Flash and Bones is the 14th book in the Temperance Brennan series which inspired the hot TV show ‘Bones’. Tempe" Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who splits her time between the University of North Carolina, where she teaches and Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale in Quebec.
Flash and Bones is set in Charlotte North Carolina. The book opens with the discovery of a body in a dump site beside the racetrack a week before a big NASCAR race. The body was hidden in a barrel filled with asphalt linking it to the race track. In trying to identify the body Tempe comes up with several possibilities as to who it may be. One is Cindi Gamble a high school senior who disappeared several years ago without a trace.
When it is established the body is a male and not Cindi, Tempe is determined to find out what happened to the teenager. Her hunt for the truth drags her in to the world of NASCAR and to the attention of a group of right-wing extremists who go to great lengths to keep Cindi’s fate hidden.
I am a huge fan of both the ‘Tempe’ books and the TV show ‘Bones’ so I was thrilled when it lashed rain leaving me stuck indoors to read in peace. Knowing very little about NASCAR I found the story provided the relevant background. Missing from the story was Andrew Ryan who works for the Montreal police.
Overall I enjoyed the book but it would not be my favorite of the Tempe Brennan novels
