Break No Bones - Kathy Reichs

It's the second-to-last day of archaeological field school. Dr Temperance Brennan's students are working on a site of prehistoric graves on Dewees, a barrier island north of Charleston, South Carolina, when a decomposing body is uncovered in a shallow grave off a lonely beach...


The skeleton is articulated, the bone fresh and the vertebrae still connected by soft-tissue; the remains are encased in rotted fabric and topped by wisps of pale, blond hair - a recent burial, and a case Tempe must take. Dental remains and skeletal gender and race indicators suggest that the deceased is a middle-aged white male - but who was he? Why was he buried in a clandestine grave? And what does the unusual vertical hairline fracture of the sixth cervical vertebrae signify?


While Tempe is trying to piece together the evidence, her personal life is thrown into turmoil. When a bullet - intended, perhaps, for her - puts Tempe's estranged husband Pete in hospital, her unexpectedly emotional response complicates her on-off relationship with Detective Andrew Ryan. But before long, another body is discovered - and Tempe finds herself drawn deeper into a shocking and chilling investigation, set to challenge her entire view of humanity. 

About the Author Kathy Reichs

(From Wikipedia) Kathleen J. "Kathy" Reichs is a forensic anthropologist, an academic, and bestselling writer of mystery novels, who works in the United States and Canada. She is a Professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She divides her time between work for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina, and for the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Quebec. She is one of only fifty forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and is on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Her schedule also involves a number of speaking engagements around the world.

She received a B.A. in anthropology from American University in 1972, a M.A. in physical anthropology from Northwestern University in 1972, and a Ph.D. in physical anthropology from Northwestern University in 1975. She has taught at Northern Illinois University, University of Pittsburgh, Concordia University, and McGill University.

She has appeared in Rwanda to testify at the UN Tribunal on Genocide. She has assisted Dr. Clive Snow in an exhumation in the area of Lake Atitlan in the highlands of southwest Guatemala. She was a member of the DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Teams) team to assist at the World Trade Center disaster.

Books

Kathy Reichs has written novels as well as technical books on anthropology and forensics. Her novels have been translated in 30 languages. Her first novel 'Déjà Dead' won the 1997 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel.

The fictional heroine in her novels, Temperance Brennan, is also a forensic anthropologist. Her lifestyle closely mimics that of her creator. A good portion of the novels is based on real life science. Most of the techniques used and technology mentioned are things that Kathy Reichs uses in her real life job. The blood spatter analysis used in Deadly Decisions for instance, is directly from her job. In the novel Grave Secrets she uses her experience from her visit to Guatemala to enhance the story.

Temperance Brennan series

* Déjà Dead (1997)
* Death du Jour (1999)
* Deadly Decisions (2000)
* Fatal Voyage (2001)
* Grave Secrets (2002)
* Bare Bones (2003)
* Monday Mourning (2004)
* Cross Bones (2005)
* Break No Bones (2006)

Academic Papers

* Quantified comparison of frontal sinus patterns by means of computed tomography. Forensic Science International 1993 Oct;61(2-3):141-68.
* Effect of age and osteoarthritis on bone mineral in rhesus monkey vertebrae. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research 1993 Aug;8(8):909-17.
* Forensic anthropology in the 1990s. The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology 1992 Jun;13(2):146-53.
* Treponematosis: a possible case from the late prehistoric of North Carolina. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 1989 Jul;79(3):289-303.
* Cranial suture eccentricities: a case in which precocious closure complicated determination of sex and commingling. Journal of Forensic Science 1989 Jan;34(1):263-73.
* Ontogenetic plasticity in nonhuman primates: I. Secular trends in the Cayo Santiago macaques. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 1987 Jul;73(3):279-87.

Academic Books

* Forensic Osteology: Advances in the Identification of Human Remains (1986)

Television

In 2005, a television series based on Reichs premiered, titled Bones. The lead character is a forensic anthropologist named Temperance Brennan (played by Emily Deschanel) who moonlights as an author, writing about a fictional (in her world) forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs.