in a wood stove as those of a newborn, and taking upon herself the unfortunate task of going to identify the grandfather of the probable identity of child.

Although Tempe is hoping to leave for her long delayed vacation with Andrew Ryan (finally she’s stopped vacillating about Ryan!) but the discovery of another set of bones sets those plans awry.

As usual, the mystery was complex and interesting, and Tempe works with the police to find the killer. The weakest part of the stories for me is the amount of danger that Tempe keeps getting herself into. Kathy Reichs does a good job of supplying the reasons for Tempe to end up in danger, but it does lead you to think that at the very least, Tempe is one of the most unlucky women on the planet.

I particularly liked the twists of identifying one of the corpses as Melungeon. I actually know about the Melungeons, but was interested in the details Kathy Reichs discussed. And to be honest, that one of my favorite parts of this series, the science she discusses and explains over the course of every book. My guess is that Kathy Reichs was a very good teacher, as she manages to make her explanations clear and concise and correct.

There was a big negative about this book, and that was the last chapter, which felt like a tacked on rant. I really could have done without that. I thought the subject was covered very well in the story, and didn’t need the added lecture at the end.

If you have not read a Tempe Brennan book before you should be able to start here without any difficulty.
Rating: 7/10

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