Crossbones (Ashley Lapierre)

Cross bones, Kathy Reichs, Simon & Schuster,Inc: Pocket books, 453

Cross Bones is one book in the Kathy Reichs series. I stumbled upon the first book while looking for a book on anthropology. I asked for the rest of the books for Christmas, and happened to receive some of them.

Cross bones explores the world of Jewish culture through the discovery of more and more skeletons. In the beginning a man is murdered, and as his family gathers around a man slips Dr. Temperance Brennan a photo of a skeleton. That skeleton was believed to be the remains of Jesus Christ. When Temperance goes to question a certain monk they talk about the bones, and he gives them to her. A few days later he is found dead, but the main question is why? As the story goes on Temperance is convinced by her friend Jake to go to Israel so they may conduct a more thorough investigation. Upon her arrival Jake takes her to this tomb that he is investigating. A sort of Israel police catches them, and confiscates the bones. As their investigation continues they find evidence to believe that they had found the family tomb of Jesus Christ, although the bones that they had once had they proved were not his. Evil spreads, and more murder occurs as the mystery unfolds.

The audience of the book would be anyone who enjoys reading about anthropology, or even a complicated mystery, because the main character Dr. Temperance Brennan is an anthropologist who gets involved in large cases that need answers. (Not recommended for a younger audience)

The author's writing style is complicated to follow at some points. The book is written with an adult audience in mind, so Reichs uses a larger vocabulary with some words that people may not be familiar with. Reichs also uses simpler vocabulary in order for the reader to understand the complicated situations that she writes about. “Four shots depicted fragments of a calcaneus and other foot bones, some before and some after separation and reconstruction. Though coated with a thick, calcareous crust, an iron nail could be seen traversing the calcaneus from side to side. A wooden plaque peeked from below a nail head.”(288) In this quote I may not know what calcaneus means, but she then says “and other foot bones,”. That tells me that calcaneus is a foot bone.

“ ' The body was found in a closet?' Ryan nodded ' Blood and brains all over the walls.' 'What kind of closet?' 'Small storage space off an upstairs closet.' 'Why would cats be in there with him?' 'The doors outfitted with one of those little two-way flaps. Ferris kept food and litter in there.'He gathered the cats to shoot himself?' 'Maybe they were in there when he took the bullet, maybe they slipped in later. Ferris may have died sitting on a stool, then tumbled off. Somehow his feet ended up jamming the kitty door.'”(24) This passage stuck to me because they are describing how Ferris's body was found. I found it interesting that cats would be locked in the room with him.

“The jackal stood with neck angled down, shoulder blades shooting to bony peaks behind its ears. It's fur was mangy and matted. I took a cautious step backward. The jackal bared teeth that were brown and glistening. Its forelimbs flexed and its head shot up. Every muscle in me went rigid.”(225) This passage stuck in my mind because it's at a point of excitement. I had no idea what she was hearing in the tomb, and I had no idea what was going to happen next.

“Blotnik hadn't been dead long. Of course not. I knew that. I'd spoken to him less than an hour ago. Was the killer still here? Stumbling back to the office, I grabbed up the phone. No dial tone.”(414) I picked this passage because it had surprised me, when reading, because I didn't expect that character to die. He wasn't a main character, but he also was as involved in the story. His death just surprised me.

There wasn't much that I could relate to because most of the story is about anthropology, and Dr. Temperance Brennan's job. However, the body that was first found was that of Avram Ferris. His body was found with the left half of his face literally blown off. He had used a gun to apparently kill himself, but it was later believed that he was murdered. I can relate to this, and only this. My uncle was found dead in his car back in 83. Half of his face was blown off from a rifle. The police believed that it was suicide, and no further investigation took place. Most of my family doesn't believe that it was though, and I wish that I could somehow reopen the case. But without the body it would be hard, and my grandmother doesn't want to disturb him.