Bare Bones

By: Kathy Reichs

Narrated by: Michele Pawk

Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

It's a summer of sizzling heat in Charlotte where Dr. Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist for the North Carolina medical examiner, looks forward to her first vacation in years. A romantic vacation. She's almost out the door when the bones start appearing.

A newborn's charred remains turn up in a woodstove. A small plane crashes in a North Carolina cornfield on a sunny afternoon. Both pilot and passenger are burned beyond recognition. And what is the mysterious black substance covering the bodies? Most puzzling of all are the bones discovered at a remote farm outside Charlotte. The remains seem to be of animal origin, but Tempe is shocked when she gets them to her lab.

With help from a special detective friend, Tempe must investigate a poignant and terrifying case that comes at the worst possible moment. Daughter Katy has a new boyfriend who Tempe fears may have something to hide. And important personal decisions face Tempe. Is it time for emotional commitment? Will she have the chance to find out?

Everything must wait on the bones. Why are the X rays and DNA so perplexing? Who is trying to keep Tempe from the answers? Someone is following her, and must be stopped before it's too late.

Don't miss any of Tempe Brennan's investigations.

©2003 Temperance Brennan, L.P. (P)2003 Simon & Schuster Inc. All Rights Reserved. AUDIOWORKS. is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Critic reviews

"...the science is fascinating, and every minute in the morgue with Tempe is golden." (The New York Times)

Not great

I really enjoyed Grave Secrets and Deja Dead. This one is not up the the previous standards. I was constantly confused and the ending I felt was anti-climactic. I felt that much of the storyline was contrived and boring. I hope the future books of hers are better.

VERY bare bones, indeed.

I didn't bother to download the unabridged version when it was offered at no further cost. The abridged version was quite tedious enough for me. No suspense. No plot twists. No intellectual challenges. Even the love interest was cornball and pedestrian. Yawn....

forensics

It was good

Atrocious narration

The narration ruins this audiobook for several reasons. First, the accents are hideous. I spent most of my life in North Carolina and never heard anything resembling the "southern accents" in this audiobook. Even the most urban creatures such as pathologists and Charlotte detectives are assigned a backwoods drawl that is so poorly delivered that it borders on the comic.

Second, the mispronunciations are distracting and sometimes misleading. Place names are routinely mangled, even for relatively well-known cities such as Manteo. At one point the word decedent is repeatedly rendered as descendent.

Third, the delivery often goes astray distorting the meaning of the text. For instance at one point there is a discussion regarding lesions on the body of an airplane crash victim. The narrator delivers a passage in such a way that as to suggest that the victim did not have even one lesion on his face. It is abundantly clear from the context however that what the author intended to convey was that the victim did not have a face as a result of the violent deceleration trauma.

The problems with the delivery are legion; only a few are outlined above. Ms. Reichs is an engaging author. One would be well advised to skip this audio and pick up a copy of the paper version of this book.

Reader is terrible

If you are going to narrate a regionally-based book, at least research how to say the place names.

Bare Bones is Boring

There is an over abundance of insignificant details, such as an endless description of a room and its contents, before you find out what the protagonist is about to do there. Frankly the plot is rift with so many boring details that I get lost sorting out who is who and who has done what to whom and when they did it. There is little if any tension in the plot because of the lengthy descriptions of nearly every thing. I did not get curious about "who done it" - I became frustrated waiting for the story to move forward with logical revelations and plot building it never did. I wanted to fast forward to the end and get it over with. I fail to see where the author left any "clues" laying around to hint who the murderer(s) might be. Too many crimes being commited - drug Smuggling, murder, exotic animals poached, bears being poached for body parts - far too many characters to follow. I am not interested in the details of the CITES agreement but I would rather see action taking place to "get our man.". I would not recommend reading this book its just not exciting and interesting enough.