Flash and Bones

In this latest book in the Temperance Brennan series, the forensic anthropologist—and inspiration for the television series Bones—finds herself in Charlotte, N.C., and in the middle of a case involving auto racing, a corpse hidden in a barrel of asphalt for 10 years, and an assortment of missing persons, including one with ties to a white supremacist group known as the Patriot Posse. Narrator Linda Emond—who has ably handled previous books in the series—captures the essence of the book’s heroine: wry, self-deprecating, smart, and never smug. Emond also provides appropriate voices for male characters and produces an assortment of believable Southern accents, including the marzipan-sweet sounds of Brennan’s office receptionist and the whiny demands of a dim-bulb beauty contest winner. But Emond’s finest achievements are the voices she lends to both gruff and cynical detective Skinny Slidell and the sinister leader of the Patriot Posse. A Scribner hardcover. (Aug.)