Book Review: Kathy Reichs' new thriller sees a killer among the mangroves

"Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist, and this is her 22nd outing under the authorship of Kathy Reichs."

Author Kathy Reichs. Pic: Nick Bradshaw

• The Bone Hacker
• Kathy Reichs
• Simon & Schuster, pb €12.99

Temperance Brennan, in spite of her name, has a problem with alcohol, so when her latest case leads her to the islands of Turks and Caicos, her punches must be free of rum. 

Brennan is a forensic anthropologist, and this is her 22nd outing under the authorship of Kathy Reichs.

Bones are what Brennan hacks, delicately, as part of her job, and the word bone features in most of the titles of the series begun by Reichs in 1997. 

Since then she has written roughly one book per year and The Bone Hacker is the latest iteration.

For this outing Reichs drags her unwilling protagonist to the British overseas territory in the Caribbean. 

A gang member has died while in Brennan’s home territory of Montreal, and a visiting superintendent Tiersa Musgrove, from Providenciales, persuades the anthropologist to fly back with her to study some male skeletons dating from seven years back to the present day.

Every year or so some bones have been found and easily identified as those of young men with ‘film star looks’ but no criminal records. 

In each case, the dead tourist has lost his left hand. 

It seems that Brennan is not the only bone hacker on the island, there is also a serial wrist severer on the loose. 

Many locations have names suggesting paradise, but Brennan misses her home in Montreal and life partners, Ryan, an ex-cop and Birdie, a cat.

In addition, she has no peace in her laboratory but, instead, is taken out in the field by Musgrove and, later, her subordinate, nicknamed Monk.

Delroy Monck is Irish Jamaican, and is a colourful character, not only in the way he dresses. 

His sartorial choices include orange or ecru pants and a coral shirt, but his unique appearance mainly stems from a Star Wars prosthetic left arm. 

The Bone Hacker by Kathy Reichs

This tool, of course, does not leave fingerprints; when he is searching a crime scene only one glove is required.

Dissatisfied by the number of corpses, Reichs introduces a boat of bodies drifting on the blue ocean. 

There are four men and a boy, emaciated and seemingly undamaged by anything other than thirst. 

Why did they not call for help, using their radios and other technology? Why just sit aimlessly on the deck waiting to die?

However, she’s not finished yet. Reichs has powder up her sleeve and delivers further shock deaths: one of the key suspects and one of the main characters are sacrificed to intensify the plot. Officers from the FBI arrive too. 

Is the population of the island sufficient to support killers and deceased? Even Brennan’s life is threatened more than once as she attempts to help the local law enforcers find the murderer(s).

As a result of Brennan’s slicing and microscopic inspection of bones useful clues emerge but also important are her acute observational skills alongside her encyclopaedic knowledge of sharp weapons. 

As a forensic anthropologist herself Reichs is able to provide accurate detail.

There is another threat however, this one global rather than parochial, something as serious as the 9/11 attacks. 

Can the forces for good find the evil perpetrators in time to prevent a catastrophe? Reichs has written a pageturner which stays just within the realms of credibility.