SPEAKING IN BONES by KATHY REICHS

SPEAKING IN BONES

BY KATHY REICHS

THE BLURB:-

Please don't kill me.

Please don't kill me.

Please. Kill me.

An amateur detective convinced she has identified remains in Dr. Temperance Brennan's lab.

A tape recording of a woman tortured by a monster.

A case more complicated and horrifying than Tempe could ever imagine.

THE REALITY:-

Another corker from the pen of Kathy Reichs- her Tempe Brennan novels never fail to deliver (although, of course, I find some a better read than others.)

Reichs deals with with the subject of multiple personality disorder, so we end up with- spoiler alert!- a victim who's also a perpetrator. What a clever concept. If this is really based on Reichs' actual work as a forensic anthropologist (which I'm sure it is) then she has one hell of an interesting career.

From the opening sequence of horror through to the end conclusion, which is nerve wracking, original and terrifying, I put down another novel to read this book and managed to finish it in ten days. Wahoo! I'm back into my reading again, after a bit of a hiatus at the end of last year. I'm also planning on getting back into my writing again, via the medium of short stories, but enough of that for the time being.

Set in Charlotte, North Carolina, it's informative and interesting to learn about the geography of the area, as you do through Tempe's mountainous hunt for skeletal remains and also the people and customs, as you do through her characters. I particularly liked the religious nuts represented in this novel and it challenges the concept of extreme religion and whether it is actually evil in its judgement of others. I think so. I've met people from the side-shoots of Christianity in my life and have found them VERY unforgiving and (in my agnostic opinion) appallingly unchristian.  I was glad when one such aforementioned individual ended up with a cross stabbed into his neck (I'm talking with regard to the book...  Those who've crossed me in my own life simply end up in a novel...)

Andrew Ryan featured in this novel and, although he and Tempe weren't working together (I love their chemistry and banter when they do) it was good that Tempe decided to take their relationship to the next level and agreed to their moving in together. I do understand her angst and reticence- he did, after all, leave her twice and I'm glad she jumped into bed with someone else the first time he treated her like shit. Go, girl- don't be a-takin' no crap! This was a fast paced page-turner and a superb novel to read and I'm looking forward to the next Tempe Brennan thriller.