Break No Bones: (Temperance Brennan series #9)
Kathy Reichs, 2006
Simon & Schuster
445 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780743453035
Summary
The inspiration for the hit Fox series Bones, Kathy Reichs explores another high-stakes crime from today's headlines-in a case that lands forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan in the middle of a gruesome international scheme.
Summoned to South Carolina to fill in for a negligent colleague, Tempe is stuck teaching at a lackluster archeology field school in the ruins of a Native American burial ground on the Charleston shore. But when Tempe stumbles upon a fresh skeleton among the ancient bones, her old friend Emma Rousseau, the local coroner, persuades Tempe to stay on and help with the investigation. When Emma reveals a disturbing secret, it becomes more important than ever for Tempe to help her friend close the case.
The body count begins to climb. Tempe follows the trail to a free street clinic with a belligerent staff, a suspicious doctor, and a donor who is a charismatic televangelist. Clues abound in the most unlikely places as Tempe uses her unique knowledge and skills to build her case, even as the local sheriff remains dubious and her own life is threatened. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1950
• Where—Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.S, American University; M.A., Ph.D., North-
western University
• Awards—Arthur Ellis Award, Best Novel (1997)
• Currently—lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Kathy Reichs burst onto the fiction scene in the late 1990s with her first novel, Deja Dead, a thriller rooted in an expert knowledge of science and medicine and powered by a strong female protagonist, Temperance Brennan. Since then, Reichs has been a regular feature on bestseller lists and is often mentioned in the same breath as the chief of the autopsy whodunit, Patricia Cornwell. (From the publisher.)
More
Both a forensics expert who has seen—firsthand— the aftermath of murderers and a novelist whose heroine tracks villains like the "Blade Cowboy," Kathy Reichs has some ideas about what the face of evil looks like: ordinary. "I see the perpetrator across the courtroom when I'm testifying. Generally, I'm underwhelmed," she said in a 2000 interview published on her web site." I'm always shocked by how totally normal they look. They look like my Uncle Frank, usually."
Reichs mulled over those experiences for about seven years before deciding to apply her ideas to fiction. Out came Deja Dead in 1997, introducing mystery fans to a new but, more likely than not, recognizable heroine: forensics expert Temperance Brennan, a fortyish, recovering alcoholic on the run from a wobbling marriage. Brennan—a sort of mix between Nancy Drew and Quincy—is also something of a hothead, prone to marching off on her own when she runs afoul of a sexist male cop. This is the kind of woman who would sit down to brunch with Vic Warshawski, Kay Scarpetta, or Jane Tennison, if any of them did brunch.
As a forensic anthropologist for the state of North Carolina, as well as the province of Quebec, Reichs draws heavily from her own experiences standing over the autopsy table. Her novels —Death du Jour, Deadly Decisions, Grave Secrets and the like—are packed with the kind of well informed clinical details that make critics take notice. "The doctor clearly knows a hawk from a handsaw," wrote the New York Times about one of her books.
She also built some parallels to her own biography when creating Tempe Brennan. Both women are forensic anthropologists with the unlikely dual addresses of North Carolina and Canada. But Reichs rolls her eyes when asked about the comparisons. "Personally, she's completely her own person," Reichs told USA Today in 1997. "She gets physically involved. She takes risks I've never been tempted to take."
Reichs was editing forensics textbooks when she began toying with writing a novel. The initial result, she said, was a dud: slow, boring, and in the third person. But it picked up steam when she came up with the Brennan character. Inspired by friend and medical examiner Bill Maples, author of Dead Men Do Tell Tales, she sat down to write, meticulously drafting an outline of her story and getting up early to write before teaching classes at the University of North Carolina. It took her two years.
The effort paid off when her manuscript made the rounds of the Frankfurt Book Fair. A heated auction won Reichs a million-dollar, two-book deal.
Critics and readers alike loved Tempe. Wrote Library Journal, "Despite her ability to work among fetid, putrefying smells that 'leap out and grab' and her 'go-to-hell attitude' with seasoned cops, Tempe is as vulnerable as a soft Carolina morning." And People magazine said, "Reichs not only serves up a delicious plot, she also brings a new recipe to hard-boiled cop talk."
Over chicken salad lunches with newspaper reporters, Reichs will casually talk about dismembered bodies, maggots, and concerns for her children's security in light of some of the unsavory characters she'd testified against. But then she'll confess her true idea of a waking nightmare. "[My] idea of horror would be to sit in a little gray office all day and add up columns of numbers," she told USA Today. "I say to people, 'How do you do that?"'
Extras
• When she was a child, Reichs loved both the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries, as well as books about such far-flung places as Easter Island.
• One of the reasons she is Québec's forensics anthropologist is because she is one of the few in the profession who is fluent in French.
• Among her favorite books are the science fiction series the Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams. "It's one of the few things I re-read because it's just nothing to do with anything I do," she has said.
• She avoided college literature courses to concentrate on science.
• In 2005, Fox TV launched Bones, a forensics/police procedural inspired by Reichs's life and writing. In a neat twist, the main character, Temperance Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist who, as a sideline, writes thrillers about a fictional anthropologist named Kathy Reichs!
• Kathy's daughter, Kerry Reichs, made her literary debut in 2008 with the romantic comedy The Best Day of Someone Else's Life. ("More" and "Extras" sections from Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
Reichs's series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, bodes well for this latest installment, in which Brennan once again stumbles on a modern-day mystery inadvertently. While supervising a dig of Native American burial grounds in Charleston, S.C., Brennan finds more recent remains. Soon, her ex-husband, who's a lawyer, appears in town, pursuing leads in a missing persons case connected with a local church. Bodies start piling up at an alarming rate, and Brennan begins to suspect that the deaths are linked to each other and her ex-husband's inquiry. Reichs's down-to-earth heroine is an appealing creation, who deftly juggles personal problems with professional challenges. Despite the somewhat obvious solution, this novel confirms the series' place in the front rank of the ever-expanding forensic thriller subgenre.
Publishers Weekly
While supervising an archaeological field-school dig in Charleston, SC, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan unearths a much-too-recent set of bones fresh enough to bring out her coroner friend, Emma. Struggling with major health issues, Emma begs Tempe to lead the investigation, and soon there's a reunion of sorts for all the series' regulars. Then Pete, Tempe's estranged husband, comes to town to investigate the case of a missing young woman with ties to a Charleston free clinic. The moment the clinic's sleazy personnel are introduced, readers can guess that Pete's and Tempe's cases are totally interlinked. Andrew Ryan, Tempe's Montreal-based detective boyfriend, shows up next, ready to test Tempe's loyalties and help her fend off the bad guys. "Seemingly unconnected" dead bodies surface in all sorts of places, their bones revealing startling parallels. Forensic anthropologist Reichs's change of venue is intriguing in this series' ninth entry, but the case itself is lackluster and the plot exceedingly predictable. Forensic thriller readers, however, will drive demand, which will be high owing to the growing following of the Fox television series Bones, based on Reichs's protagonist. —Teresa L. Jacobsen, Solano Cty. Lib., CA
Library Journal
In this ninth in the popular series, forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan is spending two weeks in May on Dewees, a barrier island north of Charleston, South Carolina, where she is leading a student excavation of a prehistoric site when one of the bodies they find isn't so ancient. After reporting her find to her friend Emma Rousseau, coroner at the Charleston County Coroner's Office, Tempe learns that Emma is ill and unable to investigate; so Tempe fills in for her as a consultant. When another body is found in a different location, the forensic examination of the bones shows a similarity in the manner of death. As Tempe investigates further, another body turns up, leading her to a horrifying conclusion about the motive for these deaths. Complicating matters, Tempe's estranged husband moves into the house she has borrowed, and her boyfriend arrives unexpectedly from Montreal. Tempe must work through her ambivalence about divorcing her unfaithful husband, for whom she still has feelings, but she also cares for her boyfriend. Readers who enjoy Patricia Cornwell's mysteries will appreciate the forensic detail here, and more character-oriented readers will respond to Reichs' likable and well-developed cast, from the local sheriff to Tempe herself, a dedicated woman who feels compelled to provide justice for those who can no longer speak for themselves. An engrossing entry in a widely read series. —Sue O'Brien
Booklist
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Break No Bones:
1. What does Temperance find with regards to the numerous skeletons unearthed at the beginning of the story...and what do the findings begin to suggest? How does each new discovery add to the mystery?
2. In what way does it seem as if the deaths Tempe is concerned with are connected with her husband's case?
3. Early on, did your suspicions tend toward the clinic or the televangelist...one or the other, both, or neither? At what point does Tempe begin to unravel the truth?
4. What is the reason Tempe gives for pursuing a career in forensics? At one point she says, "death in anonymity is the ultimate insult to human dignity." Do you agree?
5. In what way do the demands of her career and travel affect Temperance's personal life? Is it a good trade-off? What does Tempe think...what do you think?
6. Do you like Temperance Brennan as a character? What about her rapid-fire one-liners—do you find them funny and witty? Or do you find Tempe's humor tiresome or overworked?
7. Temperance finds herself in a rather unusual situation—an ex-husband and current lover both in town. In what way does Ryan act as a sort of foil for Pete? And then...hmmmm... let's see...Ryan...Pete...Ryan...Pete...? Which would you go for?
8. Were you engaged by this novel? Did you find it fresh and, surprising...or obvious and formulaic? How about the ending— is it satisfying?
9. Have you read other Temperance Brennan mysteries...or have you watched Bones, the TV series based on the books? How do you compare this book to either the show or other books in the series?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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