Marvelous: A Novel by Molly Greeley

 Cold, Cold Bones (A Temperance Brennan Novel, #21)

Title:  Cold, Cold Bones
Series:  A Temperance Brennan Novel, # 21

Author: Kathy Reichs
Publisher: Scribner 
Genre:  General Fiction (Adult), Mystery & Thrillers
Format:  Kindle
No. of Pages: 348
Date of Publication:  5 July, 2022
My Rating:  4 Stars

My Thoughts 

This is title # 21 in an obviously well-established, much-loved series, and it’s my first title by this author. Generally, I’ve found that with multi-titled series like this, while you can and really should read from the beginning, for the most part, you can start wherever, and read through the title of your choosing without feeling overly lost. 

Despite this being my first novel in the series, regarding characters and relationships, and that I sensed that I was certainly missing out on past interactions and experiences, I enjoyed this one enough to look forward to going to book number one in this series and reading from there. 

Also, I need to add that the main character’s oft-used nickname continuously made me think of tempeh, which is, thankfully, a favorite. 😆

eARC kindly provided by Scribner and NetGalley. Opinions shared are my own.

Description

#1 New York Times bestselling thriller writer Kathy Reichs returns with her twenty-first novel of suspense featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan who, after receiving a box containing a human eyeball, uncovers a series of gruesome killings eerily reenacting the most shocking of her prior cases.

Winter has come to North Carolina and, with it, a drop in crime. Freed from a heavy work schedule, Tempe Brennan is content to dote on her daughter Katy, finally returned to civilian life from the army. But when mother and daughter meet at Tempe’s place one night, they find a box on the back porch. Inside: a very fresh human eyeball.

GPS coordinates etched into the eyeball lead to a Benedictine monastery where an equally macabre discovery awaits. Soon after, Tempe examines a mummified corpse in a state park, and her anxiety deepens.

There seems to be no pattern to the subsequent killings uncovered, except that each mimics in some way a homicide that a younger Tempe had been called in to analyze. Who or what is targeting her, and why?

Helping Tempe search for answers is detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell, retired but still volunteering with the CMPD cold case unit—and still displaying his gallows humor. Also pulled into the mystery: Andrew Ryan, Tempe’s Montreal-based beau, now working as a private detective.

Could this elaborately staged skein of mayhem be the prelude to a twist that is even more shocking? Tempe is at a loss to establish the motive for what is going on…and then her daughter disappears.

At its core, Cold, Cold Bones is a novel of revenge—one in which revisiting the past may prove the only way to unravel the present.

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