Pirate Patty Reviews

A Temperance Brennan Novel #21

#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.

We aren’t in Montreal anymore and yet it’s still snowing in North Carolina. Its winter and crime is down. Not too many folks looking to be out in a storm. It also means a lighter caseload for Brennan. She would be happy to spend time with her daughter Katy, finally home after her stint in the army. But she brought some demons home with her so Tempe is treading carefully with her.

When they both arrive at Tempe’s home to find a wrapped package with an eyeball in it, things are weird. The eye seems pretty fresh, but where is the rest of the body? Finding GPS coordinates on the eyeball leads them to a Benedictine monastery. There another very strange sight awaits.

When she is asked to examine a mummified corpse found in a state park, even she is a bit jumpy.

These crimes are beginning to look a lot like crimes she solved years ago. Is someone angry at her?

And then her daughter disappears. And things get weirder. Revenge, it seems has no expiration date.

There has always been a coldness about Tempe. It was more evident in this book. I understood who the bad people were early on. It just did not hold my interest.

NetGalley/ July 5, 2022 Scribner