EVEN ON AN ISLAND PARADISE, DANGER STILL LURKS.

Book blurb

Called in to examine what is left of a body struck by lightning, Tempe traces an unusual tattoo to its source and is soon embroiled in a much larger case. Young men – tourists – have been disappearing on the islands of Turks and Caicos for years. Seven years ago, the first victim was found with both hands cut off; the other visitors vanished without a trace. But recently, tantalizing leads have emerged and only Tempe can unravel them.

Maddeningly, the victims seem to have nothing in common – other than the unusual locations where their bodies are eventually found, and the fact that the young men all seem to be the least likely to be involved in foul play. Do these attacks have something to do with the islands’ seething culture of gang violence? Tempe isn’t so sure. And then she turns up disturbing clues that what’s at stake may actually have global significance.

It isn’t long before the sound of a ticking clock grows menacingly loud, and then Tempe herself becomes a target.

My thoughts

Tempe, currently in Montreal, is called to a scene when parts of a body are discovered caught up in a boats propeller. A man had been seen watching fireworks when he fell into the river. It appears to be a death caused by lightning. The identity of the man is traced he had come to Montreal from the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI). The Island police are informed and the detective is adamant that she should come to Canada.

When Detective Dunmore arrives it becomes clear that there is another reason for her being in Montreal. She wants Tempe to look at skeletons presumed to be those of young men who over the past seven years had gone missing on the Island. Dunmore is very persuasive, passionate in her plea for Tempe’s expert help.

Once she and Dunmore arrive on the Island another case is reported. Bodies found on a fishing boat. Tempe is getting embroiled in much more than she anticipated.

Dunmore asks for Tempe’s initial help and thoughts on the boat deaths on the understanding that there will be experts coming from Florida to work on this. Tempe helps with the work of getting the bodies off the boat and tells Dunmore that they may have died due to lack of water.

At last Tempe and Dunmore go to the site of the skeletons and begin the task of removing and recovering them to transport to the morgue.

A possible suspect comes to light as Tempe and Dunmore work to find out what happened to the missing men but is it really him? Digging deeper their investigation ruffles a few feathers and events happen that are both worrying and shocking.

The story is fascinating as links are uncovered, more deaths occur, Tempe is attacked, the FBI arrive, a new suspect emerges and what Tempe and Detective Monke learn is almost unbelievable! Then, just when it looks as though they have their man, Tempe gets an unexpected and unwelcome visitor. A visitor who has a big, whacky grudge against her. A visitor who wants revenge. Will she survive?

Kathy Reichs has brought us a gripping, compelling and complex puzzle well written and beautifully constructed. Narrated by it’s beloved main character it gives the reader a wonderful insight into the world of forensic anthropology, a great sense of place – the Turks and Caicos Island sounds like a beautiful place to spend time, as long as there aren’t any other bodies! – and terrific characters.

Often of a technical nature, sometimes about the Island or how a group of people came to live there, their history or culture, it may be about how a system or procedure works or the work Tempe does I always find the information that is weaved so well through the story fascinating.

The threads of each case are laid before us then gathered together in a way that left this reader stunned. Lovers of the Tempe Brennan series will be delighted with this latest instalment, those new to it are in for a treat. The Bone Hacker is an absolutely cracking story from Kathy Reichs.

Thanks

Thanks to Anne at RandomThingsTours for the invite to this awesome BlogTour and to Simon and Schuster for a copy of The Bone Hacker by Kathy Reichs for review purposes.

BlogTour

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#20booksofsummer23

The Bone Hacker by Kathy Reichs is my 10th #20booksofsummer23 read, any further books will exceed my original expectations for this challenge.

Information

Published: Simon & Schuster UK (3 August 2023)|336 pages

Buy: Publisher links| AmazonSmileUK | Bookshop.org (affiliate link)

Author

Kathy Reichs’s first novel Déjà Dead catapulted her to fame when it became a New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Her other Temperance Brennan novels include Death du Jour, Deadly Décisions, Fatal Voyage, Grave Secrets, Bare Bones, Monday Mourning, Cross Bones, Break No Bones, Bones to Ashes, Devil Bones, 206 Bones, Spider Bones, Flash and Bones, Bones Are Forever, Bones of the Lost, Bones Never Lie, Speaking in Bones and the Temperance Brennan short story collection, The Bone Collection. In addition, Kathy co-authors the Virals young adult series with her son, Brendan Reichs. The best-selling titles are: Virals, Seizure, Code, Exposure, and Terminal along with two Virals e-novellas, Shift and Swipe. These books follow the adventures of Temperance Brennan’s great niece, Tory Brennan. Dr. Reichs is also a producer of the hit Fox TV series, Bones, which is based on her work and her novels.

From teaching FBI agents how to detect and recover human remains, to separating and identifying commingled body parts in her Montreal lab, as a forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs has brought her own dramatic work experience to her mesmerizing forensic thrillers. For years she consulted to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina, and continues to do so for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Québec. Dr. Reichs has travelled to Rwanda to testify at the UN Tribunal on Genocide, and helped exhume a mass grave in Guatemala. As part of her work at JPAC (Formerly CILHI) she aided in the identification of war dead from World War II, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Dr. Reichs also assisted with identifying remains found at ground zero of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Dr. Reichs is one of only 100 forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. She served on the Board of Directors and as Vice President of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and is currently a member of the National Police Services Advisory Council in Canada. She is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

Dr. Reichs is a native of Chicago, where she received her Ph.D. at Northwestern. She now divides her time between Charlotte, NC and Montreal, Québec.

Books

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