Break No Bones: A Novel

By Kathy Reichs

From bestselling author Kathy Reichs a book set in Charleston, South Carolina, the center of a lucrative, clandestine, sophisticated trade in body parts, the kind that leaves the donor dead.

Summoned to South Carolina to fill in for a negligent colleague, Tempe is stuck teaching a lackluster archaeology field school in the ruins of a Native American burial ground on the Charleston shore. But when Tempe stumbles upon a fresh skeleton among the ancient bones, her old friend Emma Rousseau, the local coroner, persuades her to stay on and help with the investigation. When Emma reveals a disturbing secret, it becomes more important than ever for Tempe to help her friend close the case.

The body count begins to climb. An unidentified man is found hanging from a tree deep in the woods. Another corpse shows up in a barrel. There are mysterious nicks on bones in several bodies, and signs of strangulation. Tempe follows the trail to a free street clinic with a belligerent staff, a suspicious doctor, and a donor who is a charismatic televangelist. Clues abound in the most unlikely places as Tempe uses her unique knowledge and skills to build her case, even as the local sheriff remains dubious and her own life is threatened.

Tempe’s love life is also complicated. Ryan, her current flame, has come down to visit her from Montreal, and Pete, her former husband, is investigating the disappearance of a local woman—and he and Tempe are staying in the same borrowed beach house. Ryan and Pete compete for her attentions, and Tempe finds herself more distracted by her feelings for both men than she expected.

Break No Bones is a smart, taut thriller featuring the kind of high-stakes crime that makes the headlines every week. Reichs, the inspiration for the hit Fox TV show Bones, is writing at the top of her form, and Tempe has never been more compelling.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribner
• Release date: Jul 11, 2006
• ISBN: 9781416535218

Kathy Reichs

Kathy Reichs’s first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. Fire and Bones is Reichs’s twenty-third novel featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Reichs was also a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama, Bones, which was based on her work and her novels. One of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Reichs divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina. Visit her at KathyReichs.com or follow her on Twitter @KathyReichs, Instagram @KathyReichs, or Facebook @KathyReichsBooks. 

Reviews for Break No Bones

[morag_eyrie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A bit of fun.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book really grabbed me. I was so engrossed reading it on the bus on the way home that I was oblivious to the fact that the bus had arrived at my bus stop. Thankfully my neighbour was on the bus and tugged at my sleeve to ask me if I was going to get off. This is another book featuring Reichs' forensic anthropologist/detective, Temperance Brennan. Dr. Brennan has taken a group of students to Charleston to investigate possible aboriginal burial grounds on a site that is about to be developed for condos. On their second to last day at the dig the students discover skeletal remains that are considerable newer than the Sewee tribe pre-Columbian remains they have found elsewhere. Temperance quickly decides to call in the County coroner, Emma Rousseau, an old friend. Once the body is disinterred Emma asks Temperance to stay to give the benefit of her expertise as a forensic anthropologist and Temperance agrees to do so. After all, she is staying in a wonderful house right on the beach which belongs to another friend and she doesn't have any pressing work to get home to. In addition to suspicious circumstances with regard to the burial the body shows some unexplained fractures and bone chips but the details do not help them zero in on an identity. Tempe's personal life starts to get confused when her estranged husband, Pete, shows up in Charleston working on a case (he's a lawyer) and moves into the beach house complete with dog and cat. Tempe is romantically involved with Andrew Ryan, a Canadian cop from Montreal with whom she has worked on cases, and Ryan also decides to visit Tempe in Charleston. Then another body shows up with identical fractures to the first. This body was found hanging from a tree in a forest preserve and there is enough skin remaining to get fingerprints. The fingerprints identify the deceased as someone who is connected to Pete's case. By this time Temperance is determined to find out what is the connection and she also wants to stay because she finds out Emma has cancer that is not responding well to treatments. The ending has a few twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end. It is also not clear if Tempe is over Pete and working it out with Ryan. That will have to wait until another book. I highly recommend this book. I have liked all of Reichs novels but this one seemed better than the last few

[nx74defiant · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good mystery.

[jbarringer-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I kinda wish I was reading this series in order, because about a decade elapsed between the first book I read in this series and this one. But, my sister doesn't usually concern herself with reading series in order, so I get them from her in whatever random order she's read them. Still, this book was fun. There is a bit of a romantic sidestory between Brennan and her current boyfriend Ryan and estranged husband Pete, which took some getting used to, since when I left off after that last book, Brennan and Ryan barely spoke to each other still, and Pete was not in the picture. Brennan's flash mood swings are odd, and remind me a bit of why I dislike the TV character version of her, but it's not too overdone, and if she's got Asperger's/ high-functioning autism, which I have always assumed she has, it works. It certainly makes sense for an Aspie to be great at forensic anthropology, obsessively and painstakingly worrying obscure details from bones to construct death scenarios.

[klockrike · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well-written, but the series is becoming too predictable. Someone is always attacked, shot, and there is too much simplicity in the personal relationships. I want to like it, but it doesn't excite me too much. It might be that all coincidences feel far-fetched... it is too arranged and too dramatic, not normal.

[starknits_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can't get enough of this series!

[readingover50 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite book in the series. I found it to be a bit too predictable and "by the numbers." The setting wasn't that interesting, and didn't add much to the plot. And when Tempe, Ryan and Pete all live together for awhile, I thought that was a little implausible. Why aren't Tempe and Pete divorced already. Quit dragging it out and choose once and for all.

The plot was a basic mystery. I did like the character Emily. I thought she added to the book. When Tempe finally figures out why people are being murdered, she was a little more horrified than me. At that point, I was just trying to finish the book so I could return it to the library.

[askum_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not a bad read but not a favorite.

[ben_harnwell · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn't expect much from this pulp style crime novel. I did enjoy it as my commute distraction - it did it's job.

[charitybradford-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The story picked up after a while, but the beginning was confusing. Too many names and cases in the very beginning. At times the technical talk was too much for me, and I found myself skimming...a lot.

Perhaps I just missed the characters from Bones, since I fell in love with the series before reading Reichs. I have another book to read, so we will see if I like her better as I get used to her style.

[barbara31542 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderfully and brilliantly written, this Tempe Brennan story is another winner. I couldn't put it down after the first chapter.

[jessiqa_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the ninth books in the Dr. Temperance Brennan series. Brennan, like Reichs, is a forensic anthropologist, which means she studies the bones of corpses to verify who they are and how they died. The popular TV series Bones is based on these books. However, Dr. Brennan in the book seems to have a very different personality from her TV counterpart, so don’t expect the books to be exactly the same as the show. Dr. Brennan is working on an archaeological dig at a development site and finds a Sewee Native American burial ground. Then she finds a more recent burial which may just tie in to a missing persons case her estranged husband is in town working on. Enter a megachurch with dubious accounting policies, and a poorly run free health clinic, and you have the workings of a horrific conspiracy.I’m not sure if it because I came in during the middle of the series rather than starting at book one, but I found parts of the books a little dull. We are not given much of a chance to get to know Detective Ryan until near the middle of the book, which made it difficult to understand his reasons and motivations. Perhaps if I already knew him from the previous books, I wouldn’t have struggled so much with that. Otherwise, it was an alright jumping in point. The story takes place in Charleston, rather than Brennan’s home base of Charlotte, so it can almost be taken as a stand-alone. I felt the start of the book was on the slow side, but it certainly picked up around the midway point. By the end I wasn’t sure which way we were heading at all. I enjoy a good surprise ending like that.

[AmandaHudoyo · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

not one of the author's best, pretty good to read.
knock one star for the chaos at the end.

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Brennan is more tempermental and emotional in this book than I remember her. The Pete/Ryan thing is awkward -- could you or the men really handle sharing the same living space with your boyfriend and your ex (actually current) husband? Weird.
The dead bodies that show up are way too coincidentally connected, and towards the end the "mystery" gets dragged out longer than necessary with back-and-forth who's framing whom deliberation (way too obvious, though).
As always, a beach read.

[fiberbabble_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this on cassette - don't recall if it was abridged. Entertaining and smart, I'm happy to read or listen to any of Reichs' Brennan books.

[deequa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

creator of tv series BONES, I loved the show first and went back to read the books. They are different but still good. More Patricia Cornwell than the show. Details galore, sometimes too much maybe.

[jfhilborne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Break No Bones is a mystery set in Charleston, South Carolina.Forensic anthropologist, Temperance Brennan, is teaching a group of students and finds a fresh corpse among ancient bones during a dig. At the request of the local coroner, Dr. Brennan assists with the investigation and, before long, more bodies turn up. Dr. Brennan must piece together the clues to uncover the mystery, and protect herself from those who wish to stop her uncovering too much.At the same time, Dr. Brennan must handle a disturbing secret about her friend, plus juggle a complex love life involving an ex-husband she still loves and a current boyfriend who comes to visit while her husband is staying with her in a rented beach house and investigating the disappearance of a local woman.The main plot is a little predictable. The reader is required to have a good understanding of the structure of the human body and a good memory to keep track of the numerous victims. The story lacked suspense and the authors penchant for one-word sentences made it a less enjoyable read.

[joannsmithainsworth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not as well written as I expected, but an interesting plot which kept me turning pages.

[clicksclan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this one Tempe is conducting an anthropological field school on an island currently undergoing development, when they dig up a body which is a little too modern for the course. While investigating this, Tempe's estranged husband shows up in town conducting a little investigation of his own. Then things get a bit messier and her current on/off love Andrew Ryan shows up for a visit as well. Oh yeah, and there's some more murders in there as well.I'd more or less forgotten this book, though as the series progressed I realised I hadn't read about Pete, Tempe's ex, getting shot so it had to have been in one of the later books that I'd read. And I was right, it was in this one. Aside from that, I remembered very little of the actual cases in this one so it was more like reading it for the first time.I liked this one more than Cross Bones because it was back to dealing with murder cases and criminal investigations again, however having Tempe, her ex-husband and her current boyfriend all decend on this small town and get involved in the investigation is a little far-fetched. There would have to have been some repercussions in the prosecution if they found out that these extra people had gotten involved.I was willing to let that go though, because it was a good read. I think one of the main things I liked about it was the fact that I couldn't remember who did it. Not so good for getting sleep as it did mean that I ended up staying up far too late reading; promising myself just one more chapter and then getting to a cliffhanger and thinking 'well I can't stop now'.One thing that does bug me about the character of Tempe Brennan is her indecision regarding Andrew Ryan. I realise that first and foremost it's a series of crime books, I don't read them expecting romance, but I still remember that moment when they first almost hooked up. I was on the train pulling into Glasgow Central on my way to university and I was hurriedly reading, wanting to find out what would happen before I had to get off and put my book away!But nine books on, the will they/won't they is beginning to wear a bit thin. I'd like them to either hurry up and make a decision one way or the other. They're both adults and it's been about ten years, cut to the chase already! If they are going to split up and Tempe wants to reunite with her husband, then fair enough, but stop going backwards and forwards. Though, that said, I really don't like the idea of Tempe and Pete as much as Tempe and Ryan.

[emmamisiaszek · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Based on her real life experiences, Kathy Reichs’ book series is as realistic as can get. She is Vice President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and was featured number one international best seller on the New York Times list for her debut book, Dejá Dead. So is her ninth book in the series, Break No Bones as intense as the first?Like Patricia Cornwell’s series or Sarah Andrew’s series her books are forensic-filled and personal when her books go into the mind of the main character Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist who divides her time between Montreal and South Carolina solving murders. While working on an ancient burial in South Carolina a fresh corpse reveals a hidden organ harvesting operation held in a hospital for the homeless and poor. Connecting the dots, analyzing the evidence and asking all the hard questions is what Temperance Brennan and her partner and lover Andrew Ryan do in their work to find the murderer in Break no Bones.As always, Kathy Reichs wrote a phenomenal, intense mass murder story with some flare too. I would rate Break No Bones 4 out of 5 stars, especially for her fans and people who in general love crime shows. For people who also love romance there is some featured in the book too, when Temperance’s ex-husband, Pete and partner Andrew Ryan fight for her affection. So all in all Break No Bones is a great book and I’m curious to see what Temperance Brennan will get into next!

[redheadish · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read this in 2011 after finding 3 of Reichs books at a thrift and buying then reading outof sequence I relized I had to read them all in order! I just love Kathy reichs books!

[catalogthis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Requires great suspension of disbelief to swallow the idea of Tempe (a forensic anthropologist from Charlotte), Ryan (her detective boyfriend from Quebec), and Pete (her estranged husband, a lawyer) solving murders in Charleston. Hello, jurisdiction?And a shoutout to my librarian friends - you might find it annoying that Tempe searches in vain for a journal article online, and then suddenly her hindbrain reminds her where to find it (conveniently, in a book in her living room). A woman with a PhD can't use a database? Gah.Criticism aside, this is a good example of the series. Fun, quick, some red herrings to keep it from being *too* easy for the reader to solve.

[jepeters333 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Brennan uncovers a skeleton and 2 more bodies whose deaths seem to be related. They point back to a fee clinic and their employees. Story was pretty good, narration was not so great.

[kaylol · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first book I read by this author and it is good.

[docwalt10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed this first experience of a Temperance Brennan Novel. Want to collect her series of novels from the beginning. Bones, the TV show, is a favourite, although I can see it bears little resemblance to the books.

[baswood · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well written mystery thriller, however I am just not very keen on the fast paced wise cracking style. Everything is just too slick especially the Temperence Brennan character

[joybee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book. However, it was somewhat unrealistic in that Dr. Brennan and boyfriend Andrew Ryan pretty much take over the investigation and the small town, Charleston, SC Sheriff doesn't seem unhappy about their help or interference. But overlooking that small detail, it was a fun read and hard to put down. The story had some good twists and turns and Tempe is trying to figure out and understand her feelings for her estranged husband Pete. So the story is about bones found by Tempe and her students doing an archeological dig in Charleston. These bones are new compared to the Native American graves they have uncovered. These bones lead Brennan into an investigation involving a church-run free clinic and missing homeless people. Meanwhile Pete is hired by a client to look into the financial side of this same church and try to get information about the client's missing daughter, last seen working at the free clinic.

[sixteendays · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Possibly the most disappointing book I've ever read.

[mairangiwoman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am sure I have read this before but absolutely enjoyed it the 2nd time! Grisly remains at times are found over a reasonably short period of time and Tempe manages to beat the cops at finding out the common link.

[tmbcoughlin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

easy read. Temperance Brennan is nothing like the TV character with the exception of her profession. The book takes place in Charleston, SC. where temperance in on a dig and discovers a body that does not belong at the site. She works with the local coroner to identify the body and its cause of death. One body turns into two and the mystery gradually unveils itself all the while she is dealing emotionally with her separated husband and boyfriend all temporarily under one roof. It is an easy read; the only trouble I had with the book was Temperance's perception and seeming reality that she as an anthropologist was more capable than the sherrif at puzzling through the who done it portion of the myster; otherwise, it was a good read. She is a character filled with many emotions and she is believable.