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

2008-02-25 A Facinating Tale of Forensic Genius

I have never read any of Reich's work before and have to say this has sat on the shelf for over a year waiting its turn to be read.

I was intrigued from the start with her natty way of narration and the way she describes the persons mood after they have spoken. She writes in an almost scientific commentary of her lead character's adventures.

The lead character, Tempe Brennan specialises in postmortem study of bones to determine causes of death and what has lead up to that death. In this particular case, she is called to assist an ailing friend who is County Pathologist in a fairly remote part of Southern Carolina, whilst actually supervising an archaeological dig. She discovers a body that doesn't appear to be ancient Native American as would be expected on this dig. The mystery increases around the death of this person and whom it may be and very soon she is unofficially taking the role of assistant to the County Pathologist, who has to be taken into hospital. More bodies turn up and the plot thickens, as they appear to have been killed in the same way but are apparently totally unconnected at the same time.

Tempe feels the investigation is somehow linked to a charitable clinic run by an evangelical church whom her estranged husband (a lawyer)is also investigating simultaneously. He ends up in South Carolina as part of his investigations and they assist one another to solve the case, which turns more and more sinister at every turn.

A gripping and very analytical story that would please anyone interested in the more scientific side to murder investigation.