Devil Bones: (Temperance Brennan 11) - Tapa dura

An underground chamber is exposed in a seedy, dilapidated house. In the dark cellar, a ritualistic display is revealed: a human skull rests on a cauldron, surrounded by slain chickens and bizarre figurines.

Called to the scene is forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan. Bone architecture suggests that the skull is that of a young, black female. But how and when did she die? Just as Tempe is closing in on answers, another body is discovered, a headless corpse carved with Satanic symbols.

As local vigilantes begin a witch-hunt, Tempe struggles to contain her emotions. But the eventual truth proves more shocking than even she could have imagined.

Kathy Reichs is vice president of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists; a member of the RCMP National Police Services Advisory Council; forensic anthropologist to the province of Quebec; and a professor of forensic anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her first book, Déjà Dead, catapulted her to fame when it became a New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis award for best first novel. She has written 15 bestselling Temperance Brennan novels, the most recent include Bones Are Forever, Flash and Bones and 206 bones.