Bones chases 'one that got away'

In her literary form, Bones character Temperance Brennan always solves the case. Always, except for a decade ago, when serial killer Anique Pomerleau set Tempe alight then fled.

Respected international forensic anthropologist and Brennan series creator Kathy Reichs says the Canadian child-killer had been the only nemesis of her lead character to get away.

The villain was first introduced to readers in book seven, Monday Mourning, a 2004 title Reichs based on a real case from her time in Montreal.

But in Reichs' latest Brennan novel, Bones Never Lie, Pomerleau is believed to be working out of the US, specifically targeting girls in Tempe's current stomping ground.

The author says during her lead character's latest challenge the anthropologist becomes aware of a suspected link between a new spate of teen-girl killings and Pomerleau, whose previous reign of terror was in Tempe's old base, in Canada.

"There are similarities in crime scenes — child homicide in Vermont, a similar cold-case homicide in Charlotte — so they think this perpetrator has re-emerged," she says.

Tempe had previously investigated the wanted serial killer with her old love interest, Canadian Det. Andrew Ryan who, Tempe discovers, has walked away from his job, in addition to their relationship.

"He's dropped off the face of the planet due to a tragedy in his life and the cold- case unit detectives have asked Tempe to go and find him and that's the last thing that she wants to do," Reichs says.

Ryan and Tempe had worked in partnership in the last Bones book, Bones of the Lost, released last year.

Tempe draws on her ailing mother's help to track down Ryan in a foreign country but he's hit the proverbial bottle and is in no good state. He goes with her anyway, putting them on a trajectory towards a possible new shared future.

The author says Tempe takes her typical attitude to the case.

"This woman is evil but you have to be objective to be a scientist and you have to keep your own emotions to yourself, and go through the process of logically trying to track her down and keep a distance so you can objectively work on the victims that turn up," she says.

Reichs says the Montreal case which inspired her to pen Monday Mourning was one where bones had been found in a pizza parlour. "There was a problem with the plumbing and they called a plumber, and the plumber found a hidden doorway in the floor and he went down in the basement and he found bones," she says.

"They turned out to be human and they came to my lab and I sorted through them and I determined there were three people represented. So the question and the key in the actual case was 'well how long have they been there'.

"I used that as the kick-off."

In the real-life case Reichs found the pizza-parlour bones were older than the 60s era but in fiction she made the bones much more modern.

Reichs says rather than base the latest book on a newer case, the story is more a return to unfinished business. "While the question here isn't how old are these victims, obviously they're fresh, they're found in a posed position. It's very unusual how these victims have been left. We look a little at that and a little bit at crime-scene profiling," she says

The mother of three grown children acknowledges teenage girls are dying in this novel, and admits although this can be difficult ground to cover she approaches the task with some distance.

"The actual cases where I would be working on those kinds of cases, I would try and maintain more of a distance. One of the things that is enjoyable in writing is you get very involved, and of course my heroine gets much more involved in the actual detective work than I do," she says.

The author and Bones TV show consultant explains her character started the series somewhere "north of 40", making her older than TV Tempe, with her age over the 17-book series somewhat indeterminate.

"I've kept that vague because it is a problem when you've got a continuing character series, what do you about ageing the character, and it's been 20 years now, so she has not aged 20 — she's still somewhere north of 40. I just keep that. I think the cat (Bird) is now 37. I keep that kinda vague," she says.

The first Tempe novel debuted in 1997 but the character is quite hooked on her iPhone, so there are clues to her era or age progression.

The author has a surprise twist for Tempe fans at the end of the book, and says she finds it exciting to progress the character on the personal front.

Reichs says she is contracted to write two more books in the series and is currently putting together book 18, which she is setting in the Carolinas and the mountains.

The writer toured Australia last year and has revealed she tries to tour the country every three or four years.

Perhaps 2016 will be the year she returns. Given the impressiveness of her past addresses to WA audiences, the tour is likely to be a winner.

Bones Never Lie (Temperance Brennan 17) is published by Random House under its William Heinemann imprint (hardback $50, trade paperback $33, CD $55, ebook $13); for a refresher on the book seven Monday Mourning case, read the cold-case file at randomhouse.com.au/blog/author/kathy-reichs.aspx.