An underground chamber is exposed in a seedy, dilapidated house with sagging trim and peeling paint... In the dark cellar, a ritualistic display is revealed. A human skull rests on a cauldron, surrounded by slain chickens and bizarre figurines. Bony architecture suggests that the skull is that of a young, black female. But how did she die?

The meticulously dismembered body of a woman is discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery. Despite the deep cynicism of Detective Claudel who head the investigation, Dr Temperance Brennan, Director of Forensic Antrhopology for the province of Quebec is convinced that a serial killer is at work.

Violence is escalating, and spilling onto the streets of Montreal. A nine-year-old girl is killed in crossfire on her way to ballet class. The body of a teenager killed in North Carolina is found hundreds of miles away. Forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan has to pick up the pieces.

On a bitterly cold march night in Montreal, forensic anthropologiest Dr Temperance Brennan is exhuming the remains of a nun proposed for sainthood in the grounds of an old church. Just hours later, Tempe is called to the scene of a horrific arson. A young family has perished, and there seems to be no witness, no motive, no explanation.

A plane crashes high in the mountains of North Carolina. But a severed foot is discovered a good distance from the main crash site... Forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is first on the scene. The task that confronts her is a sad and sickening one, and her investigation seems to be throwing up more questions than it answers.

It's the second-to-last day of archaeological field school. Dr Temperance Brennan's students are working on a site of prehistoric graves on Dewees, when a decomposing body is uncovered in a shallow grave off a lonely beach. Dental remains and skeletal gender and race indicators suggest that the deceased is a middle-aged white male, but who was he?

The skeleton is that of a young girl, no more than fourteen years old - and forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is struggling to keep her emotions in check. Coroner Yves Bradette is being evasive, insisting the bones are ancient and of no interest. But it doesn't quite add up, and Tempe is convinced that Bradette is hiding something.

'Death by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head' is the on-scene assessment, but the victim's relatives are adamant in their rejection of suicide as an explanation. Discovered in a closet, a week after death, the body is barely recognisable. Extreme heat has accelerated decomposition, and Dr Temperance Brennan's forensic expertise is required.

It's one of the hottest summers on record and forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is looking forward to a long-overdue vacation. But it's not to be... First, the bones of a newborn baby are found in a wood stover; the mother, hardly more than a child herself, has disappeared. But what happened there, and who will be the next victim?

Guatemala, in the searing heat. The bones of a child no more than two years old are uncovered when mass graves are excavated. Twenty-three women and children are said to lie where forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is searching for remains. Then four girls go missing from Guatemala City.

Three skeletons are found in the basement of a pizza parlour. But Forensic Anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan has her doubts. Digging up more bones was not on her agenda. And to make matters worse, her sometime-lover Detective Andrew Ryan disappears just as Tempe is beginning to trust him.

A routine case turns sinister when Dr Temperance Brennan is accused of mishandling the autopsy of a missing heiress. Someone has made an incriminating accusation that she missed or concealed crucial evidence. Before Tempe can get to the one man with information, he turns up dead.

An underground chamber is exposed in a dilapidated house with sagging trim and peeling paint. Called to the scene is forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan. What awaits her below is a ritualistic display: slain chickens and a goat - and a skull, ghostly pale, rests on a pedestal, the lower jaw missing, the empty orbits staring back at her.

A routine case turns sinister when Dr Temperance Brennan is accused of mishandling the autopsy of a missing heiress. Someone has made an incriminating accusation that she missed or concealed crucial evidence. Before Tempe can get to the one man with information, he turns up dead.

A Tempe Brennan Novel. In this latest New York Times bestseller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

Phillip Marlowe is mixing business with pleasure - getting paid to follow a mysterious and lovely red-head named Eleanor King. And wherever Miss King goes, trouble seems to follow. But one dead body later and what started out as a lazy afternoon's snooping soon becomes a deadly cocktail of blackmail, lies, mistaken identity - and murder.

When an Orthodox Jew is shot in the head, Tempe Brennan is called to the scene. But while she tries to make sense of the fracture patterning, an unknown man slips her a photograph of a skeleton, telling her it holds the answer to the victim's death. Detective Andrew Ryan is also on the case and, as his relationship with Tempe heats up, they try to discover the identity of the victim and the ...