The Bone Code
CBC Books | | Posted: July 6, 2021 1:55 PM | Last Updated: July 6, 2021
Kathy Reichs
On the way to hurricane-ravaged Isle of Palms, a barrier island off the South Carolina coast, Tempe receives a call from the Charleston coroner. The storm has tossed ashore a medical waste container. Inside are two decomposed bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting and bound with electrical wire. Tempe recognizes many details as identical to those of an unsolved case she handled in Quebec years earlier. With a growing sense of foreboding, she travels to Montreal to gather evidence.
Meanwhile, health authorities in South Carolina become increasingly alarmed as a human flesh-eating contagion spreads. So focused is Tempe on identifying the container victims that, initially, she doesn't register how their murders and the pestilence may be related. But she does recognize one unsettling fact. Someone is protecting a dark secret — and is willing to do anything to keep it hidden. (From Simon & Schuster)
Kathy Reichs is a forensic anthropologist, academic and bestselling crime writer with more than 20 novels to her credit. Her bestelling mystery series about forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan was adapted into the hit television show Bones.
The Bone Code will be published on July 6, 2021.
From the book
Though it was only 3:20 p.m., little light filtered in through the lobby doors or windows. All was quiet inside the building. Save for the security guard, not in evidence but undoubtedly present, I seemed to be the only person left on the premises.
The woman sat in the chair opposite Mrs. Flowers's command post. Her feet, shod in sensible oxfords, rested primly side by side on the carpet. She appeared to be studying the laces.
My first thought: the woman was the dowdy aunt from Peoria. A ratty shawl wrapped her from shoulder to calf, and a floral print scarf, tied babushka style, covered her hair. A curved-handled umbrella hung from one wrist, and a frayed tweed tote sat centred on her lap.
My second thought: why the cold-weather gear when the thermometer that day had registered an unseasonable 80 degrees?
From The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs ©2021. Published by Simon & Schuster