Book 21 in the Temperance Brennan Series

Just in case there is any reader out there not familiar with this series (it could happen!), Temperance Brennan, the sometimes irascible, always ingenious forensic-anthropologist, ex-alcoholic, divorced mother of kick-butt Katy Peterson, is a force to be reckoned with. As she performs her medical duties (expertly and with more than a hint of dry wit), consulting on “corpses unfit for autopsy”, due to their “burned, decomposed, mutilated, mummified, or skeletal “ state, for the Medical Examiners office in Charlotte, North Carolina, Tempe stirs up her own sort of trouble, running into more than her fair share of personally-targeted danger, violence and trauma.

In this installment, Tempe must deal with a horrific parcel – a grisly eyeball of unknown origin, hand-delivered in a package left on her doorstep. Before too long, this is followed by the discovery of a human head, a whole slew of diverse and creepily-dispatched murder victims, and an odd assortment of evil, angry vengeance-seeking criminal-candidates.

Working round the clock with assistance from her handsome beau Ryan the PI, his sometime partner ex-cop-and-now-PI Erskine “Skinny” Slidell, and an ever-changing team of police and medical colleagues, Tempe must race the clock to identify a murderer whose homicidal quest appears as personal as it is gruesome.

Without giving the plot away (no spoilers here) this is a fun read, fast-paced and clever, loaded with tension, snappy characters and a truck-full of nastiness, destined to keep you reading, clocking clues and seeking literary redemption of a sort (for someone,after all, must pay for all this murderous mayhem).

With an ending mostly guessed, this reader found the finale satisfying, well-executed and pitch-perfect in tone.

A great big thank you to the publisher @simonschusterca for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.