I love a good who dunnit. Throw in some interesting characters and a bit of blood and guts and I’m there! It may seem a little warped but my ideal way of relaxing is with any novel that has a good juicy murder plot. If you agree and you haven’t sampled the Temperance Brennan stories, forensic anthropologist extraordinaire, you are missing out big time.

The newest mystery begins in Tempe’s home town of Charlotte, where she is asked to consult on two recent child murders which end up having a striking resemblance to a local cold case and as it turns out are related to a string of kidnapped and murdered girls in Canada years previous. Tempe was involved in the Canadian investigation and a suspect was identified but managed to elude capture. The suspect, a woman, appears to have resurfaced in the southern US and now it seems Tempe has the opportunity for a second chance to stop this psychopath. Perhaps all is not as it seems though.

With some colourful characters in the police department and Tempe’s old flame, detective Andrew Ryan back on the job there is never any doubt that good will triumph over evil, but not before the mystery deepens with a very scary twist, the captor becoming the victim. You will enjoy the addition of Tempe’s mother playing cyber detective, which provides some lighter moments to an otherwise very sombre plot.

The author, Kathy Reichs is herself a forensic anthropologist and uses her own life experience as a basis for her stories. Her character Temperance Brennan is also featured in the television series Bones, although her television alter ego bears little resemblance to the story book character, they do have one thing in common. They use the bones of the dead to bring justice for the living.

Would we recommend it?

Definitely, it will be hard to put down and leave you guessing and gasping to the end.

I give this one a star rating of 4 out of 5

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