I love Tempe Brennan. I haven't read every book about her, but I've read most of them. In Bones of the Lost Tempe slowly pieces together a mystery about a young girl found dead on the side of the road. She's the victim of an apparent hit and run. The story has a lot of twists and turns, and did manage to surprise me.
But, what I love about Tempe is her forensic investigations, and Bones of the Lost barely delivered any of the scientific descriptions I have come to expect. Brennan goes to go to Afghanistan to exhume some bodies and does describe how you can tell the trajectory of a bullet through bone, but that's about it for the whole novel.
Yes, she's the one that figures out the mystery and makes the connections. But any detective can do that! I need her mucking around in a septic tank, like the early Temperance Brennan books.
I also missed Ryan, the love interest. The banter between Tempe and Ryan are some of the best parts of other books. Pete, the ex, is OK, but he's no Ryan. And the detective she's working with on this case, Slidell, has no personality whatsoever. He's just a filler character.
Bones of the Lost is a great story. It is fast paced, and well-written. It just didn't have the critical elements of a Tempe Brennan story, so I was left a bit disappointed. I think I need to go back and read some of Reichs' earlier stories that I fell in love with.
Published by Scribner, August 27. 2013
eBook obtained from Edelweiss
336 pages
Rating: 4/5
Such a neat sounding premise and idea
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