What’s that smell? Someone is maybe frying up a crisp critter for dinner! Could be bacon. Cooking scents travel a long ways in the woods near Charlotte, North Carolina. Hopefully, those pesky black bears won’t show up to investigate, although, no one has really seen a bear around for a loooong time.No, wait. Doctor Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist, is here. It probably isn’t pork that is on the fire. Or, correction, on fire.Poor Tempe. She actually was going to the beach with her new beau, Andrew Ryan, Lieutenant-detective, from Quebec. He is visiting Brennan at her North Carolina home for a planned encounter of fun, sun and exploring the contours of her bed. But instead, for the next three weeks of their ‘vacation’, bodies are showing up in wood stoves, airplanes, buried plastic garbage bags and down a farm outhouse hole. Not all of them are human. Besides the usual human carnage, illegal poaching is reducing the bear population, and bear bodies are in the mix of rotting flesh popping up everywhere. Worst of all, Brennan’s daughter Katy is doing her own contour exploring with a new fellow, Palmer Cousins, and Brennan dislikes him. The evidence she is uncovering indicates a drug ring is in the area, and, shock upon shock, maybe Cousins is importing drugs! Plus, the hair on Tempe’s neck is standing up - someone is following her and it’s not Ryan. That someone is trying to kill everyone she visits who may have information about the possible drug ring.The only creature having any fun is Boyd, Tempe’s occasional dog. He LOVES dead bodies!As is becoming usual with this series, the coincidences are a massive plot pile-up by the end of the book, which strains belief. Also, the author’s evolving staccato style of writing is causing my brain synapses to stutter unpleasantly. That said, I’m still liking the slightly preachy, and somewhat silly adventures of Doctor Brennan. (However, I am wondering if the brainy Reichs has a slight case of ADHD.) But given that I agree with her liberal-leftie sermons, and that, after all, this is a mystery series to be enjoyed on the beach or waiting for a bus (if graphic, but scientifically described, gore and flesh soup doesn’t make you vomit), I’m gonna continue with the novels.
Reviewed first at Brunner's BookshelfIn the past I have loved Kathy Reichs’s books and I am still a big fan of the show based on her books Bones. My Undergrad degree is Criminal Justice with an emphasis in Forensic Science; with all of that why is it I just didn’t care for this book. This is now two of her books in a row that I was less than thrilled with. I’m starting to worry that I have grown out of Kathy Reichs. I keep wondering if these books have always been this way and when I started reading them I didn’t have a lot to compare them to. Have my tastes just changed? Has this ever happened to you? I would love to hear from you in the comments just so I know I’m not alone on this. So the plot of the story is there is a suspicious fire and Brennan is asked to look into some charred remains putting her vacation on hold. While stuck working she decides to step away and meet her daughter’s friends. While at a Bar BQ with them her dog finds bones. Not just animal bones but human mixed in. Is this poaching that went wrong, or did a bear snack on a picnicker only to choke on a bone and die. I’ll let you read and figure that out if you would like. The more I think about this plot I keep picking at it. Why do these books have so many different victims/cases mashed into one book? There have been times while I am reading that I have no idea which bones she is referring to belong to what case or victim. It can be frustrating. It’s almost like trying to keep straight the characters of Game of Thrones without a character list handy. I also have started to hate the whole romance (or lack thereof) angle in these books. I remember when I first started reading these books cheering for Brennan and Detective Ryan. Now I am just irritated with the juvenile “I love him”, “I hate him”, “I love him again”. It doesn’t really advance the story in my opinion. I think I am going to keep this short; I’m really indifferent on this book. I didn’t care for it but I didn’t hate it. I will try to go mid road here and give this 3 out of 5 stars. I feel it really is more of a 2.5 star read but I’m going to round up this time. I have a few more to read and if the next one is about the same I might end my run there.
What do You think about Bare Bones (2004)?
With a background in anthropology, I was intrigued by the idea of a book starring a female anthropologist, written by a female anthropologist. Kathy Reichs, of course, does and writes forensic work, which is far afield from the applied cultural material on which I once focused--but she writes a darned good novel! I liked the characters, and was pleasantly surprised to recognize the author's name when my kids turned on the TV show Bones, which I'd not watched before; Kathy Reichs is associated with the show, which stars the same lead character (Dr. Temperanceas Brennan, or "Tempe") as her series of novels.The only real disappointment was that the plot was rather strongly formulaic, so that as I neared the end of the novel I found myself thinking, "OK, when is Tempe going to find herself unexpectedly trapped alone with the killer, with no escape in sight until someone from the supporting cast just as unexpectedly bursts in to save her?" I won't tell you whether or not that happens, but I'll go ahead and say that the word "spoiler" wouldn't really apply?On the other hand, formulas come into being because they work, and there's something comfortable sometimes about settling in with a novel whose basic outline you can predict, just to see how a new author explores the genre.The actual book recommended to me was a later one in this series, and I decided to start with this one, which I mistakenly thought was the first. It was good enough that I plan to read the others in the near future.And the big surprise? I've actually watched a couple episodes of the TV show now, and like them too!
—Weavre
This is the third Temperance Brennan book I have read. I started them out of curiosity because I enjoy the TV show "Bones", which is supposedly inspired by Kathy Reichs' books. The similarity ends with the main character's name and her occupation. Pretty much nothing else is the same. But that's ok, the books get a little more into the nitty-gritty of the profession. In this one, Temperance stays in the southeast (no excursions to Montreal here). She is dealing with several sets of remains, some whole, some partial, mostly human with some bear and bird bones thrown in for good measure. There's a stalker, and Temperance and her daughter are both in danger for a while. There were two parts where I think the book got a little preachy on wildlife conservation and protection. Don't get me wrong, I feel very strongly about wildlife conservation, but I think the mystery solving got off track for a bit. Not my favorite Brennan book, but worth reading.
—Kris
This is my 6th Temperance Brennan novel--I am reading them in order. The two main themes--Tempe gets some sort of "back off" warning from the killer and promptly puts herself and/or her friends and family in imminent danger, and she gets knocked in the head A LOT--are tediously repeated here and I have faith that they will continue ad infinitum. To be honest, once I get to the part when she is rendered unconscious and awakens to find herself held prisoner but, strangely, left unshackled and therefore able to use her wits to escape in some manner (usually a timely rescue by clever men who somehow figure out exactly where she's gone off the grid), I start skimming because by then I really don't care that much about who did what to whom. What I find interesting about these books are the bizarre cases Tempe finds herself embroiled in, and the forensics. I do love me some grisly dead bodies, the more putrefied the better. It's a sickness. There are numerous flaws with this series, as mentioned above and also including ridiculously convoluted plots with too many threads. There is a certain amount of lecturing on various subjects--motor cycles, human rights, DNA, what-have-you--but some of that information is interesting. I'd never even heard of a spix's macaw before this book, for example. And these books are nothing like the TV series!!! Just kidding, I haven't ever watched "Bones" and would never expect a TV version of anything to amount to much. But I find Tempe amusing. Onward to book #7! I will keep going until I can't take it anymore.
—Mary
