___________________________________ A gripping Temperance Brennan novel from world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, the international no. 1 bestselling crime thriller writer and the inspiration behind the hit TV series Bones. A full week after death, a barely recognisable body is discovered in a closet. 'Death by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head' is the initial assessment, but the victim's relatives are adamant that this was not suicide. Extreme heat has accelerated decomposition, and Dr Temperance Brennan's forensic expertise is required. Even for her, it is virtually impossible to determine the trajectory of the bullet. But just as Tempe is attempting to make sense of the evidence, an unknown man slips her a photograph of a skeleton. Could this hold the answer to the victim's death? ___________________________________ Dr Kathy Reichs is a professional forensic anthropologist. She has worked for decades with chief medical examiners, the FBI, and even a United Nations Tribunal on Genocide. However, she is best known for her internationally bestselling Temperance Brennan novels, which draw on her remarkable experience to create the most vividly authentic, true-to-life crime thrillers on the market and which are the inspiration for the hit TV series Bones. ___________________________________ Many of the world's greatest thriller writers are huge fans of her work: 'Kathy Reichs writes smart - no, make that brilliant - mysteries that are as realistic as nonfiction and as fast-paced as the best thrillers about Jack Reacher, or Alex Cross.' JAMES PATTERSON 'One of my favourite writers.' KARIN SLAUGHTER 'I love Kathy Reichs? - always scary, always suspenseful, and I always learn something.' LEE CHILD 'Nobody does forensics thrillers like Kathy Reichs. She's the real deal.' DAVID BALDACCI 'Each book in Kathy Reichs's fantastic Temperance Brennan series is better than the last. They're filled with riveting twists and turns - and no matter how many books she writes, I just can't get enough!' LISA SCOTTOLINE 'Nobody writes a more imaginative thriller than Kathy Reichs.' CLIVE CUSSLER

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From teaching FBI agents how to detect and recover human remains, to separating and identifying commingled body parts in her Montreal lab, as one of only seventy-seven forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Dr Kathy Reichs has brought her own dramatic work experience to her mesmerising forensic thrillers. For years she consulted to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina, and continues to do so for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Québec. Kathy Reichs has travelled to Rwanda to testify at the UN Tribunal on Genocide, and helped exhume a mass grave in Guatemala. As part of her work at JPAC she aided in the identification of war dead from World War II, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Kathy Reichs has served on the Board of Directors and as Vice President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and is currently a member of the National Police Services Advisory Board in Canada. She is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A native of Chicago, she now divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal. Kathy Reichs's first novel Déjà Dead catapulted her to fame when it became a New York Times bestseller, a Sunday Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. All eleven of her novels have been international bestsellers. She is also a producer of the chilling hit TV series Bones. She has written seventeen bestsellers featuring Dr Temperance Brennan, the most recent being Bones Never Lie. She has also written four bestsellers featuring Tory Brennan: Virals, Seizure, Code and Exposure.