The bone hacker: The 22nd Bones outing

The bone hacker is number 22 in the Temperance Brennan series, the books that inspired the TV series, Bones. Tempe is a forensic anthropologist who works out of both Montreal and North Carolina for their respective Chief Medical Examiner bureaus. Like Jonathan Kellerman's child psychology background, Kathy Reich's expertise shines through in the novels. Dr Reichs is a forensic anthropologist for the CME bureaus featured in the books, and one of only fifty forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. She sits on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, is a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina and continues to be called as an expert witness in criminal cases.

I've been reading about Tempe Brennan for years now and have read every one of the books in the series to date. I might, however, be at the end of my relationship with the series. Read on to see why. You can also check out my review of book 23 to see if I am going to continue with the series.

The bone hacker | Published August 2023 | Read October 2023

What I liked

Dr Reich's pedigree is unquestionable and her insights and experiences translated into the fictional stories are the best thing about the Bones series. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about forensic anthropology and the science behind investigations across the 22 books to date. The bones information is written in a way that laypeople can understand and it is expertly attached to whatever case Tempe is working on.

In The bone hacker, the action starts in Montreal where Tempe is called in to examine a victim of a lightning strike. She soon travels to the Turks and Caicos islands to assist a local detective with the investigation into the serial killing of young men whose left hands have been cut off by the perpetrator. Reichs usually sets the Tempe stories in Montreal and the Carolinas but sometimes has Tempe travel to other locations to assist. I liked the Turks and Caicos location and the cast of new criminal investigators with whom Tempe collaborated. Of course, you do have to park reality at the door as Tempe gets involved in more of the investigation than I would assume a forensic anthropologist would in real life. At least in The bone hacker she stayed out of any real action.

What I didn't like

The quality is dropping off after 22 books. I feel the same way about the Reacher series but I think that is due to the Lee Child's collaboration with his brother. Reichs has the expertise and currency in the field to keep it going. What excuse does she have then for the change in standard? Robert Crais and Jonathan Kellerman are still writing high-quality stories after the same number of books.

The bone hacker is only interesting for the forensic science and the new location. The plot is thin and the absence, or at least fleeting presence, of the cast of usual supporting characters is felt. The supporting players in the Turks and Caicos islands are not well fleshed out. I was a bit taken aback at the cultural and religious characterisations, too, in relation to the POC and Jewish islanders featured in the novel.

The book is short enough as it is, but I read it quickly as most of it is fill. There are pages of one-line sentences showing Tempe's thoughts. This seems like lazy writing to me especially when Tempe's thoughts aren't very interesting or insightful in this book. I haven't noticed it before, but the book also feels super dumbed down, not with respect to the science, but to what I would call everyday things. Lots of concepts - VPN and POI are two examples - were spelled out as if the audience is a bit dim or has been living on another planet for the past 10 years. I found it all quite insulting. Tempe herself sounds a bit dim in this one as she was continually pointing out the obvious. I was also left feeling like there should have been more science to the story. There usually is, but this time the book is left wanting on that aspect.

I've always struggled with the Bones series as it's the science that pulls me in but I am not keen on Reich's writing and I vacillate between admiring Tempe's smarts and not liking her personality. I've seen other reviews where the readers feel the same. These reviewers wonder, like I have been doing lately, why they continue to read the books. Reich's writing is not great and, as my comments above show, it seems to be getting worse. I don't need long, convoluted sentences, but Reich's habit of writing staccato-style in grammatically-incomplete sentences is starting to annoy me.

Tempe has always been a bit snarky and Reich's latest attempts at humour fall flat, I think. They border on the cheesy and cringey at times. Reichs may be aiming for clever snark but she's missing the mark these days, and Tempe now sounds flippant and unprofessional. That said, I figured that my perspective is an Australian-British one, where dry, clever humour is more my jam.

One of my pet peeves is how characters are described in books. It takes a lot of skill and sensitivity to describe the physical appearance of fictional characters. I imagine it's nice for authors to have their readers form a mental picture of their characters to create a connection between reader and 'character unseen'. Some authors go overboard with descriptions of physical features and clothing, and I can see that is could be hard to get the balance right. Kathy Reich's Tempe Brennan is the fictional version of herself, I would assume. Does this mean that Reichs has an aversion to people who live in larger bodies? I find her descriptions of people's physical appearances jarring at best, fatphobic at worst. Tempe is now coming off sounding privileged, patronising, and insensitive. I don't feel like she started out that way, or at least not so much that it bothered me.

Will I read the next Temperance Brennan novel? I am not sure at this point. It feels like a habit after all these years, but it might be one to break if the quality doesn't improve.

Rating: ⭐⭐[The stars are for the forensic anthropology only.]