people are dead, and her expertise is required yet again ("The skull had suffered massive communitive fracturing on impact. The fire had done the rest"). Brennan eventually realizes that all three cases are linked to a drug-smuggling ring that also dabbles in poaching exotic animals. As she pursues her investigations, she is forced to work with "Skinny" Slidell, a redneck cop who rubs her the wrong way, but tension is defused by the presence of Ryan, who gamely gives up his vacation to pitch in. He matches Brennan quip for quip, and Tempes dog, Boyd, provides extra comic relief. Reichs has built a reputation on cut-to-the-chase writing and swift plotting, and this latest effort delivers everything her fans have come to expect.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
A giant step up from her lackluster Grave Secrets (2002), Reichs latest puts her right up there with Patricia Cornwells early Kay Scarpetta mysteries. The similarities are obvious--single woman forensic specialist (Reichs character is Tempe Brennan, who splits her time between North Carolina and Canada) with a daughter, a romantic interest, a generally repellent but perspicacious detective in the background, and an abundance of gory detail and science fact. This time Tempe is in North Carolina, poking her keen investigative nose into what seems at first to be an alarmingly sprawling mess that includes everything from bear bones to a headless corpse. But unlike in Grave Secrets, Reichs manages to pull mostly everything together here (though not without a quick fix or two), and her characters dedication, intelligence, dry wit, and femininity (her romance with Andrew Ryan, lieutenant-detective of the Surete du Quebec, takes a pleasant leap forward) really shine through. A comeback that is definitely hard to put down.
Stephanie Zvirin