Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs

Devil Bones
by Kathy Reichs
ebook
978-1-4165-7983-4
Scribner (Simon & Schuster)

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 3
Characters: 4
Writing: 4
Final: 3.66

Comments: Not to be confused with Devil's Bones (no wonder I kept thinking I'd already reviewed this). The mystery, while fine, was less interesting to me in this one than the developments in Temperance's personal life. I do love a flawed main character.

In a house under renovation, a plumber uncovers a cellar no one knew about, and makes a rather grisly discovery — a decapitated chicken, animal bones, and cauldrons containing beads, feathers, and other relics of religious ceremonies. In the center of the shrine, there is the skull of a teenage girl. Meanwhile, on a nearby lakeshore, the headless body of a teenage boy is found by a man walking his dog.

Nothing is clear — neither when the deaths occurred, nor where. Was the skull brought to the cellar or was the girl murdered there? Why is the boy's body remarkably well preserved? Led by a preacher turned politician, citizen vigilantes blame devil worshippers and Wiccans. They begin a witch hunt, intent on seeking revenge.