cover image Break No Bones

Break No Bones

Kathy Reichs, . . Scribner, $25.95 (339pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-3349-1

The success of the Fox TV show Bones , based on bestseller Reichs's series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (Cross Bones , etc.), bodes well for this latest installment, in which Brennan once again stumbles on a modern-day mystery inadvertently. While supervising a dig of Native American burial grounds in Charleston, S.C., Brennan finds more recent remains. Soon, her ex-husband, who's a lawyer, appears in town, pursuing leads in a missing persons case connected with a local church. Bodies start piling up at an alarming rate, and Brennan begins to suspect that the deaths are linked to each other—and her ex-husband's inquiry. Reichs's down-to-earth heroine is an appealing creation, who deftly juggles personal problems with professional challenges. Despite the somewhat obvious solution, this novel confirms the series' place in the front rank of the ever-expanding forensic thriller subgenre. (July)