Under the microscope, the outer bone surface is a moonscape of craters...'Preliminary diagnosis?' 'Deformity of the bone. Maybe. Cortical destruction on a metacarpal. Maybe. Localised infection? Systemic disease process? Postmortem destruction, either purposeful or natural? A combination of the above? I don't have a diagnosis...' The skeleton is that of a young girl, no more than fourteen years old - and forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is struggling to keep her emotions in check. Coroner Yves Bradette is being evasive, insisting the bones are ancient and of no interest. But it doesn't quite add up, and a frustrated Tempe is convinced that Bradette is hiding something...It's not Tempe's case; she's overwhelmed with more urgent work in the lab...But the nagging in her subconscious won't let up. A memory triggered, deep in her hindbrain - the disappearance of a childhood friend; no warning, no explanation...Working on instinct, Tempe takes matters into her own hands. But she couldn't have predicted where this case would lead, or the horrors it would eventually uncover...Can Tempe maintain a professional distance as the past catches up with her in this, her most deeply personal case yet?

Kathy Reichs is something special. Since achieving a secure position in the upper echelons of crime writers, she has refused to rest on her laurels and (with only the occasional misstep) has consolidated her success with a series of novels that subtly finesse the formula that has gleaned her so many readers.

Bones to Ashes is the latest title to add lustre to her reputation. Dr Temperance Brennan is examining the skeleton of a young girl, and finds herself losing the necessary distance she tries to maintain from all the cases she works on. Are the bones deformed or diseased? Or has some post-mortem damage been wrought upon them? Coroner Yves Bradette seems prepared file this information in the Dead Letters Department -- an ancient case, with no current relevance. But (as so often before) Tempe has other ideas, and something is stirring in her synapses -- a mystery involving the disappearance of a childhood friend. Matters are complicated when Detective Andrew Ryan (assigned to an allied case) asks Tempe to help with three missing persons - a trio of unidentified female corpses. Is there a serial killer at work?

There is often a defining moment when the work of a much-loved author imperceptibly becomes over-familiar, and readers have less enthusiasm for their work. Thankfully, on the evidence of Bones to Ashes, that day is quite some time in the future for Kathy Reichs, as all the elements that have made her books so involving are still being polished and refined here. Followers of Temperance Brennan need not hesitate to add this to their collection.

凱西·萊剋斯博士/特普倫斯·布倫南博士，齣現於美國芝加哥，西北大學博士。

美國刑事人類學協會（ABFA）58名鑒定閤格的刑事人類學傢之一。美國刑事人類學協會（ABFA）采用年度增選製，1986年凱西成為第36位當選者，至今74人當選，除去退休、死亡或被吊銷執照的16人（其中15人在凱西之前當選），現有58位執業者。她還是美國法庭科學技術學會（AAFS）顧問，北卡羅萊納醫學檢查處刑事人類學傢，北卡羅萊納大學的人類學教授，加拿大魁北剋省犯罪暨法醫研究所法醫，加拿大國傢警署服務谘詢專傢組成員。

好的足跡遍及美、加及全球疑難案發現場，工作時間平分在北卡羅萊納大學夏洛特分校和濛特利爾。

曾獲亞瑟·埃利斯最佳處女小說奬。《十字架上的骷髏》為《紐約時報》第一名暢銷書，21世紀福剋斯公司據凱西事跡及作品改編的電視劇《識骨尋蹤》（Bones）正在全美電視黃金時段熱映。