About The Book

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a twisty, magnetic “thriller of the highest order” (Bookreporter) featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who finds herself enmeshed in a series of grisly animal killings that escalate into something far more sinister.

Small creatures—a rat, a rabbit, a squirrel—have been turning up throughout Charlotte, North Carolina, mutilated and displayed in a bizarre manner. But one day, as Tempe is relaxing at home alongside her aimless, moody great-niece Ruthie, she’s diverted by a disturbing call. The perp is upping the ante. This find could be human.

Tempe visits the scene and discovers that the victim is a dog. Someone’s pet. As one who has always found animal cruelty abhorrent, Tempe agrees to help apprehend the person responsible, and she acquires an equally outraged ally in semi-retired homicide detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell. Needing a better understanding of possible motives, Tempe seeks input from a forensic psychologist. The doctor has no definitive answer but offers several possibilities, warning that the escalating pattern of aggression suggests even more macabre discoveries—and a shift in the perp’s focus to humans.

And then it happens. A woman is found disfigured and posed in a manner that mimics the animal killings. Subsequently, people Tempe cares about begin to go missing until it becomes clear she is being taunted, the target in a sick game that has her and Slidell racing against a ticking clock. In this “grisly mystery that keeps us guessing” (Booklist), Tempe faces a terrifying question: “What is pure evil?”

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.

About The Reader

Linda Emond

Linda Emond has been nominated for three Tony Awards for her work in Cabaret, Death of a Salesman, and Life x 3. For her work off-Broadway, she is the recipient of a Lucille Lortel Award and an Obie. Television credits include Lodge 49, The Good Wife, Succession, and The Gilded Age. Film credits include Gemini Man, The Big Sick, Across the Universe, and Julie & Julia.

Product Details

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (November 18, 2025)
Runtime: 8 hours and 33 minutes
ISBN13: 9781668132937

Raves and Reviews

"Narrator Linda Emond's deliberate pacing and the building tension of her delivery create a compelling listen. The latest installment of the Temperance Brennan series finds the forensic anthropologist in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her volatile niece, Ruthie, when a string of small-animal mutilations escalates to the murder of a woman. Tempe partners with semiretired homicide detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell to find out who’s behind the violence. As they get closer to the truth, people in Tempe’s life begin to go missing, and she and Skinny must confront questions about the nature of evil. Emond does an excellent job of balancing the scientific aspects of Temperance Brennan’s work and the horror of the violence."

– AudioFile Magazine

"Narrator Linda Emond's deliberate pacing and the building tension of her delivery create a compelling listen. The latest installment of the Temperance Brennan series finds the forensic anthropologist in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her volatile niece, Ruthie, when a string of small-animal mutilations escalates to the murder of a woman. Tempe partners with semiretired homicide detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell to find out who’s behind the violence. As they get closer to the truth, people in Tempe’s life begin to go missing, and she and Skinny must confront questions about the nature of evil. Emond does an excellent job of balancing the scientific aspects of Temperance Brennan’s work and the horror of the violence."

– AudioFile Magazine