Kathy Reichs Break No Bones

Break No Bones

Kathy Reichs

Scribner, Jul 2006, $25.95, 356 pp.

ISBN: 0743233491

Tempe Brennan is on an archeological dig on Dewees Island off the coast of Charlottesville, South Carolina when she finds a recently dead person buried amidst the prehistoric site. The coroner is ailing so Tempe performs the autopsy and discovers a fracture of the sixth cervical vertebrae. Tempe is staying at the home of a friend who also invites her estranged husband Pete to reside there while he is on a case for a client.

Pete's client wants to know whether his contributions to God's Mercy Church are being used properly and if the sleuth can learn the whereabouts of his missing daughter Helene, who disappeared just after she accused the church's free clinic of financial wrongdoing. A previously hired private detective Noble Cruickshank also vanished without a trace. However, a body found in a wooded area is thought to be the missing Noble, who has the same trauma injury as the corpse found in the dig site. A third body with the same fracture is uncovered. Tempe learns that Noble was looking into the disappearances of many Charlottesville fringe people who lived beneath the societal radar screen as she seeks the motive linking three homicides.

Anyone who loves the works of Patricia Cornwell or Linda Fairstein will thoroughly enjoy BREAK NO bones and for that matter Kathy Reichs' backlist. The plucky obstinate heroine leaves no stone (or bone) unturned as she seeks answers; even law enforcement turns to her to help them solve the homicides. Ms. Reichs is a wonderful mystery writer whose champion is likable and admirable as she seeks the truth.

Harriet Klausner