The latest in the mystery thriller series focusing on Temperance Brennan, the forensic anthropologist, this time finds her heading to Turks and Caicos, where young male tourists have been disappearing off the coast under mysterious circumstances, and turning up dead. Soon she finds herself far from home, embroiled in events that are spiraling as more bodies are found and someone very close to the case is killed.

Kathy Reichs herself is a forensic anthropologist, and I love how this knowledge informs her work. The books she writes, this series and also the popular Bones series, have a heightened sense of drama and excitement, but the details always feel like they’re taken from her work and from real cases. She is a very entertaining writer on the whole, and I like that you can pick up her books anywhere and read without needing to know all about the characters and their backgrounds. I really enjoy series like this, with their established characters, strong female leads and twisty storylines peppered with forensic details.

This book is an excellent entry in the series. It’s very entertaining and a fast paced read, a swift read. The author has a knack of dropping a little cliff hanger at the end of the chapter that keeps you reading just one more chapter, one after another. I think after so many popular books, there is a sense of a little formula happening here, and yet, I found it comforting. The plot itself felt quite fresh and I wasn’t sure where it was going. It was exciting, page turning, but without being too fluffy, too light. A solid entry in the series. I read this on a hot day in Summer, and I really enjoyed that I was taken to an island location for some mystery solving and investigation. It was a great beach thriller read for me.

Also, it gets extra points for the appearances by Bird, the main character’s cat, who, like my own cat, only eats the pate varieties of cat food.

Read It If: an entertaining mystery thriller, a solid entry in the series, and the island location adds something that’s just right for beach reading.

With thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC of this book for review.