Cross Bones

May 9, 2005
Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Tempe" Brennan gets caught in mysteries past and present when she's called in to determine if illegal antiquities dealer Avram Ferris's gunshot death is murder or suicide. An acquaintance of Avram suggests the former: he hands Tempe a photograph of a skeleton, taken in Israel in 1963, and insists it's the reason Avram is dead. Tempe's longtime boyfriend, Quebecois detective Andrew Ryan, is also involved with the case, so the duo head to Israel where they attempt to solve the murder and a mystery revolving around a first-century tomb that may contain the remains of the family of Jesus Christ. This find threatens the worldwide Christian community, the Israeli and Jewish hierarchy and numerous illegal antiquity dealers, any of whom might be out to kill Tempe and Ryan. Not that Tempe notices. She has the habit of being oblivious to danger, which quickly becomes annoying, as does Reichs's tendency to end chapters with a heavy-handed cliffhanger ("His next words sent ice up my spine"). The plot is based on a number of real-life anthropological mysteries, and fans of such will have a good time, though thriller readers looking for chills and kills may not find the novel quite as satisfying. Agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh.

June 7, 2010
Tempe Brenner, stationed in Quebec, is assigned to participate in an autopsy on a Hasidic Jew who was found shot to death in a warehouse closet. At the autopsy, a stranger hands her a photo of an ancient skeleton as an explanation for the victim's death. An investigation suggests that the skeleton may be the remains of an individual who died at Massada, a mountain near Jerusalem where a famous battle between the Zealots and the Romans took place in 73 C.E. Tempe and Detective Andrew Ryan travel to Israel to question the main suspect in the murder investigation, and while there, Tempe meets with a colleague who may have stumbled across the Jesus family tomb. Will Tempe's discovery shake the foundations of the three major world religions? engrossing story follows. Recommended fro all public libraries.