Forensics

(2013) Hadn't read one of this series in a while and it was fun. Brennan is wrapped in a hit and run in No Carolina only to be dragged to Afghanistan to investigate an old shooting by a Marine that was either murder or just part of war. Then back in the US she finds that the hit and run was part of a much larger sex trafficking ring. But big coincidence the Marine turns out to be the ring leader. Bit of a stretch.KIRKUS: A three-course banquet of old bones, and some not so old, for forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (Bones Are Forever, 2012, etc.).The grab bag begins„if you don't count a shrill, miscalculated flash-forward prologue„with some mummified bones the Customs Service has confiscated from hideously disfigured Desert Storm vet Dominick Rockett. He maintains that he's legitimately imported the antique dog bones from Peru; Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Luther Dew smells smuggling or worse. Before Tempe can file her report, however, her attention is demanded by some much more recent remains. A Jane Doe the police found dead along the highway shows every sign of a sorry life„prostitution, drugs, violent death„that ended, according to Tempe's examination, at age 15. What can she tell behemoth Detective Erskine ?Skinny? Slidell, of the Charlotte PD, that might help identify the victim or her killer? Despite a pair of cryptic anonymous phone calls about the young woman, this second case languishes long enough for Tempe to pick up a third. Second Lt. John Gross, whose uncle is an old friend of Tempe's all-but-ex Janis ?Pete? Peterson, has been accused of shooting unarmed Afghani villagers in the back. If Tempe will only drop everything and travel to Afghanistan to take part in the official inquiry, Pete tells her, she'll get to see Katy, Tempe's daughter, who reacted to her boyfriend's death there by enlisting herself and shipping out. Tempe can't help feeling that at least one of these cases involves sex trafficking, though Slidell warns her, ?Smuggling dead dogs is one thing. Smuggling kids is a mighty big leap.?Reichs, never one to stint on complications, deals them out mostly seriatim instead of intermingling them, and it'll be a canny reader who sees the thread that runs through all the cases and binds them together.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013ISBN: 978-1-4391-0245-9Page Count: 336Publisher: ScribnerReview Posted Online: July 7, 2013Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013

Truthfully speaking I have found this book a drag to read. There are too much different stuff shoved in one story. Also there are too much of the dark side of the series style here. It takes some time but even I find Temperance Brennan decision process kind of annoying.

Theme is the worst. All this again? AGAIN? Come on. For me this series is finally come to an end. Character stories finally gone to limbo “don't fucking care anymore”, death is no longer a main character but pain of the living takes bigger and bigger role very time.

Anyway, to summarize the series, the pivotal book for me was #10 “Bone to Ashes” it was amazing in what it has done with intertwining all the main themes of the series (death, life, memory, women oppression). It was the highest point. With #5 “Grave Secrets” been the next best.

I'm done now. Time to move on. ( )

Human trafficking, smuggling artifacts and the hit and run death of a youth are linked in a plausable plot.
A good quick read and Kathy Reich didn't disappoint. ( )

I wrote a couple paragraphs about why this book is especially bad, but honestly, I knew it wouldn't be good and I read it anyway, so I don't need to rehash it.