Review - Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs

Series: Temperance Brennan #13

Genre: Mystery

Age Group: Adult

Source: Purchased used

Hardcover: 306 pgs

Scribner (2010)

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Rating: 3/5

John Lowery was declared dead in 1968—the victim of a Huey crash in Vietnam, his body buried long ago in North Carolina. Four decades later, Temperance Brennan is called to the scene of a drowning in Hemmingford, Quebec. The victim appears to have died while in the midst of a bizarre sexual practice. The corpse is later identified as John Lowery. But how could Lowery have died twice, and how did an American soldier end up in Canada?

Tempe sets off for the answer, exhuming Lowery’s grave in North Carolina and taking the remains to Hawaii for reanalysis—to the headquarters of JPAC, the U.S. military’s Joint POW/ MIA Accounting Command, which strives to recover Americans who have died in past conflicts. In Hawaii, Tempe is joined by her colleague and ex-lover Detective Andrew Ryan (how “ex” is he?) and by her daughter, who is recovering from her own tragic loss. Soon another set of remains is located, with Lowery’s dog tags tangled among them. Three bodies—all identified as Lowery.

And then Tempe is contacted by Hadley Perry, Honolulu’s flamboyant medical examiner, who needs help identifying the remains of an adolescent boy found offshore. Was he the victim of a shark attack? Or something much more sinister?

It has been a few years since I read a Temperance Brennan novel. It surprised me just how long it has been. I was a big fan of the show based on these books, and I think the show ending spurred me onto picking up this book. I've missed the murder mystery aspect even though the characters are very very different from the ones I know and love on Bones.

To me the focus of this book on POW and MIA soldiers was fascinating.  Knowing JPAC, the organization that helps recover these soldiers for their families, was real connected me to the story in a way I wasn't expecting. In the middle of reading I looked up this organization and looked at the numbers of still missing soldiers. It made me rather emotional about their work and those sections of the book. The mystery wasn't the strongest one in Reich's arsenal, but I couldn't pin it down and figure it out either.

Though I found the mystery and forensic anthropology aspects of these novels intriguing, the characters seem to spin their wheels. Katy, Brennan's daughter, is in the same position as she was several books ago. Tempe seems to be stuck since her marriage fell apart. Ryan is in and out because things with Tempe have gone bad, but he still works the cases. I'm just unimpressed with the character development over the books. I'd like some growth and change. Hopefully this holding pattern will break in the next few books!

Hopefully I'll check out the next book in a more timely fashion. Three years was too long. 

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