Creepy-Crawly Swamp Murder Mystery Entertaining and Compelling

         (Image from Barnes & Noble)

Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for Swamp Bones, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from earlier Tempe Brennan books.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.

When forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan visits a friend in Florida, she expects to spend her vacation relaxing in the sun.  No such luck.  Almost as soon as she steps foot into The Sunshine State, she's drawn into a puzzling mystery.  Finding human remains inside a dead, 18-foot long Burmese python is a new one for Tempe, but "reading" bones is certainly not.  It's what she does, what she knows, where she excels.  Her diagnosis?  These bones come from a murdered human.  

The search for the victim's identity leads Tempe into the strange world of python hunting.  Each year, hundreds of wildlife wranglers flock to the Everglades for a 30-day, Fish and Wildlife-sanctioned snake hunt.  They track Burmese pythons, competing for prize money and bragging rights, while helping the state control the insidious, overpopulated species.  The question is:  Who was hunting more than snakes?  And why? Tempe is determined to find out who killed the poor woman whose remains she keeps finding inside the bellies of wild animals.  So much for a vacation.

I love Kathy Reichs' Tempe Brennan series, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed this one (in spite of the fact that it made my skin crawl).  As always with her books, I learned plenty of new things—not that I really wanted to know anything about giant snakes and other Everglades critters (yuck!), but still ... she took me inside a vivid, intriguing world that I never knew about before.  Tempe is, of course, an entertaining narrator.  Her brushes with the local yokels are comical, her adventures always suspenseful and exciting.  If you're a Tempe fan, you definitely don't want to miss out on her capers in the Everglades.  The e-novella is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other books in the Tempe Brennan series, including Deja Dead; Death Du Jour; Deadly Decisions; Fatal Voyage; Grave Secrets; Bare Bones; Monday Mourning; Cross Bones; Break No Bones; Bones to Ashes; Devil Bones; 206 Bones; Spider Bones; Flash and Bones; Bones Are Forever; Bones in Her Pocket (e-novella); Bones of the Lost; and Bones Never Lie)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (no F-bombs), violence, blood/gore

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of Swamp Bones from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.