Time to drop back in with Dr. Temperance Brennan with Bare Bones, book six of the Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs. Brennan is working out of Charlotte when she receives a call to investigate the body of an infant that has been burned inside a stove. Since she knows the baby’s maternal grandfather she makes the condolence call with Detective Slidell where they learn that the child’s mother had been involved with a potential drug dealer. In the midst of tracking down the mother who has disappeared, Brennan is cajoled into going to a barbecue with her daughter Katy where their dog Boyd promptly finds bones that belong to several bears and in part to a human. Not thinking much of it she is soon called in to investigate a plane crash where it appears that the passengers might have been smugglers of some kind. Brennan really only starts getting concerned when it looks like all of this might be related and she gets mysterious phone calls indicating she and Katy are being stalked by someone connected to the case. For Brennan the worst part of all this is that it interrupts her beach vacation with Detective Andrew Ryan who came from Montreal just to visit her.
This was an awesome addition to the series and definitely one of the more complex ones so far. Being able to juggle so many different lines of inquiry in one story is incredible already but having it figured out and solved by the end of it was good as well. Very few similar stories keep it all balanced as well as this one does which is something that seems to repeat in this series. That is actually something that keeps catching my attention as a lot of other similar works in this genre only really have one mystery they are working on or one case I guess you would say. In this series there are frequently multiple cases or mysteries going on at once even if one is more prominent than the others. I feel like this would probably be more realistic so I am enjoying this aspect of things. The more I read the series the more I can also tell that it was written by someone who actually has detailed knowledge of what they are writing about. The amount of detail for some things is pretty great and way more than some authors tend to include which also adds some realism but also depth and complexity as well. I am definitely enjoying the series and am greatly looking forward to the rest of the series. This book gets 4.5 out of 5 stars from me.
A great example of a thriller or mystery or police procedural depending on how you classify this one but overall a great read. It would probably hold the most appeal for readers who already enjoy those types of work, especially if they like the ones that hold a lot of the science side of things. That being said, I rather doubt it would hold a lot of appeal for readers who don’t enjoy that type of work. This work does contain some violence and while it does contain gruesome or graphic content it is not very frequent and not extremely explicit. There are also some minor adult references and content but not explicit for that either. I would recommend only readers older than about fifteen or sixteen should read this one. As always I hope you will consider this one if it sounds interesting and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.