When forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan joins the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team mobilized to investigate an airplane crash in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains, she literally stumbles on a body part that doesn't match up with the remains of any of the plane's passengers. The leg she grabs out of the jaws of a coyote feeding on the carnage scattered around the site belongs to an unidentified elderly man, and seems to have no connection with the disaster. But an abandoned hunting lodge near the crash site does, although before Tempe can figure out exactly how they're linked, she's pulled off the DMORT unit and forced to stand idly by as her professional reputation goes up in flames. When Andrew Ryan, a detective familiar to readers of Kathy Reichs's earlier books (Deja Dead, Death du Jour, Deadly Decisions), appears on the scene, another mystery begins to unfold. There seems to be no trace of two men on the plane's manifest, Ryan's partner and his seatmate, a criminal who was being escorted back to Canada via Washington, D.C., the doomed flight's final destination, to stand trial for murder.

As usual, Reichs serves up a solid helping of forensic science as the DMORT operatives do their thing, and Tempe traces the remains of a man killed 40 years ago to a series of ritual murders of senior citizens, and further to those whose influence was responsible for her firing. Reichs keeps the narrative moving along despite the somewhat ponderous technical and scientific information; her pacing is brisk and her series heroine in fine form. Tempe's romantic life gets more interesting with every new adventure. A solid thriller that will please the best-selling author's regular readers and serve as a good introduction to new ones. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
With four crime thrillers to her name, Reichs (Deadly Decisions) seems to have settled into a comfortable routine with forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, whose adventures grow more engrossing with each outing. Here, Tempe takes on an especially gruesome case in a richly plotted tale about an airline crash, missing body parts and cannibalism. The story opens in the rugged backwoods of North Carolina, where Tempe must identify the dead from the remains of a passenger jet that spiraled straight into the ground. While rummaging through the grisly debris, she comes across a foot that doesn't appear to match any of the 88 dead people aboard the jet. As investigators determine what brought the plane down, Tempe looks into the mystery of the foot. That seemingly well-intentioned pursuit gets her fired. Her ouster appears to be the doing of Lt. Gov. Parker Davenport, an ambitious politician taking an abnormal interest in the crash. Tempe, determined to restore her reputation, plows back into the case on the sly. What she finds is evidence of a chilling, depraved episode in local history that upends many common perceptions about North Carolina's political and business elite. Reichs, herself a highly accomplished forensic anthropologist, expertly directs a busy plot that moves with electrical force in the final quarter. She capitalizes on the morbid yet captivating aspects of the forensic trenchwork, yet never lets it overwhelm her story. But it is Reichs's ongoing development of Tempe a woman in her 50s with a mature understanding of human nature, and a self-deprecating sense of humor that truly lifts the book above many of its peers. (On-sale: July 17)Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Reichs is at the top of her game with her fourth forensic thriller (after Deadly Decisions) as once again Dr. Tempe Brennan must "tease posthumous tales from bones," utilizing all of her skills as a forensic anthropologist to put the dead to rest. Tempe is called to the Great Smoky Mountains, scene of the crash of TransSouth Air flight 228 where 88 souls suffered gruesome deaths. As the medical teams work to reassemble and identify bodies, Tempe makes a disturbing discovery a foot that doesn't belong to any of the victims. While investigating the foot's origins, Tempe stumbles on a mountain cabin and is immediately banned from the recovery operations, accused of malfeasance. Something sinister is going on, and Tempe must unravel the mystery to save her reputation. What she discovers is shocking. Reichs once again proves that she is master of the genre; her science is impeccable, her characters are believably complex, and her plotting and pacing are nearly flawless. Often compared to Patricia Cornwell, Reichs is raising the bar. Highly recommended for all fiction collections.- Rebecca House Stank-owski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
This plane-crash whodunit written by a forensic anthropologist is chock full of information about blood samples, DNA-matching, bone fragments, and conversations revolving around expensive scientific equipment. Some of it works, but most of it doesn't. Narrator Kate Harper gets off to an abysmally slow start with pacing, characterization, and, at times, basic reading. She improves as the book progresses but never reaches a point where she grabs us and makes us want to learn more. To be fair, Harper has mediocre material to work with, and her husky voice has great emotional range and a fine sense of humor. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
*Starred Review* Initially, it appears the only tragic journey traced in Reichs' fourth Tempe Brennan tale is the devastating crash, in western North Carolina's forested hills, of a regional airliner full of college soccer players and their fans. Brennan, a forensic anthropologist who (like Reichs) works in both North Carolina and Quebec, joins with federal and state postcrash investigators, matching horrific body fragments to TransSouth Air Flight 228's passengers. Much to Brennan's surprise, Montreal cop Andrew Brennan shows up; his partner, Jean Bertrand, was booked on the flight, escorting an extradited prisoner. But Brennan encounters a forensic inventory problem: the foot she rescued from a pack of coyotes doesn't match anyone on the plane. When Brennan tries to identify its owner, she's smeared by a politician desperate to preserve the secrets of a group of power brokers who have gathered for years at a nearby hunting lodge. To save her reputation (and her life), Brennan must find the source of the telltale foot. A complicated, involving mystery. Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
Booklist (starred review) A complicated, involving mystery.


Book Description
KATHY REICHS, whom Ann Rule calls "in a class by herself," burst onto the publishing scene with Déjà Dead, the international bestseller of which P. D. James wrote: "The strength of her novel is in the insight it gives into the scientific procedures of a murder investigation." Now, with her dazzling new forensic thriller Fatal Voyage, Reichs applies her cutting-edge scientific know-how to the probe of a heartbreaking commercial airliner crash. Temperance Brennan hears the news on her car radio. An Air TransSouth flight has gone down in the mountains of western North Carolina, taking with it eighty-eight passengers and crew. As a forensic anthropologist and a member of the regional DMORT team, Tempe rushes to the scene to assist in body recovery and identification. Tempe has seen death many times, working with the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, but never has tragedy struck with such devastation. She finds a field of carnage: torsos in trees, limbs strewn among bursting suitcases and smoldering debris. Many of the dead are members of a university soccer team. Is Tempe's daughter, Katy, among them? Frantic with worry, Tempe joins colleagues from the FBI, the NTSB, and other agencies to search for explanations. Was the plane brought down by a bomb, an insurance plot, a political assassination, or simple mechanical failure? And what about the prisoner on the plane who was being extradited to Canada? Did someone want him silenced forever? Even more puzzling for Tempe is a disembodied foot found near the debris field. Tempe's microscopic analysis suggests it could not have belonged to any passenger. Whose foot is it, and where is the rest of the body? And what about the disturbing evidence Tempe discovers in the soil outside a remote mountain enclave? What secrets lie hidden there, and why are certain people eager to stop Tempe's investigation? Is she learning too much? Coming too close? With help from Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, who has his own sad reason for being at the crash, and from a very special dog named Boyd, Tempe calls upon deep reserves of courage and upon her forensic skill to uncover a shocking, multilayered tale of deceit and depravity. Written with the riveting authenticity that only world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs can provide, Fatal Voyage pairs witty, elegant prose with pulse-pounding storytelling in a tour de force worthy of crime writing's new superstar.


Download Description
The results are in: Kathy Reichs is "irresistible" (Anne Rivers Siddons), "amazing" (Library Journal) and, above all, "in a class by herself" (Ann Rule). From her prize-winning debut Deja Dead to the blockbuster Deadly Decisions, Reichs has become a fixture on bestseller lists, establishing a matchless reputation for cutting-edge forensic thrillers that resonate with authenticity and power. Now, with this chilling new novel, Reichs proves that she's just hitting her stride. Fatal Voyage is a work of fascinating and deeply atmospheric realism. In the horrific aftermath of an eighty-eight victim commercial airline disaster, Dr. Temperance Brennan rushes to the North Carolina mountains to help identify bodies and search for an explanation for the mysterious crash. Was it a bomb? A callous plot to collect on life insurance? Tempe wants to know, but she has another puzzle on her hands: a disembodied foot that matches no registered passenger. Tempe's investigations lead to more bewildering body parts and, ultimately, to a confrontation with evil that will test her courage and mesmerize her legion of fans.


About the Author
Kathy Reichs is forensic anthropologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina, and for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Quebec. She is one of only fifty forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and is on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. A professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dr. Reichs is a native of Chicago, where she received her Ph.D. at Northwestern. She now divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal and is a frequent expert witness at criminal trials. Her first novel, Déjà Dead, brought Dr. Reichs fame when it became a New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Fatal Voyage is her fourth novel featuring Temperance Brennan.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Investigating a plane crash in the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan discovers in a most disturbing way that the evidence doesn't add up. Tripping over a coyote-chewed leg at the crash scene, she performs a little mental arithmetic and realizes that this victim wasn't on the plane. Once again, Brennan's high-tech DMORT snaps into action faster than you can say "Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team." The author of Death du Jour serves up another exquisite meal.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A commercial Jetliner disaster has brought Tempe Brennan to the North Carolina mountains as a member of the investigative agency DMORT. As bomb theories abound, Tempe soon discovers a jarring piece of evidence that raises dangerous questions -- and gets her thrown from the DMORT team. Relentless in her pursuit of its significance, Tempe uncovers a shocking, multilayered tale of deceit and depravity as she probes her way into frightening territory -- where someone wants her stopped in her tracks.

SYNOPSIS

Temperance Brennan hears the news on her car radio. An Air TransSouth flight has gone down in the mountains of western North Carolina, taking with it eighty-eight passengers and crew. As a forensic anthropologist and a member of the regional DMORT team, Tempe rushes to the scene to assist in body recovery and identification.

Tempe has seen death many times, working with the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, but never has tragedy struck with such devastation. She finds a field of carnage: torsos in trees, limbs strewn among bursting suitcases and smoldering debris. Many of the dead are members of a university soccer team. Is Tempe's daughter, Katy, among them?

Frantic with worry, Tempe joins colleagues from the FBI, the NTSB, and other agencies to search for explanations. Was the plane brought down by a bomb, an insurance plot, a political assassination, or simple mechanical failure? And what about the prisoner on the plane who was being extradited to Canada? Did someone want him silenced forever?

Even more puzzling for Tempe is a disembodied foot found near the debris field. Tempe's microscopic analysis suggests it could not have belonged to any passenger. Whose foot is it, and where is the rest of the body? And what about the disturbing evidence Tempe discovers in the soil outside a remote mountain enclave? What secrets lie hidden there, and why are certain people eager to stop Tempe's investigation? Is she learning too much? Coming too close?

With help from Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, who has his own sad reason for being at the crash, and from a very special dog named Boyd, Tempe calls upon deep reserves of courage and upon her forensic skill to uncover a shocking, multilayered tale of deceit and depravity.

Written with the riveting authenticity that only world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs can provide, Fatal Voyage pairs witty, elegant prose with pulse-pounding storytelling in a tour de force worthy of crime writing's new superstar.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Called in to investigate a horrific North Carolina airplane crash, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (Tempe to her friends) finds that the bodies of the 88 young people on board have become inexplicably mixed up with evidence of an older crime and gets fired. It turns out a local politician has a vested interest to protect. Although Tempe deals with the details of death every working day, neither she nor her creator, real-life forensic scientist and university professor Kathy Reichs (Deadly Decisions, etc.) ever exploit those details for morbidity or melodrama. That restraint, rendered superbly by understated reader Borowitz and combined with a riveting plot, makes for a terrific audio package exciting and intelligent entertainment. Borowitz is perfectly cast as the 50-ish Brennan: wise, self-deprecating and funny. Simultaneous release with Scribner hardcover (Forecasts, May 21). (July) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Reichs is at the top of her game with her fourth forensic thriller (after Deadly Decisions) as once again Dr. Tempe Brennan must "tease posthumous tales from bones," utilizing all of her skills as a forensic anthropologist to put the dead to rest. Tempe is called to the Great Smoky Mountains, scene of the crash of TransSouth Air flight 228 where 88 souls suffered gruesome deaths. As the medical teams work to reassemble and identify bodies, Tempe makes a disturbing discovery a foot that doesn't belong to any of the victims. While investigating the foot's origins, Tempe stumbles on a mountain cabin and is immediately banned from the recovery operations, accused of malfeasance. Something sinister is going on, and Tempe must unravel the mystery to save her reputation. What she discovers is shocking. Reichs once again proves that she is master of the genre; her science is impeccable, her characters are believably complex, and her plotting and pacing are nearly flawless. Often compared to Patricia Cornwell, Reichs is raising the bar. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/01; also available as an e-book.] Rebecca House Stank-owski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

This plane-crash whodunit written by a forensic anthropologist is chock full of information about blood samples, DNA-matching, bone fragments, and conversations revolving around expensive scientific equipment. Some of it works, but most of it doesn't. Narrator Kate Harper gets off to an abysmally slow start with pacing, characterization, and, at times, basic reading. She improves as the book progresses but never reaches a point where she grabs us and makes us want to learn more. To be fair, Harper has mediocre material to work with, and her husky voice has great emotional range and a fine sense of humor. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews