I wasn't crazy about Kathy Reichs's writing when I read her first Temperance Brennan book. The writing was spare, cold, unemotional. I kept up with the series though, and I'm not quite sure why. I didn't exactly enjoy them because I never warmed up to any of the characters, but I didn't exactly dislike them either. And when Bones started on tv, I had the same feeling - not great, not bad.

I won this 15th book in the series through the Goodreads First Reads program, and I have read every book before this one except #14 (somehow I missed hearing about it). And now that I am at book 15, I can finally pinpoint why I keep reading them - Kathy Reichs is consistent. Her writing is still spare, cold, and unemotional, but her plots remain of equal quality and her characters are as nuanced (or not) as they were in the early books.

Sometimes I do wish I could care more about the characters, but really I'm reading her books for the forensic stuff which was a bit light in this book (practically nonexistent, actually). She's had better ones, but this wasn't bad. And it was consistent with her past writing.

Consistency is underrated in an author. So many get sloppy - Janet Evanovich comes mind - as they get more popular, so it's nice to see Reichs keeping up with herself, at least.