Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs

Spider Bones (Temperance Brennan, #13)

by Kathy Reichs

Don't miss this "whopper" (Publishers Weekly) of a thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs in her "cleverly plotted" (The New York Times) Temperance Brennan series, the inspiration for the hit FOX television series Bones.

John Lowery was declared dead in 1968--the victim of a Huey crash in Vietnam, his body buried long ago in North Carolina. Four decades later, Temperance Brennan is called to the scene of a drowning in Hemmingford, Quebec. The victim appears to have died while in the midst of a bizarre sexual practice. The corpse is later identified as John Lowery. But how could Lowery have died twice, and how did an American soldier end up in Canada?

Tempe sets off for the answer, exhuming Lowery's grave in North Carolina and taking the remains to Hawaii for reanalysis--to the headquarters of JPAC, the US military's Joint POW/ MIA Accounting Command, which strives to recover Americans who have died in past conflicts. In Hawaii, Tempe is joined by her colleague and ex-lover Detective Andrew Ryan (how "ex" is he?) and by her daughter, who is recovering from her own tragic loss. Soon another set of remains is located, with Lowery's dog tags tangled among them. Three bodies--all identified as Lowery.

And then Tempe is contacted by Hadley Perry, Honolulu's flamboyant medical examiner, who needs help identifying the remains of an adolescent boy found offshore. Was he the victim of a shark attack? Or something much more sinister?

Reviewed by empressbrooke on

3 of 5 stars

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Well, it took Kathy Reichs 13 books, but she finally broke her formula and changed up Spider Bones' ending. She must have finally heard my constant griping about how predictable her endings are!

Spider Bones' mystery was very interesting and completely unpredictable, and it kept me hooked until the last page. However, I still felt the same way I have about the last few books - the writing just isn't very engrossing. It seems a little clinical and standoffish, as if the author is just going through the motions. We meet yet another one of Tempe's past beaus, who of course is just as sarcastic and witty as Ryan, Pete, and Charlie. Ryan goes on vacation with Tempe and her daughter, and constantly makes lewd comments, and yet Tempe barely bats an eye and avoids the issue for the entire book. Will-they-or-won't-they can only last so long before it gets tiring. And then there was the startling inclusion of the word "squaw" as a term of affection, which seemed like a major faux pas for someone as educated as Reichs. I prefer my fiction to not include offensive racial epithets, thankyouverymuch.

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  • Started reading
  • 4 September, 2010: Finished reading
  • 4 September, 2010: Reviewed