Bones to Ashes

Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan gets the skeleton of an adolescent girl, and thinks the bones could belong to her long vanished friend. While she tries to figure out the cause of death and the identity of the girl, detective Andrew Ryan asks for her help. He works on several cases involving missing girls and unidentified bodies of girls, thinking it could be a serial killers work...

Bones to ashes was a mediocre read, I found the story too far-fetched and constructed. Plus I had trouble to keep the overview of all the different cases and victims. Less would have been more. On the other hand I liked the descriptions of the forensic examinations, they were very realistic as far as I can tell (though I didn't understand all medical terms).

Quotes from the book

Unless dismembered, mutilated, or stripped of identifiers such as fingerprints or teeth, fresh corpses were rarely my domain.

Unlike the Doucet women, few who rolled through our doors had died in their beds. Ours were the murdered, the suicides, those whose lives were cut short by bad timing, bad judgment, or bad luck.

He was wearing a shirt that could only have been purchased at a discount store. A deep-discount store.

Hippo signaled a left, waited while three teens slouched through the crosswalk. Each wore clothing large enough to house the other two.

"He's innocent as Bambi."

My sister is flighty, volatile, and prone to hysterics. But she's also a world-class listener.

"Life is full of ifs."

"You sound like one of those travel brochures in the motel lobby."

Contacting a government office on a weekend is like phoning the Pope on Easter morning.

The previous year, Maude left her home [...] hoping to make her way to Hollywood and a star on the Walk of Fame. Instead, she ended up with Malo doing porn.

"Someone right there in your own family. That's often where the threat is."