Bare Bones is the sixth novel by Kathy Reichs

Kathy Reichs

Kathleen Joan Toelle "Kathy" Reichs is an American crime writer, forensic anthropologist and academic . She is a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, but is currently on indefinite leave...

 starring Temperance Brennan

Temperance Brennan

Temperance Daesee Brennan is a fictional character created by author Kathy Reichs, and is the hero of her crime novel series . She was introduced in Reichs' first novel, Déjà Dead, which was published in 1997...

, first published in 2003.

Plot

It's one of the hottest summers on record and forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan is looking forward to a long-overdue vacation. But it's not to be...

First, the bones of a newborn baby are found in a wood stove; the mother, hardly more than a child herself, has disappeared.

Next, a Cessna

Cessna

The Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets. The company is a subsidiary...

flies into a rock face. The bodies of the pilot and passenger are burned beyond recognition, and covered in an unknown substance.

And then a cache of bones is discovered in a remote corner of the country. But what happened there, and who will be the next victim? The answers lie hidden deep within the bones - if only Tempe can decipher them in time...