THE BONE CODE

4 stars out of 5

I've been a fan of this series it seems like forever - this is the 20th book, and I doubt I've missed more than a couple. They're always a treat to read, and this one is no exception. Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is off to meet a friend who lives on the Isle of Palms off the coast of South Carolina amid a Category 3 storm that's threatening evacuation. A call from the coroner in Charleston tells her some kind of container has washed up on the beach. It seems the container's filled with two dead bodies - wrapped up in plastic sheeting and secured with electrical wire. Uh, oh, Tempe says to herself - that's too close for comfort to a case she handled in Quebec, where she regularly serves as a consultant in Montreal.

Concerned, she snags a flight to Montreal, hoping she can convince her supervisor there to reopen that old case. But she's also eager to touch base with her love buddy, Andrew Ryan, who's retired from the police and now puts his investigative skills to work as a private eye.

Just as she's prepping to head out, though, she's visited by an elderly lady  who shows Tempe some photos and asks for help identifying a suspected ancestor. A little bit of research unearths a connection to so-called "death masks," but Tempe has little time to deal with it and hands off the task to the friend with whom she's staying on the island (there's a bit more mention of this story thread and it's kind of interesting, but it never seemed very important to the rest of the book).

As if dead bodies and a potentially deadly hurricane weren't enough, Charleston is facing terror of a different sort: not long after the threat of COVID-19 has faded, a new virus is on the horizon and spreading quickly. Tagged as "capnocytophaga," it appears to be transmitted to humans by way of dog bites. This outbreak, too, threads its way throughout the story, but the really good part lies in whether, and how, there's a connection between the four bodies found in containers 15 years apart. That investigation, with Tempe's charge aided and abetted by Andrew, gets the lion's share of pages (as it should) and puts both of their lives in danger more than once.

Throughout it all, the author's humor shines through (sometimes in the form of banter between Tempe and Andrew). And oh, did I mention how much I love Andrew? Not only is he extremely competent and oozes French charm when he wants to, this guy drinks Moosehead. That makes him un homme apres mon propre coeur (a man after my own heart, if my Googled translation is correct).

I must say, though, that while I love the medical stuff - one of the main reasons I'm attracted to this series - this one was a little too technical in spots for me to fully "get." But hear this: at no point did I want to put it down. In large part, chalk that up to the author's game of ending chapters with cliffhangers (some more precarious than others). Yeah, I tried to ignore that when dinner or bedtime came, but more often than not, she won.

All in all, excellent once again. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.

The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs (Scribner, July 2021); 368 pp.