Always With a Book : Short & Sweet Review: A Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs (audio)

Title: A Conspiracy of Bones
Author: Kathy Reichs
Series: Temperance Brennan, #19
Narrator: Linda Emond
Published: March 2020, Simon & Schuster Audio
Length: 11 hours 57 minutes
Source: Library

Summary:
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a new riveting novel featuring her vastly popular character forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who must use all her tradecraft to discover the identity of a faceless corpse, its connection to a decade-old missing child case, and why the dead man had her cell phone number.

It’s sweltering in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Temperance Brennan, still recovering from neurosurgery following an aneurysm, is battling nightmares, migraines, and what she thinks might be hallucinations when she receives a series of mysterious text messages, each containing a new picture of a corpse that is missing its face and hands. Immediately, she’s anxious to know who the dead man is, and why the images were sent to her.

An identified corpse soon turns up, only partly answering her questions.

To win answers to the others, including the man’s identity, she must go rogue, working mostly outside the system. That’s because Tempe’s new boss holds a fierce grudge against her and is determined to keep her out of the case. Tempe bulls forward anyway, even as she begins questioning her instincts. But the clues she discovers are disturbing and confusing. Was the faceless man a spy? A trafficker? A target for assassination by the government? And why was he carrying the name of a child missing for almost a decade?

With help from a number of law enforcement associates including her Montreal beau Andrew Ryan and the always-ready-with-a-smart-quip, ex-homicide investigator Skinny Slidell, and utilizing new cutting-edge forensic methods, Tempe draws closer to the astonishing truth.

But the more she uncovers, the darker and more twisted the picture becomes...

***Short & Sweet Reviews are short, quick reviews. These will mainly be used for series books where I have already done full reviews on some of the earlier books or for books that I feel will suffice with a quick review. These will not be used for review requests or blog tours.

My thoughts: This is the 19th book in Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan series and I was so glad to see it had finally been released. There had been quite a lull between this book and the previous one, though that is addressed and all I will say on that is the hiatus was not planned, and I'm glad everything is ok.

I love Tempe Brennan - she's one of my favorite characters and I was so glad to catch back up with her. In this latest installment we find her dealing with quite a lot, both personally and professionally. She has had some serious medical issues and now has a new boss that she does not really see eye to eye with and that ends up putting her on the outside of most cases that she would have previously been asked to work on. But if you know anything about Tempe, you know that this won't stop her.

I was happy to see that some familiar characters were present in this book, particularly Slidell. I love when Tempe and Slidell work together because they are such a good pairing but the banter between is really my favorite part! And Tempe's mom, Daisy makes a few appearances, and is quite insightful - I love that she knows more about technology and the dark web than her daughter does.

I'm a big fan of this series and I was happy to be back in Tempe's world. This installment was definitely worth the wait and while it can be read as a stand-alone, I highly recommend reading the series from the beginning...it's totally worth it!

Audio thoughts: I really enjoy Linda Emonds narration of this series and I was happy to see that she was narrating this installment. She does a great job with the voices and really seems to bring Tempe to life. Even though it's been a while since I've listened to the last book, I felt like no time had passed as Linda Emonds is so consistent with her voices. It's so funny how that is, that you just remember that unique characterization that a narrator brings to certain characters.

Books in this series: