Boundaries in the Caring Professions
We’re familiar with the concept of boundaries in the caring professions. Oftentimes the professional is so dedicated to those they serve that they may neglect their own families and intimate relationships. Kathy Reichs, do you feel like Tempe struggles with this?
Sarah heard an interview once with a man whose job it was to find missing children. Naturally, he was fighting against a clock to find and return the child, whose family would be desperate. Similarly and differently, Tempe works with those already dead. While her work can bring closure, it may not effectively change outcomes. Can you speak to this?
Does commitment to a dead stranger come before commitment to the living, and those you love?
Boundaries in Her Personal Life (Does She Have a Personal Life?)
The story opens with Tempe receiving a middle of the night call from her daughter asking for a favor, which she accepts against her better judgment.
Tempe then receives a request to come to Washington, DC, to help with the remains of fire victims, so she cancels her vacation with her partner and boards her cat, Birdie, with a neighbor.
She continues to stay in DC due to this investigation and when Ryan objects she doesn’t seem to even comprehend his perspective, and they take a break.
She even agrees to stay on and watch someone else’s chinchilla while her own pet is being watched by someone else.
Thacker then calls her at 4.30a, apparently just to chat and see if she’s still in town… but then doesn’t even need her help. This seems like it might be outside the norm.
Toward the end of the book she even thinks to herself that she “owes Ivy.” This seems like the opposite of reality. It’s perfectly reasonable to help another human for a variety of reasons, but it doesn’t seem like this is the correct one.
Yet she doesn’t seem genuinely sorry or appreciative of Ryan until he tries to make up.
Investigations into the Truth
The book’s epigraph: “The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.” Albert Einstein
A home burns down in Foggy Bottom, DC. Temperance finds a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers in the subcellar, along with the body of a woman stuffed into a burlap bag. Built in 1911, the home had changed hands many times. The subcellar was missing from the architectural plans.
The book begins with 19-year-old Canadian Skylar Reese Hill’s POV at the beginning hints at the idea that her death might be linked to an unknown man (“Had he found her?”) A gay couple and a Syrian national also died in the blaze. Was someone targeting one of them?
Temperance Brennan is excellent at and fascinated by research. We learn about the Foggy Bottom Gang (Prohibition-era bootleggers and racketeers). Tempe researches the history of the burlap bag. We learn about holding companies. We learn about the history of Foggy Bottom.
Her subconscious is constantly nagging her. Her experience and intuition often lead her down the correct paths. She also periodically puts herself in danger. Her judgment is spot on usually, but she does take risks unnecessarily. At times, she throws caution to the wind.
Tempe is emotionally committed to finding the identity of the woman in the burlap sack. She can’t let it go. She’s obsessed with mysteries that she’s unable to solve. Part of laying someone to rest involves uncovering the truth. What does it mean to witness or know one’s story?
Forensic Anthropology
Kathy Reichs is one of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American board of Forensic Anthropology. Tell us about the jump from an education in Physical Anthropology to becoming certified in Forensic Anthropology? How did you get into forensic anthropology as a field?
To what degree are these books autobiographical? What key differentiators do you make between yourself and Tempe?
What sorts of things do you typically enhance for the sake of the story? Was there a particular thing or time that set off in you the idea to write these stories?
Bones (The Fox Television drama)
Kathy Reichs was a producer of Fox Television’s longest-running scripted drama, Bones, based on her work and novels. The show starred Emily Deschanel as Temperance “Bones” Brennan.
What was being a producer like? What were the primary ways the series differed from the books? What qualities were you looking for in the casting of Tempe?
