Bones to Ashes

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.

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