Product Description

Temperance Brennan, like her creator Kathy Reichs, is a brilliant, sexy forensic anthropologist called on to solve the toughest cases. But for Tempe, the discovery of a young girl's skeleton in Acadia, Canada, is more than just another assignment. Évangéline, Tempe's childhood best friend, was also from Acadia. Named for the character in the Longfellow poem, Évangéline was the most exotic person in Tempe's eight-year-old world. When Évangéline disappeared, Tempe was warned not to search for her, that the girl was "dangerous."

Thirty years later, flooded with memories, Tempe cannot help wondering if this skeleton could be the friend she lost so many years ago. And what is the meaning of the strange skeletal lesions found on the bones of the young girl?

Meanwhile, Tempe's beau, Ryan, investigates a series of cold cases. Three girls dead. Four missing. Could the New Brunswick skeleton be part of the pattern? As Tempe draws on the latest advances in forensic anthropology to penetrate the past, Ryan hunts down a serial predator.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60400 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416525653
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
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. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
With crisp prose, well-drawn characters, unflagging attention to detail, and a resonant emotional angle, Reichs' tenth Temperance Brennan mystery (after Break No Bones, 2006) featuring the forensic anthropologist finds the forensic anthropologist in top form. This time it's personal, when the skeleton of a young girl evokes memories of a deep, decades-old friendship with10-year-old Evangeline Landry, who sustained 8-year-old Tempe at a time of great personal loss only to disappear several years later. As Tempe works to identify the skeletal remains and cause of death, Detective Andrew Ryan seeks her help with several cases involving missing girls and unidentified bodies, raising the possibility of a serial killer. With her workload overwhelming, Tempe's life starts falling apart: her visiting sister's impulsiveness puts both of them at risk; her long-estranged husband, Pete, announces unsettling plans; and Ryan—the man in her life—makes a difficult personal decision. Reichs deftly provides enough background to make this a successful stand-alone, at the same time advancing relationships between characters for her increasing legion of fans, who won't want to miss this one. Leber, Michele

About the Author
Kathy Reichs, like her fictional creation, Temperance Brennan, is forensic anthropologist for the province of Quebec. She is Vice President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, serves on the Canadian National Police Services Advisory Council, and is one of only fifty-six forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. A professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dr. Reichs now divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal. Déjà Dead, her debut novel, brought her fame when it became a New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. In 2007 Break No Bones was short-listed for the Ellis Award for Best Novel. Kathy Reichs is the inspiration for the television drama Bones; her latest novel featuring Temperance Brennan is Bones to Ashes. Her website is www.kathyreichs.com.

Customer Reviews

Tempe in the footsteps of Longfellow...
Tempe Brennan's back in her tenth mystery. For those not in the know, Dr. Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who divides her time between Québec and North Carolina. No stranger to personal trouble, she's an ex-alcoholic and single mother assigned to gruesome, personally dangerous cold cases. This time, Tempe's on the trail of her vanished childhood friend Évangéline Landry, a young Acadian who summered at Pawleys Island back when Tempe was a child. Tempe and Évangéline would spend the summers creating poetry and staging dramas as Évangéline shared her love of Longfellow's epic namesake poem (his Évangéline included a romanticized account of the Acadian deportation and its aftermath). One day, Évangéline Landry vanished without a trace, and for thirty years Tempe has longed to know what happened to her.

One of Tempe's coworkers in Québec wants her to look at a skeleton uncovered in New Brunswick, and Tempe starts to put together pieces that point to Évangéline. She is consumed with uncovering the truth behind her friend's disappearance at her own personal risk. As with previous novels, Reichs does her homework well. Acadia was an area of Eastern Canada originally settled by the French, who were later forcefully evicted by the British. Many exiled Acadians fled to Louisiana, where the name "Acadian" shortened to "Cajun." Next to Québec, New Brunswick has the largest percentage of Francophones in Canada (35% of the province is French-speaking).

Tempe's quest takes her to the small town of Tracadie-Sheila, New Brunswick. I admit, I was curious in Reichs' choice of town, because one of my favorite Francophone pop artists, Jean-François Breau, (Expose) is from Tracadie-Sheila, as is Star Académie winner Wilfred Bouthillier. One reason I love Reichs' books is because I lived in Québec and majored in Québec Studies, and she effortlessly manages to work in in-the-know elements of modern Quebecois culture. No mention of Breau or Wilfred, but Garou's Seul makes an appearance (in the first Temperance Brennan novel Déjà Dead, it was Roch Voisine's Helene).

Tempe's on-again, off-again romance with Detective Ryan is definitely off-again here. Ryan has his hands full with cold cases and personal problems, and although the two consult each other, there's precious little romantic involvement this time around. However, the vibrant cast of supporting characters fills the void.

As usual, there are dark subject matters here that may offend some, including post mortems and torture, exploitation and rape of minors, so consider yourself warned. The dialogue is witty and balanced, the pacing generally impeccable, although the ending seemed a tad rushed. Unlike some of the past few Tempe novels, I felt that this was an excellent effort that was truer in spirit to some of the first few Reichs novels. It generally doesn't stray from the realm of believability, and Reichs' expertise as a forensic anthropologist and her experiences living in Québec lend Tempe an unshakable credibility.

Well written Tempe Brennan mystery
The latest Tempe Brennan mystery is well written and moderately exciting. The last Tempe mystery, Break No Bones, was set in USA, so in this one, we are back in Canada. Before going there, we head down memory lane, because the story begins with Tempe looking back at her childhood summers, where she met the two year older French girl Evangeline. For the next years, each summer Tempe and Evangeline spent their summers together, until the summer where Evangeline and her sister Obeline disappears without a trace. Tempe and her sister Harry tries finding out what happened, but no one are willing to talk, and soon their Nacy Drew-investigations stop, and they forget all about it.

That is, Tempe hasn't forgotten. From time to time she remembers and speculates. Memories float to the surface again when an old skeleton lands on her desk. She is asked to find out about it from cold case investigator Hippo, and pretty soon she suspects that the skeleton could be the skeleton of her long lost friend Evangeline. The skeleton comes from the same area as Evangeline, and Tempe gets more and more convinced, that it is the skeleton of her friend.

But Tempe, Hippo and on again/off again boyfriend Ryan has other, more pressing matters at hand, even though some of these cases are cold cases. In between speculating about Evangeline,the skeleton, the cold cases and her relationship with Ryan, Tempe's sister, the flamboyant Harry, announces her arrival. She is soon entangled in the mystery of the old skeleton, and soon some of the cold cases can be linked with Evangeline's disapperance.

Bones to Ashes is good, easy reading and a must for Tempe Brennan-fans, but this one was not as exciting as the last one. Still lightyears better than Cross Bones, which has to be Kathy Reich's worst Tempe Brennan book to date.

A technical crime novel
This is the 10th novel in a series, but the first one that I have read. Consequently, I was not biased by other novels in the series and judged the novel on its own merits. It reads well as a stand alone novel. Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist employed by the police in Montreal Canada. As a child, she spent her summers at the seashore in North Carolina. A childhood friend was a slightly older girl from Canada who spent summers with an aunt and uncle. One summer the friend was suddenly rushed away without saying goodbye. The aunt and uncle implied something bad, but would not provide details. All contact was cut off.

Now Temperance is investigating human remains in Montreal, and her investigations turn up the skeleton of an unidentifed teenaged girl from the area where her friend had lived. Could it be the remains of her childhood friend?

The investigations reveal both family secrets and a very bad criminal activity. There are suspects, but some very surprising revelations. There are some young women injured by their families either deliberately or through negligence, and predators prowling in the dark. There is some discussion of social phobias, distrust of authorities, etc., especially in insulated communities that have suffered wrongs in the past.

Some readers have noted that scenes in the novel can be a little gruesome. It does give somewhat detailed descriptions of autopsies in the morgue. The author is a forensic anthropologist, as is the main character in the novel.