Kathy Reichs: Bones of the Lost: A Temperance Brennan Novel

But why Afghanistan?

That’s where the personal enters the picture.

In the fall of 2011 I was honored and privileged to be invited by the USO (United Services Organizations) and the ITW (International Thriller Writers) to travel with Clive Cussler, Mark Bowden, Sandra Brown, and Andrew Peterson to Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan to thank our troops for their courage and dedication. I was overwhelmed by the bravery, selflessness, and optimism of every service member I met.

My time in the Middle East remains a collage of vivid memories. Rising at five and dropping into my bunk at midnight. Trekking from our B-hut to the head with my roomie, Sandra. Plunging earthward in a pitch-black C-130J Hercules. Riding in Black Hawk helicopters with Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down . (We good, Mark?) Wearing a helmet and forty pounds of body armor.

But mostly I remember the people: The army sergeant penning his first novel. The air force mother-daughter team who’d enlisted, trained, and deployed together. The marine lieutenant serving in a war zone as her baby was cutting his first teeth.

Being part of Operation Thriller II was humbling, moving, and gratifying. Before touching down stateside I’d decided to share the experience with my readers.

Why human trafficking?

Same answer. Personal.

In many of my books I use Tempe’s exploits to illuminate an important societal issue: The predatory nature of cults. Trafficking in endangered species. The tragedy of human rights abuse. Black marketeering in human body parts. Child pornography on the Internet. Bones of the Lost follows in this tradition.

My daughter Courtney Reichs Mixon is a nurse. BA, BSN, RN, ONC. (Point of information: My offspring maintain a friendly rivalry over post-signature credentialing. Though both of her siblings are attorneys, at the moment Courtney holds the lead in alphabetic certification.)

Since obtaining her RN, Courtney has pursued an interest in forensic nursing and has worked alongside sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE). She has come to understand that sexual assault victims are often severely psychologically traumatized, and she feels a particular calling to help those who have suffered as a result of human trafficking.

Courtney belongs to several organizations dedicated to this goal, including NC Stop Human Trafficking (www.ncstophumantrafficking.wordpress.com) and All We Want Is Love: Liberation of Victims Everywhere (www.allwewantislove.org). She labels soap with a trafficking hotline number for placement in hotel, motel, and truck-stop bathrooms; organizes fund-raising events; answers hotline calls; and is training to be a speaker/educator for school groups, book clubs, churches, and other organizations.

It was Courtney’s passion on the subject of human trafficking (along with her relentless nagging each time I started a new book) that spurred me to highlight this tragic and heartbreaking problem.

Professional. Personal. Free-ranging data bytes in my brain. Disconnected facts, memories, and impressions reconfigured.

Voilà: a new Temperance Brennan novel is born.

© BEN MARK HOLZBERG

KATHY REICHS,like her character Temperance Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist, formerly for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina and currently for the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale for the province of Quebec. One of only ninety-nine forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, she is past Vice President of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and serves on the National Police Services Advisory Council in Canada. Reichs’s first book, Déjà Dead became a New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Her latest Temperance Brennan novel, Bones Are Forever , was an instant New York Times bestseller. Her website is www.kathyreichs.com.

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ALSO BY KATHY REICHS

BONES ARE FOREVER

FLASH AND BONES

SPIDER BONES

206 BONES

DEVIL BONES

BONES TO ASHES

BREAK NO BONES

CROSS BONES

MONDAY MOURNING

BARE BONES

GRAVE SECRETS

FATAL VOYAGE

DEADLY DÉCISIONS

DEATH DU JOUR

DÉJÀ DEAD

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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First Scribner hardcover edition August 2013

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DESIGNED BY ERICH HOBBING

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013020074

ISBN 978-1-4391-0245-9

ISBN 978-1-4391-1283-0 (ebook)

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Part One

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Part Two

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Part Three

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Epilogue

From the Forensic Files of Dr. Kathy Reichs

About Kathy Reichs