(2008)Another very good one. She tries to make sense of what appears to be murder involving witchcraft and obscure religious sect violence leading to the death. Turns out murder was purely jealousy in a gay relationship.Jeffery Deaver:It's always a pleasure to see a new installment in the saga of Temperence Brennan, the forensic anthropologist who plies her trade in both Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal.Devil Bones, set in the U S of A, opens with a grisly discovery that offers a very different take on This Old House. Tempe is pulled from staid academia to investigate the troubling and mystifying scene, which involves cauldrons, ceremonial religious artifacts and, most troubling, the severed head of a teenage girl.Another torso is located nearby, and the story is off and running.Tempe and Charlotte police department detective Erskine "Skinny" Slidell, follow leads that take them through the seamier and the chicer sides of North Carolina's largest city--the worlds of Santeria, voodoo, the Wiccan religion (any witches out there: I'm not lumping them together!), and male prostitution. Our heroine also locks horns with a crusading minister turned politician, and there's a reporter who manages to show up at all the wrong moments.Reichs juggles the questions of who done it (and who's gonna get done next) until the very end with consummate skill. In series books, readers treat characters as friends and follow those storylines as ardently as the ones involving murder and mayhem. Not content to keep things simmering on low boil, Reichs dunks her protagonist into a pressure cooker, with plenty of turmoil stirred up by a former lover, a--possibly--current one and, most significantly for this reader, yet another ghost of life past, about which I'll say no more here. Trouble on campus also surfaces for Professor Brennan, with whom we experience one of the most harrowing moments in the book: a meeting of professors and department heads (university politics as weapon of mass destruction). Oh, and we can't forget some brief appearances by the ex, who is behaving just like, well, an ex.It might have been my imagination but I believe too that I saw the bones, if you will, of a possible subplot involving Tempe's daughter, Katy, who's working in the public defender's office. I'm looking forward to seeing Reich confirm or deny this in the next installment.In Devil Bones we get plenty of what we've come to expect in a Reichs novel: engrossing details on forensic anthropology and anatomical science. Her mastery, and love, of those subjects, which Reichs herself practices (in both Montreal and Charlotte, by the way), is evident in her writing. We're also treated to plenty of esoterica about non-mainstream religions and history (I mean, I live in North Carolina and didn't know Charlotte was named for a seventeen-year-old German duchess). The author deftly negotiates that fine line between using such information to enhance the experience of reading a novel and padding prose. She gives us what we need to know--to enrich plot, character or atmosphere--and then gets back to the story.And speaking of which: As an author writing in the same genre, I was impressed with Reichs's ability to keep the roller coaster on track and speeding along, page after page. She's a true master of cliff hangers--a neglected skill in a field where far too many lazy authors end chapters with people leaving rooms, falling asleep or offering hand-tipping foreshadowings of what's to come. I call this the question-mark factor and when writing my thriller I actually tally up the number of scenes that end in a compelling, unresolved issue that drives the reader forward.Reichs has question marks aplenty.My one complaint: I read the novel in one sitting. But I'm hoping that while poor Tempe may want a break after everything that happens to her in Devil Bones, author Reichs isn't giving her any rest and is hard at work on number 12.--Jeffery Deaver

Come on. Next. What happens next? ( )

Devil Bones was another good book set in the Temperance Brennan series, but I did not find it to be the best. To be, this was the worst book so far in the series. It brought all of the action, death, blood, and bones that all the Temperance Brennan series brings, but I just found it to be boring and predictable. Normally I do not see the ending coming, which made this book a little bit of a let down. For some reason, it didn't hit all the right notes with me. But, it was still a great read by Kathy Reichs!

The novel was slow and painful to read. There was a lack of Andrew Ryan, and he is definitely a good source of comedy and strife with Tempe. This lack made the book feel slow and boring when they weren't going back and forth with ideas about the murders or their personal lives. I also found Pete to have less of a presence, and that made it even worse. If Ryan isn't there, Pete can at least give some sort of interesting conversation with Tempe!

Overall, the lack of those two characters made the book seem slow. Ryan and Pete are both fun characters that bring up comedic or dramatic conversations with Tempe. Without them, the loss is clearly visible.

I give this novel three out of five stars. Although I love Kathy Reichs and I am addicted to her novels, this one just didn't live up to the hype for me. ( )

One cannot help admiring the vast range of knowledge that Reichs has. The mystery this time takes a while to develop, even just to reach the stage of mystery. And, once again, Tempe gets beat up. How long can she go on like that? The characterizations are getting richer. One has to wonder when Slidell will have a stroke. Tempe goes on with very wide thinking narrowing the field. ( )

I decided to read the Temperance Brennan books after watching the television show Bones. The two are similar but also very different, I enjoy both. Kathy Reichs has a very detailed but still interesting writing style. I do not understand all of the technical jargon but that does not detract from my reading enjoyment. Tempe and Ryan are great characters and my favorite parts of the books are when they are in a scene together especially if it is out in "the field". ( )