(10) Flash and Bones

Title: Flash and Bones: A Novel (Temperance Brennan)by Kathy Reichs
Publisher:Pocket Books
304 pages
Genre: Mystery

Synopsis: Just as 200,000 fans are pouring into town for Race Week, a body is found in a barrel of asphalt next to the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The next day, a NASCAR crew member comes to Temperance Brennan’s office at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner to share a devastating story. Twelve years earlier, Wayne Gamble’s sister, Cindi, then a high school senior and aspiring racer, disappeared along with her boyfriend, Cale Lovette. Lovette kept company with a group of right-wing extremists known as the Patriot Posse. Could the body be Cindi’s? Or Cale’s?

At the time of their disappearance, the FBI joined the investigation, only to terminate it weeks later. Was there a cover-up? As Tempe juggles multiple theories, the discovery of a strange, deadly substance in the barrel alongside the body throws everything into question. Then an employee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention goes missing during Race Week. Tempe can’t overlook the coincidence. Was this man using his lab chemicals for murder? Or is the explanation even more sinister? What other secrets lurk behind the festive veneer of Race Week?

Review: I'm not much of a NASCAR fan so there were parts of this book that left me scratching my head although just like Tempe I did find some of the history of NASCAR fascinating. This book moved at a fair clip and the the forensics were on target and fascinating.  I think the last Temperance Brennan book I read I thought was too forensic and medical this had just the right mix. While I figured out the who before the end of the book the why was escaping me until the very end. All in all a fun read.

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