August 13, 2012
Three dead infants and the search for their mother (and prime murder suspect) sends forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan to the remote Canadian north in Reichs's solid 15th series installment (after 2011's Flash and Bones). A woman arrives at a Montreal hospital showing signs of postnatal bleeding, but her disappearance before doctors can examine her arouses suspicion; as a result, Brennan is called to investigate. At the woman's home, she discovers the hidden corpses of three infants, but the suspectâwho gave her name as Amy Roberts but also goes by Alva Rodriguez and Annaliese Rubenâis long gone. Reminded of her baby brother Kevin's death from leukemia when she was a child, Brennan takes the case personally. Along with Detective Andrew Ryan and the cocky Mounties Sergeant Oliver "Ollie" Hasty, with whom she once had a brief fling, Brennan discovers that the woman, who has a history of prostitution, is headed to Yellowknife, a small outpost in the Northwest Territories. The trio heads to the tiny diamond mining town and find themselves in the middle of a drug war and a bitter battle over diamond rights, with the mysterious woman caught in the middle. Reichs always delivers a pulse-pounding story, and here she also sheds light on very real issues surrounding Canadian diamond mining.