Temperance Brennan

About the Temperance Brennan series

Dr. Temperance "Tempe" Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who splits her working life between Montreal and North Carolina, identifying the dead from skeletal remains, decomposed bodies and crime-scene fragments that ordinary detectives can't make sense of. Kathy Reichs, herself a practicing forensic anthropologist, grounds every case in real bone science and lab procedure -- how to read trauma, age and cause of death from a skeleton -- rendered with a level of technical authenticity that set the template for the modern forensic-procedural boom (and directly inspired the long-running TV series Bones, very loosely based on the character). Tempe is smart, stubborn, recovering-alcoholic-turned-teetotaler, and drawn into her cases as much by professional obsession as by her uneasy, long-running romance with Quebec homicide detective Andrew Ryan.

Across the series Reichs moves her forensic puzzles through serial killers, historical cold cases, war-crime exhumations, cults and human trafficking, while Tempe's own life -- her relationship with Ryan, her prickly bond with her daughter Katy, her rivalry with fellow anthropologist and sometime nemesis colleagues -- develops steadily book to book. Readers drawn to the CSI/Bones style of forensic mystery, but who want the science handled by someone who actually does the job, are the natural audience; the show Bones borrowed the character's name and profession but tells largely unrelated stories, so book readers and show fans are having two different experiences of Tempe Brennan.

How to read this series

Publication order, starting with Déjà Dead. Tempe's relationship with Andrew Ryan, her daughter Katy's storylines, and her career moves between Montreal and Charlotte all build across the series, so reading in order is recommended, though each book's central case is self-contained. The three .5-numbered novellas (Bones in Her Pocket, Swamp Bones, Bones on Ice) and the anthology The Bone Collection (which gathers those three plus the otherwise-unavailable prequel novella First Bones) are optional side reading, not required for the main plot. Note that the Fox TV series Bones is only loosely based on the character and tells largely different stories from the novels.