Break No Bones (41 page)

Cut marks analyzed for a homicide investigation. Vertebral fractures examined for the reconstruction of a pedestrian hit-and-run. A suicide victim found skeletalized, hanging Cut marks analyzed for a homicide investigation. Vertebral fractures examined for the reconstruction of a pedestrian hit-and-run. A suicide victim found skeletalized, hanging from a tree.

As with al my books, this latest Temperance Brennan novel draws on decades of personal involvement at crime labs and crime scenes. Add a pinch of archaeology. Stir in an urban legend or two. Toss in media reports of stolen body parts. Season with summers on the beach at Isle of Palms. Voila!
Break No Bones.

For their wilingness to help, and for the knowledge and support they provided, I owe thanks to many.

Ted Rathbun, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, Columbia (retired), provided information on South Carolina archaeology. Robert Dilon, Ph.D., Colege of Charleston, gave guidance on malacology. Lee Goff, Ph.D., Chaminade University, is, and wil always be, the guru of bugs.

Detective Chris Dozier, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, coached me on the use of AFIS. Detective John Appel, Guilford County, North Carolina, Sheriff's Department (retired), and Detective Investigator Joseph P. Noya, Jr., NYPD Crime Scene Unit, helped with police minutiae.

Linda Kramer, R.N., Michele Skipper, M.B.A., and Eric Skipper, M.D., helped with the non-Hodgkins lymphoma scenario.

Kerry Reichs kept me accurate on Charleston geography. Paul Reichs provided information on legal proceedings and offered useful comments on early versions of the manuscript.

Others helped but prefer to remain anonymous. You know who you are. Thanks a milion.

J. Lawrence Angel was one of the grand old men of forensic anthropology. His chapter on the Spanish windlass and vertebral fracture realy does exist: Angel, J. L., and P.

C. Caldwel, "Death by strangulation: a forensic anthropological case from Wilmington, Delaware," in
Human Identification: Case Studies in Forensic Anthropology,
eds. T.

A. Rathbun and J. E. Buikstra (Springfield, 111.: Charles C. Thomas, 1986).

Heartfelt thanks to my editor, Nan Graham.
Break No Bones
benefited greatly from your advice. Thanks also to Nan's assistant, Anna deVries. And thanks to Susan Sandon, my editor across the pond.

Last, but far from least, thanks to my agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, who always has time for a word of encouragement. And who always makes me feel smart. And pretty.

Though
Break No Bones
is a work of fiction, I have tried to keep details of the story honest. If there are mistakes, I own them. Don't blame the folks acknowledged above.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathy Reichs, like her fictional creation Temperance Brennan, is forensic anthropologist for the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine legale for the province of Quebec. She serves as the Vice President of the American Association of Forensic Sciences, and on the Canadian National Police Services Advisory Board, and is one of only fifty-six forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. A professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dr. Reichs is a native of Chicago, where she received her Ph.D. at Northwestern. She now divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal.
Déjà Dead
brought her fame when it became a
New York Times
bestseler and won the 1997 Elis Award for Best First Novel.
Death du jour, Deadly Decisions, Fatal Voyage, Grave Secrets, Bare
Bones, Monday Mourning,
and
Cross Bones
also became international and
New York Times
bestselers.
Break No Bones
is her ninth novel featuring Temperance Brennan.

Her website is http://www.kathyreichs.com/.