Promotional Information

'Compared with Patricia Cornwell, Reichs is actually in a different league' The Sunday Times

About the Author

Kathy Reichs serves as forensic anthropologist for the Offices of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina, and for the Laboratorie de Sciences Judiciaires et de Medecine Legale for the province of Quebec. A professor of anthropology at the University of North Caroline at Charlotte, she divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal. Reader BiographyKatherine Borowitz has appeared in various films including Baby Boom. She also read Kathy Reich's novels Death Du Jour and Deadly D-cisions for Random House Audiobooks

Reviews

With four crime thrillers to her name, Reichs (Deadly Decisions) seems to have settled into a comfortable routine with forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, whose adventures grow more engrossing with each outing. Here, Tempe takes on an especially gruesome case in a richly plotted tale about an airline crash, missing body parts and cannibalism. The story opens in the rugged backwoods of North Carolina, where Tempe must identify the dead from the remains of a passenger jet that spiraled straight into the ground. While rummaging through the grisly debris, she comes across a foot that doesn't appear to match any of the 88 dead people aboard the jet. As investigators determine what brought the plane down, Tempe looks into the mystery of the foot. That seemingly well-intentioned pursuit gets her fired. Her ouster appears to be the doing of Lt. Gov. Parker Davenport, an ambitious politician taking an abnormal interest in the crash. Tempe, determined to restore her reputation, plows back into the case on the sly. What she finds is evidence of a chilling, depraved episode in local history that upends many common perceptions about North Carolina's political and business elite. Reichs, herself a highly accomplished forensic anthropologist, expertly directs a busy plot that moves with electrical force in the final quarter. She capitalizes on the morbid yet captivating aspects of the forensic trenchwork, yet never lets it overwhelm her story. But it is Reichs's ongoing development of Tempe a woman in her 50s with a mature understanding of human nature, and a self-deprecating sense of humor that truly lifts the book above many of its peers. (On-sale: July 17) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Reichs is at the top of her game with her fourth forensic thriller (after Deadly Decisions) as once again Dr. Tempe Brennan must "tease posthumous tales from bones," utilizing all of her skills as a forensic anthropologist to put the dead to rest. Tempe is called to the Great Smoky Mountains, scene of the crash of TransSouth Air flight 228 where 88 souls suffered gruesome deaths. As the medical teams work to reassemble and identify bodies, Tempe makes a disturbing discovery a foot that doesn't belong to any of the victims. While investigating the foot's origins, Tempe stumbles on a mountain cabin and is immediately banned from the recovery operations, accused of malfeasance. Something sinister is going on, and Tempe must unravel the mystery to save her reputation. What she discovers is shocking. Reichs once again proves that she is master of the genre; her science is impeccable, her characters are believably complex, and her plotting and pacing are nearly flawless. Often compared to Patricia Cornwell, Reichs is raising the bar. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/01; also available as an e-book.] Rebecca House Stank-owski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.