Bones to Ashes

“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.”

This was a really good read. I’m a big fan of the series and have read several now. A few have gotten kind of “bogged down” in the forensic details but this entry doesn’t “suffer” from that problem. Of course, some might say it is precisely because of this that they didn’t like it. In my opinion though, this entry strikes a decent balance between being hyper-focused on the science and being glossed-over like the TV series usually is. I had a hard time putting this one down and was always one-more-page’ing it. The emotional ties to Tempe’s past add a nice flavor to the story as well. She’s not just intellectually investigated in the case’s outcome, she’s emotionally invested this time. And I think it makes for a more personable read.

★★★★✩