‘Bones to Ashes’ by Kathy Reichs (Temperance Brennan # 10)

Tenth in the series, this instalment begins with a bit of rare background into Temperance’s childhood, mainly to introduce a young friend who mysteriously disappeared many long years ago, and whose bones just might have been the ones recently recovered. The topics of this mystery include child trafficking, leprosy, and some Acadian history–a slightly weird mix of things. This is not one of her best, it didn’t hold my interest all that much and suffers from weak plotting which is unusual for Reichs. But then we’re all entitled to a bad day right? It’s funny because the last one I read, #9 Break No Bones, was one of my all time favourites of hers and I do always love learning about forensic anthropology from her books. If you are reading the series in order like I am, you might want to pick it up anyway, but since there is little or no development in Tempe’s personal life in this book either (her relationship with Ryan just continues to be fraught), no one would blame you for skipping over it to the eleventh in the series. I’m still a Reichs fan and will definitely be looking forward to reading the next one.