The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs

I received this book for free from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs’s twentieth gripping novel featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, whose examinations, fifteen years apart, of unidentified bodies ignite a terrifying series of events.

On the way to hurricane-ravaged Isle of Palms, a barrier island off the South Carolina coast, Tempe receives a call from the Charleston coroner. The storm has tossed ashore a medical waste container. Inside are two decomposed bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting and bound with electrical wire. Tempe recognizes many details as identical to those of an unsolved case she handled in Quebec years earlier. With a growing sense of foreboding, she travels to Montreal to gather evidence.

Meanwhile, health authorities in South Carolina become increasingly alarmed as a human flesh-eating contagion spreads. So focused is Tempe on identifying the container victims that, initially, she doesn’t register how their murders and the pestilence may be related. But she does recognize one unsettling fact. Someone is protecting a dark secret—and is willing to do anything to keep it hidden.

An absorbing look at the sinister uses to which genetics can be put, and featuring a cascade of ever-more-shocking revelations, The Bone Code is Temperance Brennan’s most astonishing case yet—one that gives new meaning to today’s headlines.

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Trigger Warnings: Murder, Child Murder, Gore, Descriptions of Dead Bodies, Animal Cruelty, Attempted Murder, Mentions of DNA modification and vaccines.

In the early 2000s, I fell in love with a TV show called Bones. I would later discover that the TV show was loosely based on the Temperance Brennan series of books by Kathy Reichs. Earlier this year, I decided I was going to make it a point to read/listen to as many of those books as I could. I didn’t get too far in, but I knew I had the 20th book in the series, The Bone Code, in my NetGalley queue. I finally got off my butt and read it.

First things first, you don’t have to read the Temperance Brennan books in order to understand what’s going on. You’ll be given enough details to help you figure things out if previous books are referenced. So don’t let this being the 20th book in the series scare you off. You can totally read this without reading any of the others first.

I love Temperance’s character. I find it funny that she isn’t nearly as “odd” in the books as she is in the TV show Bones. In the show, she doesn’t understand pop culture references and is very clinical, doesn’t get social cues. In the books, she isn’t like that at all. Which is nice because I’m not sure I’d like the books as much as I do if she was. I also enjoy Andrew Ryan’s character. He’s the perfect foil for Temperance and I love to see all the little tidbits of their relationship.

As for the plot of this particular book, I thought it was very intriguing. A “new” case in the Carolinas is startlingly similar to a 15 year old case from Canada that Temperance and Andrew had worked on. This leads them both down a path filled with danger and surprising revelations. I was kept wondering what would happen next and I absolutely loved the way the plot kept twisting. This book was definitely not boring.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It is a mix between a slow-burn and fast-paced. Some areas are slow, some move really fast. The buildup to the final fight scene was well executed. I wasn’t left feeling let down by the ending – it was a great ending to a great book.

If you like mystery/thrillers and you like series, I definitely recommend this book and this series.