Summoned to South Carolina to fill in for a negligent colleague, Tempe is stuck teaching at a lackluster archeology field school in the ruins of a Native American burial ground on the Charleston shore. But when Tempe stumbles upon a fresh skeleton among the ancient bones, her old friend Emma Rousseau, the local coroner, persuades Tempe to stay on and help with the investigation. When Emma reveals a disturbing secret, it becomes more important than ever for Tempe to help her friend close the case.
The body count begins to climb. Tempe follows the trail to a free street clinic with a belligerent staff, a suspicious doctor, and a donor who is a charismatic televangelist. Clues abound in the most unlikely places as Tempe uses her unique knowledge and skills to build her case, even as the local sheriff remains dubious and her own life is threatened.
©2006 Temperance Brennan, L.P. All rights reserved; (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.
"This novel confirms the series' place in the front rank of the ever-expanding forensic thriller subgenre." (Publishers Weekly)
"Unbearable reader"
This reader is as bland as it gets. She has no gift for inhabiting the characters. This book has a lot of scientific and technical aspects, and with a lifeless voice, I found myself unable to concentrate on what was going on. I couldn't even finish this, and wish I'd read the reviews before I bought it.
"Unbearable Narrator"
I love Kathy Reichs, and the story is wonderful, but this narrator is the worst ever. There is absolutely no difference in the way she characterizes each person. She mispronounces common words (the Sioux Native Indians Tribe's name is pronounced to rhyme with shoe and not sooWEE, the way you'd call a pig.) The narrator has no sense of rhythm, blows the jokes, and has a voice that is somewhere between Shari Lewis (of Lambchop fame) and Kathleen Turner during a bad case of bronchitis. I wish I had read the other reviews before I downloaded this, because I could have saved myself a credit. I am going to have to buy the book because this narrator is just too awful to have to sit through. What WERE they thinking?
"Terrible narrator"
This narrator made Tempe sound like she was in her 60's or 70's. The book was a little slow, but my goodness, the narrator made it even slower. I, too, wished I had read the other reviews and I would have given this one a pass.
"No Bones About It..."
...is this author wordy! Interesting characters, decent plot, but this book is evidence that manuscripts simply aren't edited any more. Advantage? You can lose your concentration on your ride home, take a phone call, and pick up with the narrative not having missed anything essential. Good, but v-e-r-y frustrating at times.
"I miss Michele Pawk"
I've been a huge Reichs fan since her first book and have thoroughly enjoyed the transition to reading by listening. Michele Pawk (previous narrator) did a phenomenal job bringing the subtlety and humour to life and made Tempe seem complicated, yet interesting and relatable. This new reader is not suited for the book. Her French is exquisite, but her Tempe is horrible. With such a prickly character, you need a reader that udnerstands Tempe and her universe and this one seemed very wrong for it - this Tempe was peevish, irritating and fickle and the narration brought out the flaws in the story (of which there weren't many, granted, but this reader made them seem blatant). The three stars could've been more, had I not been so annoyed by the narration.
Bring back Michele Pawk!
"Terrible narrator; Look elsewhere"
The story, although somewhat slow, is actually quite good. However, this cannot make up for the detriment to the entire experience contributed by the narrator. I have never listened to an audiobook with such monotone, ill-fitting narration. The voice comes off as distant, uninterested and extremely pompous. Too bad too. Kathy Reichs deserved better than the narrator provides.
"Good Story; Awful Narration"
As with all Kathy Reichs novels, the story is sound, but in this particular reading, the narrator was absolutely terrible! She sounded as though she was reading an instruction manual rather than a good, solid mystery. Very distracting and disappointing.
"Distracting reader"
I wanted so much to love this book, as I've loved all of the authors others.
But, It was near impossible to listen to the narraters voice...the completely WRONG voice for Tempe who we've come to love as this young, full of spunk, sharp witted and bright character.
I suppose if you've not listened to other Kathy Reich's audiobooks you wouldn't realize this, but I have and it was so disturbing, it was all I could do to finish listening.
Puleeeeze....don't chose this reader again for Tempe's character...all wrong.
"Very disappointing"
I'm a fan of this series, but this installment was WAY below par. The mystery is disjointed and rather dull. Temperance Brennan has turned into an adolescent idiot. And the NARRATOR.... oh, dear. The narrator has a slow, nasal speech pattern and timid, girlish delivery style that's totally unsuited to the material. She also has so little variation in her voice that it's often hard to tell which character is speaking.
"I agree - TERRIBLE READER"
I've enjoyed the earlier Tempe books, but find this reader absolutely unbearable - I even looked to see if someone else had read the abridged version, since much as I prefer unabridged, I'd have gotten the abridged if it had a decent reader.
I'll add my pleas to others here (and I wish I had read these reviews before I bought the audio book): PLEASE don't use this awful reader again.