‘Fire and Bones’ by Kathy Reichs

Published by Simon and Schuster.
1^st August 2024.
ISBN 978-1-3985-3117-8 (HB)

Fire and Bones is the latest in Kathy Reichs’ series featuring forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan. Tempe’s daughter, Katy, asks her mother to help Ivy Doyle, a TV news journalist, to understand how the bones of people feared dead in a house fire in Washington D.C. will be processed.  Given that Tempe is an expert in the analysis of burned human remains, and that Ivy had saved Katy’s life when she was serving in Afghanistan, Tempe felt she had no alternative but to help even though it meant cancelling time away with her long-term boyfriend, Ryan. Tempe drives to Washington and ends up staying with Ivy and her drop-dead gorgeous fiancé, Zanetti, who works in real estate.

The next day, it transpires that the fire that had engulfed a large, run-down old house in the Foggy Bottom area of Washington had probably been started deliberately. Apart from the bodies of four victims known to be missing, Tempe discovers a fifth body tied up in an old sack in the basement. The sack predates the fire by many years.  Why had whomsoever it contained been killed and dumped in a cellar? Was their death and those of the others living in the house related to the current fire, or were they simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? Had one of the four residents been a target? If so, why? 

More houses are set on fire and a man is shot. Ivy’s research shows that all the houses have been owned by the same company right back to the era when the Foggy Bottom gang of bootleggers and drug dealers had been active in the area. But why are people being killed and houses set on fire now? Can families continue feuding and carrying grudges for decades or is there some other commercial reason for the fires?

As usual, Kathy Reichs has presented Tempe and her readers with a thought-provoking and complicated puzzle. Whilst simultaneously simplifying the science and taking us on an informative tour of historical Washington, Tempe’s determined search for justice for the victims rarely falters. Whether Tempe is coping with the difficulties of looking after somebody’s pet chinchilla, wondering why boyfriend Ryan isn’t communicating with her, or being threatened with being shot from time to time, Reichs manages to inject a goodly smattering of humour into Fire and Bones. New readers are in for a treat and old ones will be delighted that Tempe Brennan continues to tackle tricky mysteries whilst remaining a humane and likable individual.
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Reviewer Angela Crowther.

Kathy Reichs is forensic anthropologist for the Offices of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina, and for the Laboratorie de Sciences Judiciaires et de M-decine L-gale for the province of Quebec. A professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal and is a frequent expert witness in criminal trials. 

Kathyreichs.com

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.