Book Review Older-32nd

Review—Cross Bones

Cross Bones, written by Kathy Reichs.  Published by Scribner Publishing in June, 2005; with 348 pages.

In Montreal, Canada, Temperance Brennan (Tempe) is the local forensic anthropologist.   A recent shooting victim, an Orthodox Jewish man, is the subject of controversy in how his autopsy will progress.  The only way to truly determine whether this was a possible suicide or possibly a professional job may be for Tempe to evaluate the skull, which due to the late discovery was a dinner source for some of the local felines that were locked in the room with the victim.

          Detective Andrew Ryan is her constant friend and frequent lover and he is currently investigating the shooting victim.  While talking with the family during the autopsy, a stranger hands Tempe a picture that leads her from a nearby monastery to Israel.  The picture shows bones from an archaeological dig site and Tempe contacts her friend and colleague Jake Drum, who is a biblical archaeologist, and the drama and intrigue, begins.  She travels to the monastery and retrieves the bones, the same bones, that Jake is certain have historically biblical significance.  Tempe sends the bones for carbon-dating and DNA testing, and while waiting for the DNA, she and Ryan set out on a course to Israel to return the bones to the country they came from.  The bones have dated back to more than 2000 years and have the possibility of being connected to the Son of God, and the shooting victim turns out to be connected to this convoluted case, so Ryan is her traveling companion.   These bones also, seem to be connected to multiple deaths and continuing danger to Tempe.

          Kathy Reichs has written several Brennan novels, and this one raises many questions concerning the current reigning religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and the beliefs that could be shaken to the core if the bones from the cross were ever recovered.  This book also investigates many other strange possibilities and though I’ve read some of her past books and found them enjoyable, this book was overly descriptive and moved very slowly.  It was a bit of a chore to finish and only answered one of the many questions it rose, and that was the cause of death of the dinner man.  The Fox channel is going to be showing a new show called Bones, and it was written by this author and centers on Tempe Brennan.  I will try her new books, as others have moved faster, and I’ll probably try the new show, as I have enjoyed this character in the past, but this one book left me just trying to get it finished.