352 pages

4 stars

Katy is finally home for good. She was honorably discharged from the military and Tempe is delighted that she chose to return to Charlotte to live. Their reunion is interrupted when Tempe receives an anonymous package on her porch. It contains a human eyeball.

Forensic anthropologist Temperance “Tempe” Brennan becomes the target of a deranged killer. The murderer is copying some of her old cases. She teams up with “Skinny” Slidell who has recently retired from the Charlotte Police Department and is now volunteering with the Cold Cases Unit. As any of her fans know, she is not very good at following orders.

Skinny seems to be undergoing a metamorphosis. He is still short tempered and cranky, but is more - dare I say - caring than in earlier books. I was very surprised at the departmental cooperation he was still able to command with him being retired.

I was also surprised that when Katy went missing, Tempe didn’t file a missing persons report. She was frantic about the whereabouts of her daughter, so why not get the police on it? She was suffering from PTSD from her time overseas in the military. Isn’t that a good enough reason to ask for help?

Tempe just didn’t act like herself. She was more short-tempered and bouncing off walls. Maybe too many whacks on the head? She got it twice in this novel. Maybe she’s beginning to suffer from too many concussions?

I was a little disappointed that Ryan made his entrance so late in the book. I like to see more of him.

While the book was finely written and plotted as are all of Ms. Reich’s novels, it just wasn’t up to her usual standards. I enjoyed the book and admired once again Ms. Reich’s skill at crafting a story.

I want to thank NetGalley and Scribner for forwarding to me a copy of this good book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Another great book in the Tempe Brennan series...I swear these books get better with time. I cannot wait to recommend this book this summer. Loved it! Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advanced copy.

A book by Kathy Reichs is always a treat--sure enough I ignored all chores today and read it straight through!
First of all , for those of you out there who watch the television show based on this character, the only similarities are the name of the protagonist. Both are good but the two series are very different.
I like both, but am a true fan of the books. I love the inner struggles of Dr. Brennan, her relationship with her daughter (now an adult) and the romance with Detective Ryna. I enjoy the fact that part of th e time Tempe Brennan is in Canada (montreal) and part of hte time in Charlotte, NC--such different culture! Yet, teh dead have the same needs in both places.
Cold Cold Bones porivdes us with a look back at cases previusly solved--a copycat is reenacting them. The book follows a path through survivalists, sad family relationships (not Brennan's) and more. All the while, we are witness to daugther Katy's struggles as a returned Army veteran (PTSD) and Brennan's attempts to re-connect with her daughter on a deeper level while still respecting the young woman's privacy, especially about hte war.
As often ahppens in these novels, Brennan suffers physically whiile pursuing the case of who is miming her old cases with new victims. I do wonder at her ability to keep holding up under such damage--but Reichs writes well enough for me to suspend that bit of "really?" and go with the flow until and suffer with Tempe and rejoice with her when it alldoes come together. Another "A" effort in the series.

Tempe Brennan is back in this novel, trying to solve a series of copycat murders in Charlotte. Complicating the situation is the seeming disappearance of Tempe's daughter Katy, after Katy has been volunteering at a Charlotte homeless shelter. These characters are like old friends, and the reader will feel invested in Tempe solving any and all crimes. Good read!

It is difficult to believe that Kathy Reichs even authored this book. It takes pieces of previous cases from her other books and used these as the premise of the book. The characters are not fully developed, even Tempe at this point. Her relationship with her partner is very strange. Didn’t she even tell him about the eyeball on her porch? He is only in Saint Martin in the Caribbean, but they only call one another infrequently? Wouldn’t she want him to come home and be the one investigating the body parts and other objects that are left for her?

The part of the book that deals with her daughter and their relationship is also odd. If my daughter had disappeared for days, I’d report her as a missing person. Not Tempe. She does not even mention this to the PI/Detective working Cold Cases for the city. And what police department has a retired Detective working cold cases and take on clients privately? This was very confusing. It was obvious who would end up as the villain. And I still do not understand why Tempe was targeted.

I found myself missing the earlier books where Tempe had cases in Quebec. These had real fleshed out characters with backgrounds. They were suspenseful and twisty. I want the old Kathy Reichs back. I am so disappointed in this novel that I’m not sure I will even read anymore of her books.

Really enjoyed Kathy Reichs latest.A tense thriller that kept me turning the pages guessing from first page to last.This is another good book in this series.#netgalley #scribner

Cold Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs is not her best work. The plot has Dr. Brennan doing a lot of multi-tasking and trying to fit pieces of the puzzle together, but I found the characters flat and predictable. Whereas Dr. Brennan can sometimes be a maverick in her pursuit of a suspect, this book has her making too many poor choices, which seems out of character. Hopefully, Ms. Reichs' next book in the series will return to the high level her readers have come to expect from her. This one just missed the mark. Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy to give my full unbiased opinion.

I really enjoyed this latest installment by this author as we enter the clinical world of Temperence Brennan again. A package left at her door opens up a wild and twisted ride as Tempe tries to put together the clues before it’s too late.

What did I like? I can’t believe we are at twenty one. This series is so fascinating. I always feel whimsical when I read this author’s books since I lived in St. Lawrence County in New York, and in North Carolina so I can almost feel the weather when she writes about it. This installment is so action packed and the gang’s all here. Ryan, Slidell, Katy, and Birdie.

Would I recommend or buy? I have all of these author’s books so I imagine this one will find its way to the shelf as well. I’ve read all her books and enjoyed each one. If you love mystery or your a fan of the show then this series is amazing!

I received a complimentary ARC from the publisher to read and voluntarily left this review!

I thought this was way better than the last two books in the series, both of which made me consider dropping it all together. It was so obviously who the killer was in this book from early on, but the characters all felt true to themselves, the case was interesting, and it didn't feel ghostwritten the way the last book did. I'm hopeful this is a return to form for the series!

I really enjoyed this latest entry in the series!

Tempe is awesome (as usual) and the series of crimes presented here is incredibly intriguing. I definitely wanted to know what was going on.

A couple of the relationships fell flat for me in this one. While I understood Tempe’s people had some other things going on, it was really weird for me how no one was exactly pressed that their loved one has a FREAKING EYEBALL on their front porch. I mean, it was treated as a mild curiosity at best. Me (and I don’t care what my job is), someone puts an eyeball in a box and leaves it on my porch, I’m expecting my loved ones to be more than mildly concerned.

I also have to say that it was soooooo very obvious who the responsible party was here. I was just really in it for the why of it all.

My nitpicks aside, I definitely enjoyed the read. It was fast-paced, suspenseful and I’m looking forward to the next book!

• ARC via Publisher

These are great mystery thrillers and Reichs latest book is no exception. Over the years, she's honed her writing style. The pacing is great as are the twists and turns. I had an inkling where the story was going but was still surprised by the end.

When an eyeball is delivered to her door, Temperance Brennan finds herself dropped into the middle of a new investigation, a target of a copycat killer mimicking her cases for over three years. With Katy out of the Army and facing her own struggles, Brennan is torn between her duty as a mother and catching the killer before she, and maybe Katy, are in danger.

Cold, Cold Bones is the 21st Tempe Brennan novel and just like its 20 predecessors, it was a fast paced, well planned, informative read. The story line was unique and original (even this many books in!), the characters are still the same dynamic wonderful comfort characters and I was instantly hooked.

As with all her books, I sat down and read this book in one sitting, unwilling to put it down until I knew what happened. Amazing book by an amazing author. Cannot wait to add the physical copy to my Reichs shelf this July!

Good book! This book had suspense, intrigue, murder and great police work! Plenty of twists and turns! I did enjoy reading this book I would recommend reading it but it wasn't one of my all time favorites, still worth reading though! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

WOW! I haven't read a Kathy Reichs book in a long time. This book was so fast paced, it was hard to put it down.
Dr Brennan is dealing with her daughter moving back to town and now a weirdo is repeating past cases that she has worked on.
With the help of Detective Slidell and Ryan, Dr Brennan MUST solve these cases before she and/or her daughter are killed.
This book is so explosive and its a nonstop WHO IS DOING this that it was so hard to stop reading. I would fly through over a 100 pages and not realize that 2 hours had passed.
If you love mysteries/thrillers pick up this book.
IT is wonderful!

Forensic anthropologist, Tempe Brennan has seen plenty of gruesome things in her career, but few are as unsettling as the human eyeball she receives in the mail. She soon discovers that she has a “fan” someone recreating her most famous cases, leading her to one horrific crime scene after another. With no clue who’s targeting her, she approaches the now retired detective Skinny Sidell, who worked with Tempe during her early career and enlists the help of friend with benefits, Andrew Ryan, now a PI, to uncover the truth. This is one of the best Brennan stories in a long time, Reichs has breathed new life into Tempe and her world in this creepy thriller

Cold, Cold Bones is the twenty first entry in the Temperance Brennan series, one which I’d always meant to start but never got around to reading. Given the chance to read an advance copy of the book, I decided to take the plunge, and it was well worth it.

After helping her daughter move in to her new home, they both arrive at Tempe’s house, where they find a package containing a human eyeball, and what’s worse, the eyeball is engraved with GPS coordinates. Those coordinates lead to a grisly discovery. From there, the story quickly unfolds, as Tempe, aided by Detective “Skinny”, discover more bodies, and realize that these murders resemble cases Tempe solved in the past. And then her daughter seems to disappear. The plot leaves you guessing and is throughly involving.

While I had concerns that my jumping into the series so late would be an issue as I wasn’t familiar with any of the characters, they were soon laid to rest. Enough backstory was revealed without ruining the story line, and honestly, it didn’t matter.

My thanks to Scribner and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book.