Kathy Reichs latest thriller, "Cross Bones," features forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan, who divides her time between laboratories in North Carolina and Montreal. Tempe is currently in a committed relationship with hunky Canadian Detective Andrew Ryan (he of the Viking blue eyes), who is her partner both professionally and personally.
When the body of an Orthodox Jew named Avram Ferris turns up in a state of advanced putrefaction in Montreal, Tempe is called in to help determine the cause of death. Adding to the mystery, a stranger named Kessler passes Tempe a photograph, stating that it provides a clue as to why Ferris was killed. The photo shows a supine skeleton, and various elements in the picture indicate that it was taken at an archaeological dig. Tempe calls her pal, Jake Drum, a colleague at University of North Carolina-Charlotte and an expert in biblical archaeology, to shed some light on the photograph.
Jake believes that the picture was taken at Masada, Israel, in 1963. He further states that it may contain explosive evidence that Yigael Yadin, the archaeologist who excavated Masada, wanted to keep hidden from the world. Ferris' death and the puzzling photograph lead Tempe, Jake, and Ryan to Israel, where they encounter intrigue, violence, and ever more complex biblical conundrums involving skeletal remains.
The resemblance between "Cross Bones" and Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" is strictly intentional. In fact, Tempe mentions Brown's blockbuster bestseller more than once, with a wink to the reader, as if the Reichs is saying, "Sure, this is another 'Da Vinci Code' clone, but I'm putting my own spin on it." Unfortunately, Reichs doesn't quite pull it off. She populates her book with dozens of characters, including violent fanatics who want old bones to stay in the ground, Ferris's bereaved relatives, a corrupt Israeli antiquities official, and a priest with a deadly secret. This book is so convoluted that Reichs is forced to spend many pages explaining the various plot points, and this slows the narrative down considerably. It is obvious that the author has conducted extensive research about Masada and Jesus, and I applaud Reichs's scholarly attention to detail. However, by the end of the novel, the lengthy explanations become a bit wearying and repetitious.
Much of "Cross Bones" is formulaic. As in most novels of this type, the heroine places herself in unnecessarily perilous situations more than once, and then scrambles to save her life. There are frantic chase scenes, stilted, cutesy, and preachy dialogue, the obligatory twists and turns, excessive reliance on exclamation points and italics to grab the reader's attention, and, of course, a final violent confrontation. The characters are devoid of any depth, and although the biblical riddles that Reichs offers are as intriguing as any of Dan Brown's, many more questions are raised than Reichs can ever satisfactorily answer. I sincerely hope that in the foreseeable future, we will see an end to the spate of "Da Vinci Code" imitations.
