Bones to Ashes

Forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan's latest case brings her into contact with estranged beau Ryan. It seems she has old bones to analyze, and he has cold cases involving missing girls. Is one of her bodies Evangeline, an Acadian childhood friend who disappeared years ago? The French-Canadian setting with its bilingual characters provides narrator Linda Emond with challenges well met. She glides easily from impersonating Tempe's interfering Southern sister to a conversation with a mentally handicapped child to flirty Tempe-Ryan banter. At the same time, she keeps control of multiple plot lines involving, among other things, leprosy and child pornography. Best of all, she is able to alternate between Tempe's clinical and emotional sides. Other Tempe audios are available if you like this one. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

June 4, 2007
In bestseller Reichs's entertaining 10th Temperance Brennan forensic thriller (after Break No Bones
), Brennan, her relationship with Det. Andrew Ryan on the rocks, welcomes the distraction of an unidentified New Brunswick skeleton from Québec's cold case unit. But when the bones are determined to be that of an adolescent girl, Brennan is convinced they belong to her childhood friend, Évangéline Landry, who disappeared at age 15. Now Brennan must come to terms with Évangéline's possible death, while trying to ignore her feelings for Ryan as they investigate a series of teenage abduction murders that could be tied to the mysterious bones. With her usual blend of cutting-edge forensic science, nail-biting suspense and characters that pop off the page, Reichs, who's vice president of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists and the producer of Fox's Bones
, has produced another winner in one of the genre's most satisfying series.

Starred review from November 26, 2007
Linda Emons brings the same high level of expertise to Reichs's 10th Temperance Brennan forensic thriller as its author does to the series. Both women understand instinctively that simply rattling off details of DNA matches and other scientific data isn't enough: it's making listeners believe in the people collecting that data. The cold case of a missing Quebec girl becomes a very personal quest for Brennan when she discovers that the bones in question probably belong to a childhood friend—a figure of fascination and sophistication who suddenly disappeared from Brennan's life at the age of 15. Emons brings both Tempe and her friend Évangéline Landry to vivid life. She's equally good in briefer scenes with Brennan's lover, Ryan, who investigates the dead girl's link to a predator who might still be active. Reichs, who might be the legitimate heiress to Patricia Cornwell's throne, has a winning partnership with Emons. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (Reviews, June 4).