Cross Bones (Temperance Brennan Book 8)

Cross Bones was very difficult for me to read. There were so many words that I found difficult to pronounce and spent a good deal of time trying to figure them out. This book did make me think, however. My belief has always been that though I believe the Bible is what it is I have never believed that every word was authentic and I found some answers to questions I have had for years or at least possible answers. As always I was never sure who was who and who did what. Ms. Reichs sure knows how to drive you head first into the wrong answer and then make the answer so sensible.

I purchased the book because I was going to Israel. I found it a bit hard to follow. It seemed somewhat disjointed, no pun intended, and it was hard to keep all the players sorted out. It could be due to the fact that I was reading it in bits and pieces. I felt like Kathy was trying to get all the facts in harder than telling a good story. I noticed at the end of the book that it was based on real discoveries and archaeological information. So perhaps my observation that she wanted to get all the facts in was correct. The relationships and story bits were the best part. Although the history, as I was in-country, were enlightening as well.

This latest installment of Temperance Brennan's adventures is great. All the books in the series have been interesting and have kept Tempe believable - the evolution of Ryan has not only been interesting, but enhancing to the plot. Even Tempe's pets have personality and thus give her another angle.
The plot you can read in the above - the dealing with several skeletons found in the Holy Land that date around the time of Jesus and the time of Masada.
It is an excellent novel -
All Reichs works are -
You'll find Cross Bones fascinating.

This book and the information in it can really get you thinking. Based on pryor readings of her novels, I'm am impressed with the knowledge of being a forensic anthropologist. I love Tempe & Ryan. If I wasn't so happy being a grandmother, I would have chosen this field of expertise!!!!

I read everything Kathy Reichs puts out; I especially like the manner in which she is maturing her main character. This particular novel present arguments in Christianity that most of us never got to discuss in Religion Class. The ending was, surprisingly, satisfying and irritating at the same time. For good reading, I recommend it highly.

Tempe Brennan and her colleague/boyfriend Detective Ryan travel to Israel to investigate the murder of an ultra-Orthodox Jew accused of selling antiquities on the black market, accidentally stumbling upon a tomb thought to be the burial site of Jesus and his family. A sexy, fast-paced thriller with plenty of humor and history. I read it in two days.

What the author does with this series: Kathy Reichs started off slow but gets better and better. This is part of the series called the <i>Tempe Brenner – Forensic Anthropologist</i>. This paragraph applies to all books in this series. Tempe is a anthropologist who works for medical examiners in Montreal, Quebec and Charlotte North Caroline

Even though the books are often very detailed in both location and the examination of the remains, the story often moves faster than you expect.

Do you need to read this series in order: YES or you miss out on too much of the back stories.

Triggers: This is a book about medical examiners at its core, so lots of references to dead bodies, some are described in strong detail (in a forensic way).Our anthropologist ends up in some life threatening situations and on a couple of occasions in the series, animals are killed, sometimes gratuitously. Relatives of Tempe often in up wounded as the bad persons try to get to her through her family.

This book had a very different setting, which made it great.

An orthodox Jew is found shot dead in Montreal, the mutilated body is barely recognizable. Extreme heat has accelerated decomposition, and made it virtually impossible to determine the bullet trajectory. But just as forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan is attempting to make sense of the fracture patterning, a mysterious stranger slips her a photograph of a skeleton, assuring her it holds the key to the victim's death...The trail of clues leads all the way to the Holy Land where, together with detective Andrew Ryan, Tempe makes a startling discovery - but the further Tempe probes into the identity of the ancient skeleton, the more she seems to be putting herself in danger...

My main problem with the book is that many contemporary Christian theologians are at pains to have people understand that whatever the Resurrection was it is not a resuscitated human body rising up and making it way out of the cave with the rock before it which is the common understanding of what went on. This is far more an artistic interpretation than what the languages of the Christian scriptures would indicate.

Scripture scholars like Gerard Stephen Sloyan talk about the promise from the time of the Macabees when the bulk of young manhood was killed by the Roman occupiers that the just would be raised and live again this side of life. So why would it have only been Yeshua bar Yussef to whom that had happened. Where we Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Rebecca, etc., who were considered holy and just in the eyes of most Jews.

There is another excellent take on all of this done by John L. McKenzie in terms of "The Old Testament Without Illusion" and "The New Testament Without Illusion", but especially his essays on "The Real Jesus" and "The Real Mary" in "How Relevant is the Bible".

Among the contemporary ideas is the statement that Peter "has soon the Lord" means that Peter finally got to understand what Jesus was about and why he did what he did. "Seeing" means understanding.

I wish that the book indicated the author knew more of what is happening in contemporary progressive Christian though. I would also suggest that readers would find a far more intriguing and faster paced story in Templeton's, "Act of God."

Cross Bones
Author: Kathy Reichs
Publisher: Scribner
351 Pages
Crime/Thriller

An Orthodox Jewish man is shot to death, and the killing may have something to do with bones discovered at Masada in the 1960s. Temperance Brennan and her boyfriend Andrew Ryan team up with an archaeologist in Israel to solve the case. The bones in question may be the remains of Jesus Christ. Brennan delves into the history of Masada, Jesus Christ, Christianity and Judaism in this 8th book of the Temperance Brennan series.

Well, I have to admit I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this book. While I found the history and the premise that Jesus perhaps didn't die on the cross interesting, I felt that maybe this book was written to cash in on the DaVinci Code craze a few years ago. As the theory behind the plot was explained, I just became very incredulous. There is an afterword by the author citing a book that outlines the Jesus/Mary Magdalene concept. The more in-depth the book went into the idea that they had discovered a tomb containing the holy family, and that people were being killed to cover it up, it just fell flat for me. The ending seemed rushed and more than a little like a cop-out written to not ruffle any feathers. As I read the final chapters, I found myself wondering less about the actual outcome of the story, and more about how Reichs was going to end it without her characters formulating any opinion or finding any factual proof to support or refute the theory.

The book was well-written in general, and for the most part I did enjoy reading it. I just found the ending to be really...well, meh. The story line built up tension and wonder about whether Brennan would prove or disprove the possibility that Christ lived to old age.....only in the end to have no answers.

It is obvious that Reichs researched the topic well, and she gives information so that her readers can research it more themselves. It's just a bit obvious that she backed off from the topic at the end so that some would not be offended by the book.

I would have given the book a higher rating, if not for the fizzle at the end.

My rating: 5/10
Some violence, not graphic.
Ages 16+

I enjoy all of Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan novels. First of all, these books are well-written with wonderfully original descriptions of everyday situations and dilemmas. As a forensic anthropologist, Tempe is tasked with identifying skeletons by determining age at death, gender, racial group if possible, and age of skeleton. CROSS BONES involves two ancient skeletons the origins of which expose both Tempe and her male archeologist colleague to physical danger from several sources..

As in most of the novels in this series, the initial setting is in Montreal. Place names are therefore in French as is some of the dialog, but I don't think that you have to know French to enjoy reading these books.

In this novel, Tempe is spending most of her nights with Andrew Ryan, a homicide detective to whom she has become close. If you want graphic descriptions of sex, you won't find them in Reichs' novels. She describes intimacy and caring while avoiding detailed descriptions of the physical sex act. And, because Tempe is female, discussions of sexual interest are written from a female perspective. We therefore hear far more about men's buttocks than we do about women's breasts.

I would not be surprised to learn that women are more likely to enjoy these novels than are men.

Information is presented in this book as fact and is supposedly supported by extensive research done by the author. There isn't any proof that the Israeli government hid any discoveries from the public. It is supposition that is used as fact in the book. Even after a whole story is presented around this information, nothing is further gleamed from the bones and the digs. We are still left with possibilities and suppositions.
What bothered me most about the book was the way the Chevra Kadisha is presented. The Chevra Kadisha are Jewish men in every country and in every community who serve the dead. They are selfless in their devotion. They do it for love and not money. They sit with the dead body until he or she is buried. They also help the bereaved during the difficult time. I have been on the receiving end of their goodness. The book desecrates their name. I am saddened to read the fictional portrayal of them.

In Crossbones, Avram Ferris, an Orthodox Jew, is found dead in the closet of his export business, after being reported missing for a week. Since the corpse is badly decomposed, having had help from Ferris' two cats who were also in the closet, Tempe is called in to do the autopsy. While it is originally thought that Ferris committed suicide, Tempe determines that it is a murder. Andrew Ryan is assigned to do the police investigation.

In order to conduct the autopsy according to Jewish law, several Jews are called in to observe. After the autopsy, one of them hands Tempe a picture of a skeleton and tells her that Ferris was killed because of it. Tempe does some checking and learns that the skeleton, which was excavated from the Masada in Israel, is believed by some experts to be the remains of Jesus, who didn't actually die on the cross, but was rescued and lived into his 80's. If this is true, it will obviously cause great havoc among the Christian churches, especially the Catholics.

Tempe's investigation leads her to contact Ferris' two closest friends; one of them now a Catholic monk, Father Sylvain Morissonneau, who hands the skeleton over to her. She takes DNA samples and does carbon-14 testing on the bones (which are over 2000 years old), and determines that they are from a male, between the ages of 45-60, proving that the remains cannot be Jesus, who either died on the cross in his early thirties, or as some believe, in old age.

Tempe is obligated to turn the bones over to Israel authorities, and since Ryan must go to Israel to conduct the murder investigation which has ties to Masada and the bones, they travel there together. The time in Israel is laced with danger, close calls, and more murders.

Kathy Reichs weaves her characters and their story through factual historical events having to do with skeletons that were actually found in Israel. There are some parts of the book that are very believable because the factual information is used by the characters to solve the case. Also, there is an excellent layman's explanation of the two kinds of DNA and how it can determine details about the person whose bones have been found.

The storyline goes fast, but the historical facts are quite detailed and involved, so Cross Bones isn't as quick of a read as some other thrillers. However, it's full of fascinating information that wouldn't be readily available except in a textbook of some kind.

Reichs is great in her characterization of Tempe and Ryan, as well as the minor characters in this book. She includes bantering between the two, and vivid descriptions so that the characters seem real. For those who enjoy Medical Thrillers or Historical Thrillers, this book is a good choice, and a chance to learn a new thing or two.

This book was purchased with personal funds and no promotion of the book was solicited by the author or publisher.

Fans of Robin Cook, Michael Palmer and Patricia Cornwell will most likely enjoy these books by Reichs which are a great mixture of science and mystery with a dash of a thriller thrown in. I even like the character development as each book progresses nicely. Each entry deals with a different story line, this time Temperance is entangled in a bit of a larger than life investigation, along with her friend Jake Drum who's sort of a biblical archaeologist, she goes to Israel to investigate some strange events surrounding a skeleton that some believe might had belonged to Jesus. An antiques dealer with not so clear conscience gets involved as well add some very culture oriented sects that don't want Tempe to tamper with their sacred history and you have an intense and rich read on your hands, I don't often read fiction that touches on too much religion but this was well done, it was very clever and interesting and for anyone who likes a nice thrilling read. Out of all the Tempe books that I read in order so far this one stands out the most for some reason. The exotic locale and cultural shift provided a trampoline of intensity that once I got on was hard to ignore, I was as curious as everyone in the story as to the origin of the mysterious skeletons that Tempe dealt with along with the bides that kept dropping as she got closer to the answer. The carbon dating and lab procedures were sublime as usual, I always feel like I learn so much fascinating scientific information reading these, it's somehow slipped in a form that you want to gobble up, this is easy to understand and a total blast to read while it involves some sort of mystery that adds to the whole mix.

I thought that the topic and story line was well handled and as kept infesting enough for any fan of a nice thrilling read to enjoy, I'm slowly making my way through this series and it's honestly one of the best ones I have ever read.

- Kasia S.

* book from 2011

Kathy Reichs combines forensic anthropology with archeology in her Temperance Brennan book, Cross Bones.

In Cross Bones, Reichs builds a story around facts from archeological digs at Masada in the 1960s and the "discovery" of the James ossuary in 2002 (allegedly the brother of Jesus). The book opens with the death of an Orthodox Jewish merchant in Montreal. But is it possible that what looks like a suicide could possibly be a murder? Immediately after the autopsy, a stranger slips Brennan a photo of a skeleton taken at Masada and claims "This is the reason Avram Ferris is dead."

Avram Ferris operated an import business with most of his merchandise coming from Israel. Brennan suspects that perhaps Ferris was dealing in illegal antiquities, including bones. Inspector Andrew Ryan and Dr. Brennan travel to Israel to continue the investigation. There, she meets up with an academic friend and archeologist, Jake Drum. Not only do they need to discover the secret of the Masada skeleton (could it be the bones of Christ?), but it is possible that it might have ties to the ancient crypt discovered by Drum and believed to belong to the family of Jesus.

One aspect I liked about Cross Bones is that Reichs begins by listing the historic truths around which she builds her story. And as with her later books, she ends it with a section called "From the Forensic Files of Dr. Kathy Reichs." In it, she explains where she got the idea for Cross Bones. In this case, the idea came from a friend and colleague, Dr. James Tabor, a Biblical archeologist and scholar. But while I liked the factual aspects of the plot, the rest of it is pretty unbelievable. As a forensic anthropologist, her job would have ended at the autopsy-room door. Traipsing around Israel as part of the investigation would never happen in real life. However, I enjoy the things I learn from Reichs about her job and she's still worthy of three stars for Cross Bones.