On March 17, 2020, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan returns in A Conspiracy of Bones, the next book in Kathy Reichs’ #1 New York Times bestselling series.
First introduced in the 1997 novel Déjà Dead, Temperance “Bones” Brennan has gone on to become one of the genre’s best lead characters, starring in eighteen novels to date—and was portrayed by actress Emily Deschanel on the hit television show Bones, which was based loosely on Reich’s books.
A forensic anthropologist herself, Reichs earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in anthropology from American University, and is said to be one of 100 anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. Aside from writing, Reichs is on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. In 2011, she made headlines by testifying in the widely-covered trial of Casey Anthony—who stood accused of murdering her three-year-old daughter, Caylee—and presented her findings after analyzing Caylee’s skeleton, in which she saw no signs of abuse. In an interview with MSNBC, Reichs said she agreed to testify because she “found it disturbing what was going on in some of the media,” before elaborating that “I think we are entitled in our system to a trial before a jury of our peers in a courtroom, and not in the media.”
A Conspiracy of Bones will be Reichs’ first full Brennan novel since 2015’s Speaking in Bones, and is the first book as part of a new deal with Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, that she signed in June. Reichs did release a Brennan-related project in 2016, a short story collection called The Bone Collection, and she also published a thrilling standalone novel in 2017 called Two Nights. That said, fans will likely be thrilled to get their hands on the next book in the series, and we have all the juicy plot details—along with the striking cover art—below.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a new riveting novel featuring her vastly popular character forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who must use all her tradecraft to discover the identity of a faceless corpse, its connection to a decades-old missing child case, and why the dead man had her cellphone number.
It’s sweltering in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Temperance Brennan, still recovering from neurosurgery following an aneurysm, is battling nightmares, migraines, and what she thinks might be hallucinations when she receives a series of mysterious text messages, each containing a new picture of a corpse that is missing its face and hands. Immediately, she’s anxious to know who the dead man is, and why the images were sent to her.
An identified corpse soon turns up, only partly answering her questions.
To win answers to the others, including the man’s identity, she must go rogue, working mostly outside the system. That’s because Tempe’s new boss holds a fierce grudge against her and is determined to keep her out of the case. Tempe bulls forward anyway, even as she begins questioning her instincts. But the clues she discovers are disturbing and confusing. Was the faceless man a spy? A trafficker? A target for assassination by the government? And why was he carrying the name of a child missing for almost a decade?
With help from a number of law enforcement associates including her Montreal beau Andrew Ryan and the always-ready-with-a-smart-quip, ex-homicide investigator Skinny Slidell, and utilizing new cutting-edge forensic methods, Tempe draws closer to the astonishing truth.
But the more she uncovers, the darker and more twisted the picture becomes…
Praised as “One of the hardest working, most thoughtful, and fairest reviewers out there” by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor and pens a monthly thriller column for CrimeReads. For more information, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.