Kathy Reichs, author of Cold, Cold Bones
Kathy Reichs is the author of the Temperance Brennan series of forensic thrillers that launched in 1997 with Déjà Dead.
Kobo: Cold, Cold Bones marks twenty-five years of Temperance Brennan. What is your favourite thing about writing a Temperance Brennan novel, and what is next for our beloved forensic anthropologist?
Kathy Reichs: I began writing fiction in 1994. Déjà Dead, the first “Bones” book, was released in 1997. Cold, Cold Bones, the twenty-first entry in the series, was released July 2022. That’s a lot of years, a lot of characters, a lot of stories, a lot of details. I love how Temperance Brennan has evolved over the course of twenty-five years.
I am currently working on the twenty-second Temperance Brennan novel, The Bone Hacker. The story opens in Montreal with Tempe and Ryan caught in a small boat in a violent storm while watching a fireworks display. The following day, Tempe is asked to recover the remains of a man struck by lightning and knocked from a bridge into the St. Lawrence River. What she discovers does not tally with eyewitness accounts of the man’s death. When the man is identified as a foreign national, a detective from the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force flies to Montreal to persuade Tempe to travel with her to Providenciales to help with a series of disappearances and murders involving young men visiting as tourists. Reluctantly, Tempe agrees. What she uncovers in the island paradise poses greater personal threat and has far broader global ramifications than she could have ever imagined.
Kobo: With over twenty-one books in the series, where do you continue to draw inspiration from for each new storyline?
KR: I’m not going to say exactly how many years I’ve been practicing forensic science, but I’ve worked on a lot of cases and have a great deal of experience to draw upon. Not every book is based on a specific case, but most are related to something I’ve done—perhaps disaster recovery, perhaps human rights work, perhaps a good old-fashioned murder. And some are what we called in the Bones writers room “ripped from the headlines.”
Kobo: What are your essentials when you sit down to write?
KR: Coffee, absolutely. But I’m not a breakfast eater. I try to get to the keyboard by eight, go through my email, then settle into serious writing no later than nine. I stick with it until sometime around two, then break for lunch, and move onto other things in the afternoon. A workout? Right. (Wink wink).
Kobo: What are you currently watching or reading?
KR: I am currently on a run of Don Winslow books; I really like his dark, gritty style. But I also have a Randy Rainbow release on my TBR pile! I am currently watching The Crown and waiting for the next seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale and Ted Lasso.
Kobo: If there was an updated adaptation of Temperance Brennan, who would you like to see play her?
KR: I don’t think anyone could ever out-shine Emily Deschanel—I thought she was absolutely awesome. And in a sequel or spin-off, she could now portray a more mature Temperance Brennan.
Cold, Cold Bones
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with her twenty-first taut novel of suspense featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan who, after receiving a box with a human eyeball in it, uncovers a series of ever more grisly killings eerily reenacting the most shocking of her prior cases.
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