Deadly Decisions (3) (A Temperance Brennan Novel)

Product Description

When innocent blood is spilled, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan deciphers the shattering truth it holds in this exciting thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs.

Nine-year-old Emily Anne Toussaint is fatally shot on a Montreal street. A North Carolina teenager disappears from her home, and parts of her skeleton are found hundreds of miles away. These shocking deaths propel Tempe Brennan from north to south, and deep into a shattering investigation inside the bizarre culture of outlaw motorcycle gangs—where one misstep could bring disaster for herself or someone she loves.

From blood-splatter patterns and ground-penetrating radar to bone-sample analysis,
Deadly Decisions triumphantly combines the authenticity of a world-class forensic professional with the narrative power of a brilliant crime-writing star.

About the Author

Kathy Reichs’s first novel 
Déjà Dead was a #1 
New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. 
The Bone Code is Kathy’s twentieth entry in her series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Kathy was also a producer of the hit Fox TV series, 
Bones, which is based on her work and her novels. She is one of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. She served on the Board of Directors and as Vice President of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and as a member of the National Police Services Advisory Council in Canada. She divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Québec. Visit Kathy at KathyReichs.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Deadly Décisions

HER NAME WAS EMILY ANNE. SHE WAS NINE YEARS OLD, WITH black ringlets, long lashes, and caramel-colored skin. Her ears were pierced with tiny gold loops. Her forehead was pierced by two slugs from a Cobra 9-mm semiautomatic.

• • •

It was a Saturday, and I was working by special request of my boss, Pierre LaManche. I’d been at the lab for four hours, sorting badly mangled tissue, when the door to the large autopsy room opened and Sergeant-Detective Luc Claudel came striding in.

Claudel and I had worked together in the past, and though he’d come to tolerate, perhaps even appreciate me, one would not infer that from his brusque manner.

“Where’s LaManche?” he demanded, glancing at the gurney in front of me, then quickly away.

I said nothing. When Claudel was in one of his moods, I ignored him.

“Has Dr. LaManche arrived?” The detective avoided looking at my greasy gloves.

“It’s Saturday, Monsieur Claudel. He doesn’t wo—”

At that moment Michel Charbonneau stuck his head into the room. Through the opening I could hear the whir and clank of the electric door at the back of the building.

“Le cadavre est arrivé,” Charbonneau told his partner.

What cadaver? Why were two homicide detectives at the morgue on a Saturday afternoon?

Charbonneau greeted me in English. He was a large man, with spiky hair that resembled a hedgehog’s.

“Hey, Doc.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, pulling off my gloves and lowering my mask.

Claudel answered, his face tense, his eyes cheerless in the harsh fluorescent light.

“Dr. LaManche will be here shortly. He can explain.”

Already sweat glistened on his forehead, and his mouth was compressed into a thin, tight line. Claudel detested autopsies and avoided the morgue as much as possible. Without another word he pulled the door wide and brushed past his partner. Charbonneau watched him walk down the corridor, then turned back to me.

“This is hard for him. He has kids.”

“Kids?” I felt something cold in my chest.

“The Heathens struck this morning. Ever hear of Richard Marcotte?”

The name was vaguely familiar.

“Maybe you know him as Araignée. Spider.” He curled his fingers like a child doing the waterspout rhyme. “Great guy. And an elected official in the outlaw biker set.