Temperance Brennan (abridged)

Another day. Another death. Death du Jour. My God, how many such days would there be?' On a bitterly cold march night in Montreal, forensic anthropologiest Dr Temperance Brennan is exhuming the remains of a nun proposed for sainthood in the grounds of an old church. Just hours later, Tempe is called to the scene of an horrific arson. A young family has perished, and there seems to be no witness, no motive, no explanation.

Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist for the state of Quebec, is abruptly recalled from a course she is teaching at Quantico for a gruesome duty. A biker war is raging in Quebec and two of its foot soldiers have blown themselves up. The only person qualified to make sense of what remains is Tempe. Like many in the region, she cares little what les motards, the bikers, do to each other. Until the body of a nine-year-old girl is wheeled into the morgue, slain by biker crossfire.

When a plane crashes high in the mountains of North Carolina, Tempe Brennan is one of the first on the scene. As a forensic anthropologist for the state, she serves on the region's disaster response team. The task that confronts her is a sad and sickening one. Putting normal life on hold, she and her colleagues must painstakingly identify the victims. A chance discovery concerns her: a severed foot, well away from the main crash site.

Dr. Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist, departs from home turf to journey to Guatemala, where her skills will be tested to the limit. It was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers entered the village of Chupan Ya and rounded up the women and children. No records were kept. Families and neighbors refer to their lost members as "the disappeared". The bodies are said to lie in a mass grave.

"Death by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head" is the on-scene assessment, but the victim's relatives are adamant in their rejection of suicide as an explanation. Discovered in a closet, a full week after death, the body is barely recognisable. Extreme heat has accelerated decomposition, and Dr Temperance Brennan's forensic expertise is required. Advanced putrefaction has made it virtually impossible to determine the trajectory of the bullet.

It's the second-to-last day of archaeological field school. The students are working on a prehistoric gravesite when a much more recent burial is uncovered. The skeleton is articulated, the bone fresh, and the vertebrae still connected by soft-tissue. It's a case forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan has to take. But her investigations soon have her in too deep - her entire view of humanity is challenged, and the further she probes, the more she seems to be putting herself in danger.

The skeleton is that of a young girl, no more than 14 years old, and forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is struggling to keep her emotions in check. Coroner Jean Bradette is being evasive, insisting the bones are ancient and of no interest. But it doesn't quite add up, and a frustrated Tempe is convinced that Bradette is hiding something. It's not Tempe's case; she's overwhelmed with more urgent work in the lab. But the nagging in her subconscious won't let up.

An underground chamber is exposed in a seedy, dilapidated house with sagging trim and peeling paint...When a careless plumber accidentally knocks through a wall, he is horrified by what he uncovers.

'You have an enemy, Dr Brennan. It is in your interest to learn who placed that call.' A routine case turns sinister when Dr Temperance Brennan is accused of mishandling the autopsy of a missing heiress. Someone has made an incriminating accusation that she missed or concealed crucial evidence. Before Tempe can get to the one man with information, he turns up dead.