Cross Bones | 
 enlarge | Author: Kathy Reichs
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  113 reviews
Sales Rank: 373256
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.2
ASIN: B000BLNPIM
Publication Date: June 28, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Good condition, several copies available, will show some visible wear, may have highlighting, dust jacket may be missing, tears in dust jacket, light soiling, edge wear, may be an ex library book, we will send our best available, good reading copy, prompt shipping, excellent service.
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Product Description
'Death by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head' is the on-scene assessment, but the victim's relatives are adamant in their rejection of suicide as an explanation. Discovered in a closet, a full week after death, the body is barely recognisable. Extreme heat has accelerated decomposition, and Dr Temperance Brennan's forensic expertise is required. Advanced putrefaction has made it virtually impossible to determine the trajectory of the bullet. But just as Tempe is attempting to make sense of the fracture patterning, an unknown man slips her a photograph of a skeleton, telling her it holds the answer to the victim's death...Detective Andrew Ryan is also on the case and, as his relationship with Tempe heats up, together they follow the trail of clues all the way to Israel. In the Holy Land, with the help of Jacob Drum, a biblical archaeologist and old friend, Tempe becomes involved in an international mystery as old as Jesus, a mystery that could rewrite 2000 years of religious history. Could one of the tombs really be Christ's last resting place? And are the bones in the ancient ossuary the last remnants of James, the brother of Jesus, as its inscription claims? But the further Tempe probes into the identity of the ancient skeleton, the more she seems to be putting herself in danger...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 108 more reviews...
 For PhDs only September 15, 2008
Lois Lain (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)
Reichs is an awesome writer, and her skill with plotting and words still shone through this somewhat convoluted storyline. There were simply too many people, too many plot twists, too many historical references and figures, and too many unfamiliar terms for me to keep straight. I found myself racing to the end to finish. And I was sure glad when I could mark this "done." If you have a degree in religion, archaeology, or Jewish history, you'll probably keep up just fine. But for us mere mortals, it was way over my head.
 A 2,000 year old puzzle August 4, 2008
Barbara L. Lemaster (Florida)
One of her popular Dr. Temperance Brennan adventures in which Dr. Brennan and her lover, Andrew Ryan, are investigating a mystery involving black market antiquities and the possible final resting place of Jesus Christ. To her credit, Reichs writes with authority when it comes to forensic anthropology and her characters are three-dimensional and engaging . Her mystery involves an ossuary which, when discovered, was purported to be that of James, Jesus' half-brother. If true, then Catholicism would have to explain their dogma of Mary being eternally virgin (a doctrine unsupported by scripture).
There's also the possibility that an archaeologist has uncovered not just any tomb-but, rather, the burial place of Jesus Christ. If true, that would demolish the most basic tenet of Christianity (namely, the resurrection). Reichs has a habit of writing in very short sentences at the ends of chapters which I find irritating, but her books are a good read.
 The Girls Get a New Lease on Life June 18, 2008
Stephanie DePue (Carolina Beach, NC USA)
"Cross Bones," (2005) is the eighth in the Dr. Temperance (Tempe) Brennan series by Kathy Reichs. The first, "Deja Dead," brought her instant acclaim when it became a New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Then, as frequently happens, the series seemed to get a bit tired. Nevertheless, it was translated to the highly-successful current "Bones" television series. Reichs is, of course, an outstanding, best-selling author of forensics mysteries; a Chicago girl who is extremely well-qualified and -backgrounded to be writing such stories. She holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She is currently professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte; forensic anthropologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina; and for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaries et de Medecine Legal for the province of Quebec, Canada (located in Montreal). The writer's creation Brennan strongly resembles her: she seems also to know very well what she's doing in a forensics laboratory,works in North Carolina and Montreal, and spends quality time in Chicago.
The book opens with the discovery of the body of a murdered Jewish antiquities/religious artifacts dealer in Montreal. Brennan soon realizes that his death is linked to Israeli archaeological activities and sales, and she's leaving the bleak Montreal winter behind, jetting to Jerusalem, with her good friend and companion Montreal Detective Andrew Ryan. There, she meets up with old friend, biblical archaeologist Jake Drum, and involves herself with several hotly-debated archaeological issues dating to ancient times. And here Reichs delivers a headlong plot that really is ripped from some of the more interesting recent headlines. Tempe is caught up in the controversy as to whether an ancient limestone ossuary (a container for bones, used by ancient Jews) recently offered for sale, is actually, the final resting place of Jesus' brother James, as claimed; and whether it really did come from a tomb that may be that of Jesus' family, if he, controversially, did have a family. (There actually has been such an item offered for sale by millionaire Israeli antiquities expert/dealer Oded Golan in 2002. It has been declared a forgery, and he is under arrest. And, recently, as is well-known, the book "The Da Vinci Code," by Dan Brown that has been made into a movie by the same name, has suggested that Jesus did have a more extensive family than the Catholic Church has ever, historically, been willing to acknowledge.)
Brennan also involves herself with the apparently true historical fact that more bodies than were ever publicly reported were recovered by archaeological digs at one of Israel's most sacred sites, Masada. That's a famed mountain where ancient Jewish zealots are supposed to have fought the occupying Roman armies to the death. Each of these controversies, of course, has substantial implications for the world's major religions, Christianity, Judaism, and, by extension, Islam.
Alfred Hitchcock, legendary director of mystery movies, once famously said that the hardest thing in creating a new mystery was to find a believable "MacGuffin," that is, the thing the plot revolves around, that everyone is seeking. Reichs has found an extraordinarily gripping MacGuffin for "Cross Bones." I could hardly put the book down. The author's forensics is fresh and interesting, as ever. Her writing style is swift, lively, witty and humorous in this book, with the tiny caveat that I did not need so many reassurances that the Brennan/Ryan affair is going well. Some of Reichs' intermediate books in the Brennan series seemed a bit stale. However, judging from this one, the girls seem to have gotten a new lease on life.
If you can write in English, you might not enjoy this book June 11, 2008
Lane Phillips (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
The plot kept me turning the pages, but the writing is rather poor. The author uses a ridiculous quantity of sentence fragments for emphasis. The dialog sounds like a too-clever sitcom, where people speak to each other in wisecracks and cultural references rather than actual human language. Sometimes the author makes attempts at humor, for example, mentioning that Tempe's cat roots for a different sports team than she does. Who beyond the third grade finds that funny? I did enjoy the detailed descriptions of forensic procedures.
BonesIII January 19, 2008
Galen M. Ozawa (Carson City, NV United States)
The author apparently does a lot of research for background facts. The main character is written with interesting dialogue.
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