An unconvincing, totally forgettable novel. Like many other readers, I miss the elements that make the Bones TV show so appealing. I made the mistake of thinking that this was the first book in Reichs' series, so I was initially surprised at how phoned-in and convoluted it felt. The only part of the book that seemed passionately written was Tempe's environmental speech featured on the last two pages. Reichs writes in sentence fragments that read like sporadic bursts of machine gun fire, as if she had sent the manuscript to her publishers via telegram and was being charged by the word. Publishers Weekly refers to it as "cut-to-the-chase writing," but I think it's lazy. Call me old-fashioned, but I enjoy the occasional verb now and then. I also don't care much for the "cutesy" elements throughout, such as the constant attention to the lovable antics of Tempe's pets or the way that her boyfriend continually acts cute in wholly unrealistic ways. And don't even get me started on Reichs' Sex And The City-syle attention to fashion and brand names. I can see the potential for Reichs to be a good writer, but this outing contains for too many cheesy paperback-romance elements that do nothing to serve the story and will simply alienate the male audience. Then there's the actual plot of this novel, which is incredibly weak and coincidental. It all builds up to an even weaker, more coincidental ending...and Tempe is given the fortuitous opportunity to kill the main villain in the absolute lamest way imaginable. I'm curious whether this is a series that simply jumped the shark, or if it was really this bad from the get-go.