A Conspiracy of Bones

Starred review from December 23, 2019
Bestseller Reichs’s excellent 19th Temperance Brennan novel (after 2015’s Speaking in Bones) finds the forensic anthropologist at her breaking point after a series of traumatic events, including the murder of her boss, who was succeeded by a woman who regards Brennan as persona non grata; her mother’s cancer diagnosis; and the discovery that Brennan herself has a potentially fatal aneurysm. She begins to doubt her own senses when she thinks she spots a man in a trench coat lurking outside her Charlotte, N.C., home in the middle of the night, but fears that it might have just been a hallucination. She’s then rattled to receive grisly images on her phone of an eviscerated male corpse without a face. Hooked by the mystery of who sent the pictures and why, Brennan risks her professional standing by pursuing the matter, despite the opposition of Charlotte’s new medical examiner. The trail takes multiple unexpected turns as Brennan pursues leads connected to bioweapons, a ferry sinking, and the Dark Web, in this crackerjack puzzle. CSI junkies who haven’t read Reichs before will be hooked.

Accomplished stage and screen actor Linda Emond gives Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist turned sleuth, a smooth, cool voice radiating intelligence and competence. This is despite her being beset by migraines, insomnia, and possible hallucinations following surgery for an aneurism, all of which contribute to a fog of "what is real?" the theme of Reichs's story this time out. It's a tricky state for Tempe to be in just now, given that this plot presents as overstuffed with red herrings and loose ends even to those in perfect health. Still, Tempe's world has evolved a very entertaining cast of supporting characters. Her randy computer whiz mother is particularly amusing, and Emond is a dab hand at accents and character voices, and keeps the action boiling. B.G. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine