Temperance BrennanSeries

This series follows forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan as she helps solve crimes through the analysis of skeletal remains. Her work is tied to complex cases and personal challenges that she navigates throughout the books.

Recommended Reading Order

1
Déjà Dead
Kathy Reichs
546 pages
20 hours of reading
3.7(873)Add rating
Suspense fiction. Detective and mystery stories. Bagged and discarded, the dismembered body of a woman is discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery. Dr Temperance Brennan, Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec, has been researching recent disappearances in the city. Soon she is convinced that a serial killer is at work. But when no one else seems to care, her anger forces her to take matters into her own hands. Her determined probing has placed those closest to her in mortal danger, however. Can Tempe make her crucial breakthrough before the killer strikes again?
2
Death du Jour
Kathy Reichs
4.0(41633)Add rating
'Another day. Another death. Death du Jour. My God, how many such days would there be?' On a bitterly cold march night in Montreal, forensic anthropologiest Dr Temperance Brennan is exhuming the remains of a nun proposed for sainthood in the grounds of an old church. Just hours later, Tempe is called to the scene of an horrific arson. A young family has perished, and there seems to be no witness, no motive, no explanation. From the charred remains of the inferno, to a trail of sinister cult activity and a terrifying showdown during an ice storm, Tempe faces a nerve-shattering test of both her forensic expertise and her instinct for survival.
3
Deadly Décisions
Kathy Reichs
4.0(94869)Add rating
A nine-year-old girl is killed in crossfire on her way to ballet class. Soon afterwards, the body of a teenager killed in North Carolina is found hundreds of miles away. Forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan knows she must stay professional, but when the young girl's body is wheeled into the morgue she cannot help but react. And when an exhumation reveals the bones of yet another innocent in a hidden grave close to a biker gang headquarters, Tempe begins a lone and risky investigation into the lawless underworld of organised crime.
4
Fatal Voyage
Kathy Reichs
363 pages
13 hours of reading
4.0(799)Add rating
When a plane crashes high in the mountains of North Carolina, Tempe Brennan is one of the first on the scene. As a forensic anthropologist for the state, she serves on the region's disaster response team. The task that confronts her is a sad and sickening one. Putting normal life on hold, she and her colleagues must painstakingly identify the victims. A chance discovery concerns her: a severed foot, well away from the main crash site. A deserted house close by is buried so deep in the woods that locals claim to know nothing of its existence. And her examination of the foot throws up more questions than it answers. Before she can make any progress, an anonymous accusation is levelled against her. Tempe must fight to save her professional standing. But she fears that, air tragedy aside, another corpse lies somewhere in the woods. Pitting herself against a conspiracy of silence, Tempe is determined to bring justice for her mystery victim.
5
Grave Secrets
Kathy Reichs
448 pages
16 hours of reading
3.9(932)Add rating
In the searing heat of Guatemala, Dr Temperance Brennan must harden herself against the horrors she excavates. And then four young girls go missing from Guatemala City. When a skeleton is found at the back of a rundown hotel, only someone with Tempe's expertise can deduce the identity and cause of death. But as she searches for answers, her path is blocked at every turn. It is clear that some people will stop at nothing to keep Guatemala's secrets buried.
6
Bare Bones
Kathy Reichs
4.0(35340)Add rating
It's a summer of sizzling heat in Charlotte where Dr. Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist for the North Carolina medical examiner, looks forward to her first vacation in years. A romantic vacation. She's almost out the door when the bones start appearing. A newborn's charred remains turn up in a woodstove. A small plane crashes in a North Carolina cornfield on a sunny afternoon. Both pilot and passenger are burned beyond recognition. And what is the mysterious black substance covering the bodies? Most puzzling of all are the bones discovered at a remote farm outside Charlotte. The remains seem to be of animal origin, but Tempe is shocked when she gets them to her lab. With help from a special detective friend, Tempe must investigate a poignant and terrifying case that comes at the worst possible moment. Daughter Katy has a new boyfriend who Tempe fears may have something to hide. And important personal decisions face Tempe. Is it time for emotional commitment? Will she have the chance to find out? Everything must wait on the bones. Why are the X rays and DNA so perplexing? Who is trying to keep Tempe from the answers? Someone is following her and Katy. That someone must be stopped before it's too late.
7
Monday Mourning
Kathy Reichs
464 pages
17 hours of reading
4.1(30359)Add rating
But Tempe has her doubts. Something doesn't make sense. She'll look at the bones in her lab and do Carbon 14 testing to establish approximate age. And she can analyse the tooth enamel to tell approximately where the women were born. If she's right, Claudel has three recent murders on his hands. Definitely his case.
8
Cross bones
Kathy Reichs
497 pages
18 hours of reading
3.9(25077)Add rating
'Death by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head' is the on-scene assessment, but the victim's relatives are adamant in their rejection of suicide as an explanation. Discovered in a closet, a week after death, the body is barely recognisable. Extreme heat has accelerated decomposition, and Dr Temperance Brennan's forensic expertise is required.|PB
9
Break no bones
Kathy Reichs
480 pages
17 hours of reading
3.9(812)Add rating
Dr Temperance Brennan and her students are working on a site of prehistoric graves on an island near Charleston, South Carolina, when a decomposing body is uncovered in a shallow grave off a lonely beach. The bone is fresh and the remains are still topped by wisps of hair âe" itâe(tm)s a recent burial, and a case Tempe must take. Tempe determines that the deceased is a middle-aged white male - but who was he? Why was he buried in a clandestine grave? And what does an unusual vertical fracture of one of the vertebrae signify? While Tempe is trying to piece together the evidence, her personal life is thrown into turmoil. But before long, another body is discovered - and Tempe finds herself drawn deeper into a shocking investigation which will challenge her entire view of humanity.
10
Bones to ashes
Kathy Reichs
464 pages
17 hours of reading
3.8(639)Add rating
In her most riveting thriller yet, Reichs--bestselling author, forensic anthropologist, and producer of the television hit "Bones," based on her Temperance Brennan books--pits Brennan against an enigma out of her own past.
11
Devil Bones
Kathy Reichs
3.8(497)Add rating
An underground chamber is exposed in a seedy, dilapidated house with sagging trim and peeling paint&In the dark cellar, a ritualistic display is revealed. A human skull rests on a cauldron, surrounded by slain chickens and bizarre figurines. Bead
12
206 Bones
Kathy Reichs
4.0(23556)Add rating
When Dr Temperance Brennan is accused of mishandling the autopsy of a missing heiress, a routine case swiftly turns sinister. But before Tempe can get to the one man with the information she needs, he turns up dead. In Montreal, three elderly women are found murdered, their bodies brutally discarded. Even though the clues don't add up, Tempe is certain of a link between their deaths and that of the heiress. Has Tempe made grave errors, or is she being sabotaged by an unseen enemy? What is frighteningly clear is that more than just Tempe's career is at stake. Her life is also at risk.
13
Spider Bones
Kathy Reichs
4.0(21347)Add rating
Forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan investigates the death of a man who appears to have died while engaged in a bizarre sexual act and who was originally declared dead four decades earlier.
14
Flash and Bones
Kathy Reichs
288 pages
11 hours of reading
3.9(19720)Add rating
FLASH! Illuminated by lightning, a lifeless human hand seems to reach from a barrel of asphalt beside the Charlotte racetrack. Even for forensic anthropologist Dr Tempe Brennan it is a disturbing sight. And now she must find answers before thousands arrive for the year's big race. But before she can carry out a proper examination, the FBI mysteriously confiscate and destroy the body. It's a dead end. Until a young engineer alerts Tempe to the disappearance of his sister and her boyfriend from Charlotte twelve years earlier, and she determines to uncover what really happened to them. Soon after, the engineer’s body is found crushed under the wheels of a race car. Tempe realises the situation is truly sinister - and that even her own life could be in terrible danger.
15
Bones are Forever
Kathy Reichs
3.9(17953)Add rating
Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan examines the bodies of three babies while Detective Ryan investigates their mother in a case with ties to the high-stakes world of diamond mining.
16
Bones of the Lost
Kathy Reichs
3.7(309)Add rating
While investigating the connections between a long-dead business man, the smuggling of mummified dogs from Peru, and the death of a teenage girl killed in a hit and run, Temperance Brennan discovers a human trafficking enterprise at the center of it all. The scope of the case extends from South America to Afghanistan, and Tempe's soon-to-be ex might have connections that run to the very heart of the trafficking ring.
17
Bones never lie
Kathy Reichs
471 pages
17 hours of reading
4.0(256)Add rating
A match has been obtained on DNA sample 7426 to Canadian national number 64899, identified as: Anique Pomerleau, white/female, DOB: 12/10/75 - the subject is currently not in custody. For a decade, Temperance Brennan has been haunted by the monster, Anique Pomerleau, killer of young women. The one who got away, the one who has now come back - coming for Tempe.
18
Speaking in Bones
Kathy Reichs
3.9(221)Add rating
The compelling new Dr Temperance Brennan novel from the world-class forensic anthropologist and Number 1 bestselling author Kathy Reichs. When forensic anthropologist Dr Tempe Brennan is approached by amateur detective Hazel âe~Luckyâe(tm) Strike, at first she is inclined to dismiss the womanâe(tm)s claims that sheâe(tm)s matched a previously unidentified set of remains with a name. But as the words of a terrified young woman echo round her office from an audio recorder found near where the bones were discovered, something about the story wonâe(tm)t let Tempe go. As Tempe investigates further she finds herself involved in a case more complicated and horrifying than she could ever have imagined.
19
A Conspiracy of Bones
Kathy Reichs
352 pages
13 hours of reading
3.7(8676)Add rating
EVERY BODY HAS SECRETS It all starts with a series of text messages. Each message contains a new picture of a corpse, missing its face and hands. Dr Temperance Brennan needs to find out who the dead man is, and why the images were sent to her. The only problem is, she has been kicked off the team. So she goes rogue, knowing that she is the only one who can solve this case. As she starts her investigation she discovers a connection to a decade-old missing child case. The more she uncovers, the darker and more twisted the picture becomes ...
20
The bone code
Kathy Reichs
3.9(9326)Add rating
NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author KATHY REICHS returns with her next edge-of-your seat thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
21
Cold, Cold Bones
Kathy Reichs
3.9(7824)Add rating
Electrifying, heart-stopping and compulsive, this is Tempe's most personal and dangerous case yet . . .