Break No Bones: (Temperance Brennan 9) - Softcover

Reichs, Kathy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099441519 ISBN 13: 9780099441519

Publisher: Arrow, 2007

Synopsis

Dr Temperance Brennan and her students are working on a site of prehistoric graves on an island near Charleston, South Carolina, when a decomposing body is uncovered in a shallow grave off a lonely beach.

The bone is fresh and the remains are still topped by wisps of hair – it’s a recent burial, and a case Tempe must take.

Tempe determines that the deceased is a middle-aged white male - but who was he? Why was he buried in a clandestine grave? And what does an unusual vertical fracture of one of the vertebrae signify?

While Tempe is trying to piece together the evidence, her personal life is thrown into turmoil. But before long, another body is discovered - and Tempe finds herself drawn deeper into a shocking investigation which will challenge her entire view of humanity.

About this title

Review:

It must be harder and harder for Kathy Reichs to keep each new novel as forceful and dramatic as the one before--not that delicate effects (which are not Reichs’ thing!) are particularly easy, but there is a danger in a certain fatigue setting in for the reader when an author puts them so comprehensively through the ringer with each novel as Reichs does. Break No Bones is proof positive that the author still knows how to cannily ring the changes on theme of her earlier work--this one is every bit as unsettling as Bare Bones or Grave Secrets, but the path Reichs takes to our pulse rate is somewhat different.

Dr Temperance Brennan is working with her students at an archaeological field school on an Island near Charleston , South Carolina. A decomposing corpse is discovered in a shallow grave, showing evidence (connected vertebra, etc.,) that the body has not been dead for long. While engaged in this mystery, Tempe’s own life encounters real havoc when a bullet, possibly meant for her, hospitalises her estranged husband Peter; and her new relationship with Detective Andrew Ryan is in trouble. But, as so often before, cracking a mystery may cost her her life.

All of this is handled with the assurance that we have come to expect from Reichs, but there are new things here: Reichs' sense of structure has always been strongly linear, but the extra looseness of the narrative pays dividends in disorienting the reader. Set pieces, too, are more integrated, though with all the usual capacity to raise hairs on the back of the neck. When so many authors are repeating themselves to ever-diminishing effect, it’s good to see Reichs is clearly not content to rest on her laurels.

--Barry Forshaw

Review:

"You'll want to keep turning the pages long after lights out to find out what happens next ... Reichs' real-life expertise gives her novels an authenticity that most other crime novelists would kill for " * Daily Express * "Reichs' seamless blending of fascinating science and dead-on psychological portrayals, not to mention a whirlwind of a plot, make Break No Bones a must read" * Jeffery Deaver * "With Kathy Reichs the reader knows they're in the hands of an expert" * Sunday Express * "Brennan is a winner, and so is Reichs" * Daily News * "A truly impressive writer" * We Love This Book *

About this edition

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0099441519
• ISBN 13: 9780099441519
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480