#BookReview A Conspiracy of Bones (Temperance Brennan 19) by Kathy Reichs

Publisher comments:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a new riveting novel featuring her vastly popular character forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who must use all her tradecraft to discover the identity of a faceless corpse, its connection to a decade-old missing child case, and why the dead man had her cell phone number.

It’s sweltering in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Temperance Brennan, still recovering from neurosurgery following an aneurysm, is battling nightmares, migraines, and what she thinks might be hallucinations when she receives a series of mysterious text messages, each containing a new picture of a corpse that is missing its face and hands. Immediately, she’s anxious to know who the dead man is, and why the images were sent to her.

An identified corpse soon turns up, only partly answering her questions.

To win answers to the others, including the man’s identity, she must go rogue, working mostly outside the system. That’s because Tempe’s new boss holds a fierce grudge against her and is determined to keep her out of the case. Tempe bulls forward anyway, even as she begins questioning her instincts. But the clues she discovers are disturbing and confusing. Was the faceless man a spy? A trafficker? A target for assassination by the government? And why was he carrying the name of a child missing for almost a decade?

With help from a number of law enforcement associates including her Montreal beau Andrew Ryan and the always-ready-with-a-smart-quip, ex-homicide investigator Skinny Slidell, and utilizing new cutting-edge forensic methods, Tempe draws closer to the astonishing truth.

But the more she uncovers, the darker and more twisted the picture becomes…

My thoughts:

Thank you to Simon and Schuster UK, Kathy Reichs and NetGalley for my digital review copy – my thoughts are my own. This book will be published in the UK on 17 March 2020.

I first started reading the Temperance Brennan books over 20 years ago. Every summer holiday I would buy a paperback copy, read it and pass it onto my husband to read. However I haven’t read the last few novels, so it was good to catch up with the characters.

The majority of the story is set in the USA rather than Montreal. Temperance’s daughter is mentioned but doesn’t feature in the story. Ryan has a small part to play compared to previous novels.

In this book, Temperance starts to investigate the death of a person found with no ID and a damaged body. She deals a tangled web of fake identities, conspiracy theories, child disappearances during her investigations.

I enjoyed the book. There are lots of twists and turns, red herrings and intrigue. As usual, Temperance is determined to solve the case without waiting around for help which often leads her into danger.

I also enjoyed reading the “From the Forensic Files of Dr Kathy Reichs” at the end of the book – which explained where the ideas for the book came from but also about her own health scares.



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