Cold, Cold Bones

By Kathy Reichs

#1 New York Times bestselling thriller writer Kathy Reichs returns with her twenty-first novel of suspense featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan who, after receiving a box containing a human eyeball, uncovers a series of gruesome killings eerily reenacting the most shocking of her prior cases.

‘Kathy Reichs has written her masterpiece’ MICHAEL CONNELLY

Winter has come to North Carolina and, with it, a drop in crime. Freed from a heavy work schedule, Tempe Brennan is content to dote on her daughter Katy, finally returned to civilian life from the army. But when mother and daughter meet at Tempe’s place one night, they find a box on the back porch. Inside: a very fresh human eyeball.

GPS coordinates etched into the eyeball lead to a Benedictine monastery where an equally macabre discovery awaits. Soon after, Tempe examines a mummified corpse in a state park, and her anxiety deepens.

There seems to be no pattern to the subsequent killings uncovered, except that each mimics in some way a homicide that a younger Tempe had been called in to analyze. Who or what is targeting her, and why?

Helping Tempe search for answers is detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell, retired but still volunteering with the CMPD cold case unit—and still displaying his gallows humor. Also pulled into the mystery: Andrew Ryan, Tempe’s Montreal-based beau, now working as a private detective.

Could this elaborately staged skein of mayhem be the prelude to a twist that is even more shocking? Tempe is at a loss to establish the motive for what is going on…and then her daughter disappears.

At its core, Cold, Cold Bones is a novel of revenge—one in which revisiting the past may prove the only way to unravel the present.

Kathy Reichs’s first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. Cold, Cold Bones is Kathy’s twenty-first entry in her series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Kathy 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, Kathy divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Québec. Visit her at KathyReichs.com or follow her on Twitter @KathyReichs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
• Release date: Jul 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781761103933

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 X @KathyReichs, Instagram @KathyReichs, or Facebook @KathyReichsBooks. 

Reviews for Cold, Cold Bones

[seasidereader · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review contains spoilers.I continue to enjoy the series and Reichs' snappy dialog. The audio narrator, Linda Emond, is excellent. I love that Skinny is back, and want more of Ryan.I do not love that increasingly Tempe's cases seem to be more about her than the victims.And could she please chill with the neurons firing and the id sending messages?In this installment, the identity of the perpetrator was foreshadowed pretty early on.

[juju2cat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a classic Tempe novel. There's plenty of action and a great who-dun-it atmosphere. Then why am I not happy? It isn't just this series; there are series I have loved for years that now leave me wanting. Perhaps that's why I gravitate to authors like Tana French where good people are left scarred by real life and the ennui doesn't exist.Don't get me wrong, it's a great book. You will love it.

[deaconbernie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If she wasn't a well-established writer, I would mark this book off as a waste of time. Her command of profanity is distressingly admirable. On the other hand, the story is unique and well-told. It is certainly a much different Temperance Brenne than the one portrayed by Emily Deschanel. I shall read Reichs again to see if this volume is typical or an aberration.

[romonko · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is book number 21 in the Temperance Brennan series. I have been reading every single one. The series is still viable as far as I'm concerned, but the books are not quite as good as the earlier ones in the series. This one was marginally better than the last, and I enjoyed it quite a lot to about halfway through, but then it started to wear on me. I found the tension had dropped off, and I don't particularly like the "shotgun" form of conversation with truncated and one-word sentences. Tempe is a scientist, not a hard-nosed detective or perp. The abrupt form of communication she assumes throughout the book doesn't quite ring true. The books are always told in the first-person, so the shotgun repartee just didn't seem to fit somehow. This story begins with an eyeball showing up on Tempe's back step. Things go from puzzling, to jarring to downright scary and then to depraved. As usual Tempe finds herself in a pack of trouble and dealing with a particularly insane and vicious suspect, and she puts herself and her loved ones in grave danger. The book is not terrible, and, in fact, in parts it is quite gripping and kept me reading. I will continue to read this series.

[virginia51-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story starts fast and just keeps going. I love Temperance Brennan stories. There are a lot of twists and turns. I enjoyed learning about how Katy is doing now that she is out of the army. This book was hard to put down. I received a copy of this book from Scribner for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.