Break No Bones

Dr Temperance Brennan is working with her students at an archaeological field school on an Island near Charleston , South Carolina. A decomposing corpse is discovered in a shallow grave, showing evidence (connected vertebra, etc.,) that the body has not been dead for long. While engaged in this mystery, Tempe's own life encounters real havoc when a bullet, possibly meant for her, hospitalises her estranged husband Peter; and her new relationship with Detective Andrew Ryan is in trouble. But, as so often before, cracking a mystery may cost her her life.

All of this is handled with the assurance that we have come to expect from Reichs, but there are new things here: Reichs' sense of structure has always been strongly linear, but the extra looseness of the narrative pays dividends in disorienting the reader. Set pieces, too, are more integrated, though with all the usual capacity to raise hairs on the back of the neck. When so many authors are repeating themselves to ever-diminishing effect, it's good to see Reichs is clearly not content to rest on her laurels.

--Barry Forshaw