As fresh and shocking as today’s headlines, a “chilling” (People) Temperance Brennan novel in which a harrowing excavation unearths a terrible tragedy never laid to rest—from New York Times bestselling author and world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs.

They are “the disappeared,” twenty-three massacre victims buried in a well in the Guatemalan village of Chupan Ya two decades ago. Leading a team of experts on a meticulous, heartbreaking dig, Tempe Brennan pieces together the violence of the past. But a fresh wave of terror begins when the horrific sounds of a fatal attack on two colleagues come in on a blood-chilling satellite call. Teaming up with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolome Galiano and Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, Tempe quickly becomes enmeshed in the cases of four privileged young women who have vanished from Guatemala City—and finds herself caught in deadly territory where power, money, greed, and science converge.

About The Author

Photograph © Marie-Reine Mattera

Kathy Reichs

Kathy Reichs’s first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. Evil Bones is Reichs’s twenty-fourth novel featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Reichs was also a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama, Bones, which was based on her work and her novels. One of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Reichs divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina. Visit her at KathyReichs.com or follow her on X @KathyReichs, Instagram @KathyReichs, or Facebook @KathyReichsBooks.

Product Details

Publisher: Scribner (July 9, 2002)
Length: 336 pages
ISBN13: 9780743244886

Raves and Reviews

"I can't compare Kathy Reichs to any other writer. She is in a class by herself! She knows more about forensic anthropology AND building intricate suspense than any author I've found in a decade."
—Ann Rule, Author of And Never Let Her Go, Bitter Harvest, and A Rage to Kill.

"A riveting read."
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Enough narrative protein and complex carbohydrates to qualify as [a] summer reading power bar."
—The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)

"The medical details [are] both vivid and fascinating."
—Booklist

"Powerful...A page-turner, and several stages ahead of similar mysteries by Patricia Cornwell."
—The Hartford Courant (CT)

"Ghoulishly entertaining."
—The New York Times

"Cleverly plotted...an entertaining chapter in the casebook of forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan."
—Sunday Telegraph (London)

"Chiling...Fans of TV's C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation should be in heaven."
—People

"If there is anyone as good at the forensic thriller, I don't know who it is. Kathy Reichs's science is cold and elegant, and her characters are warm and complex. The result is irresistible."
—Anne Rivers Siddons

For Cold, Cold Bones

“Reichs is on an incredible streak...The writing is especially sharp here; the story is intense; and Tempe is at her snarky, brook-no-idiots, don’t-mess-with-me best ... In this consistently satisfying series, rank this one near the top."
—Booklist (starred review)