Bones Are Forever

Kathy Reichs

2012 • 400 pages

Ratings18

Average rating3.8

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs, a producer of the Fox hit show Bones, is back with her fifteenth “pulse-pounding” (Publishers Weekly) novel featuring North America’s favorite forensic anthropologist, Tempe Brennan—a story of infanticide and murder set in the high stakes, high danger world of diamond mining. A woman calling herself Amy Roberts checks into a Montreal hospital complaining of uncontrolled bleeding. Doctors see evidence of a recent birth, but before they can act, Roberts disappears. Dispatched to the address she gave at the hospital, police discover bloody towels outside in a Dumpster. Fearing the worst, they call Temperance Brennan to investigate. In a run-down apartment Tempe makes a ghastly discovery: the decomposing bodies of three infants. According to the landlord, a woman named Alma Rogers lives there. Then a man shows up looking for Alva Rodriguez. Are Amy Roberts, Alma Rogers, and Alva Rodriguez the same person? Did she kill her own babies? And where is she now? Heading up the investigation is Tempe’s old flame, homicide detective Andrew Ryan. His counterpart from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is sergeant Ollie Hasty, who happens to have a little history with Tempe himself, which she regrets. This unlikely trio follows the woman’s trail, first to Edmonton and then to Yellowknife, a remote diamond-mining city deep in the Northwest Territories. What they find in Yellowknife is more sinister than they ever could have imagined. Crackling with sexual tension, whip-smart dialogue, and the startling plot twists Reichs delivers so well, Bones Are Forever is the fifteenth thrilling novel in Reichs’s “cleverly plotted and expertly maintained series” (The New York Times Book Review). With the FOX series Bones in its eighth season and her popularity at its broadest ever, Kathy Reichs has reached new heights in suspenseful storytelling.

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Series

Featured Series

22 primary books25 released books

#15 in Temperance Brennan

Temperance Brennan is a 25-book series with 22 released primary works first released in 1997 with contributions by Kathy Reichs and Lee Child.

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

izza

I didn't really enjoy Spider Bones, and I thought maybe the books would start to disappoint me, but no! This one was really good :)

January 6, 2013

Allison

I do enjoy a good crime novel! Especially when they're free (thanks Goodreads!)

I had never read anything by Kathy Reichs before, and I haven't ever really watched that show Bones before so I do think that parts of this book fell flat for me when maybe it might not have had I had a bit more background.

Bones Are Forever follows Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist working out of Montreal. The book opens with Temperance at a crime scene where the body of a baby has just been found under a bathroom sink. Not the most pleasant of subject matter, that's for sure. The book moves from Montreal, to Edmonton and on to Yellowknife which oddly enough gave the book an exotic feel. Odd because I am Canadian and have traveled through much of Canada. Anyway...

One of the things I enjoyed about this book was that it wasn't too out there. I have read a lot of crime novels that read like a really, really bad action movie. If a plot is SO ridiculous that even my twisted imagination can't find a way to make it work, you have problems (cough Jonathan Kellerman cough). While Bones Are Forever isn't as flashy as a lot of novels, it plans out the twists and turns fairly well. The ending didn't knock my socks off but I felt it was well developed and didn't leave any loose ends.

Unfortunately, I did feel that the relationships fell a little flat for me. I do think that there is a good reason for that as I have never read anything by this author before. I have missed out on character development and back stories that are obviously in her other books and would have added a lot of depth to this one. Nothing was missing so badly that I couldn't enjoy the story, I just didn't really feel much emotion between the characters. Even Temperance comes off a bit cold.

All in all I enjoyed Bones Are Forever. I would definitely pick up another novel by Kathy Reichs and I think if anyone is craving a solid crime novel, this book would be a great one to try. I enjoy strong female characters, I enjoy novels set in Canada and I enjoyed Temperance as a character even if I didn't LOVE her. She was interesting, likable and determined without being a huge pain in the ass.

September 16, 2012

Kari

Much better than the last book in the series! Whew! I wonder if maybe I like Tempe better when she's in Canada? I don't know, but this case had a lot going for it (though I could have done without Ollie) and Tempe is still making bad decisions, but nonetheless I didn't want to throw the book like I did with Flash & Bones!

August 20, 2018