Fire and Bones by Kathy Reichs

Description taken from amazon blurb:

Always apprehensive about working fire scenes, Tempe is called to Washington, DC, to analyze the victims of a deadly blaze. The devastated building is in Foggy Bottom, a neighborhood with a colorful past and present, and when Tempe delves into the property’s history, she becomes suspicious about the ownership.

The pieces start falling into place strangely and quickly, and, sensing a good story, Tempe teams with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Soon the duo learns that back in the 1930s and ’40s the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. While interesting, this fact seems irrelevant—until the son of a Foggy Bottom gang member is shot dead at his home in an affluent part of the district. Coincidence? Targeted attack? So many questions.

As Tempe and Ivy dig deeper, an arrest is finally made. Then another fire claims one more victim, and slowly, Tempe’s instincts begin pointing to the obvious. But her moves since coming to Washington have been anticipated—and every path forward seems to bring with it a lethal threat.

 

This was my first Kathy Reichs novel and I saw a lot of reviews saying this was not her best. Based on what I read, I don’t think I’d deliberately go out to look for another. I’d probably only read one if I had nothing else to read (and who has that?). There was nothing inherently wrong with it. In fact, the way she finishes off chapters definitely makes you want to read one more and then one more. I guess it was the explanation of every acronym/abbreviation or technical term (even though it’s woven into thoughts or speech) and maybe just too much info. I didn’t connect with the story and never felt invested in finding out who actually did it. When it started and the girl was on the phone with 911, I felt there was going to be something great behind this, but as it went on and the history was looked at over and over, it just felt like it went on for too long. I started jumping sections and I didn’t even really read the epilogue.

 

I never connected with any of the characters, either. Not sure if it’s because I came in late in the series, or if they didn’t make a mark on me. From the detectives to the boyfriend to the telejournalist or to the MC. As for the twins – really?

 

I was looking forward to the forensic parts of the book but even those felt forced. The solution to the whole thing was odd. And the twist? Well, you could see that coming a mile away. Nope, very sad to say this was not for me.