Temperance Brennan (abridged)

Assaulted by the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, the American-born Dr. Temperance Breman, Forensic Anthropologist for the Province of Quebec, digs for a corpse where Sister Elisabeth Nicolet, dead over a century and now a candidate for sainthood, should lie in her grave. A strange, small coffin, buried in the recesses of a decaying church, holds the first clue to the cloistered nun's fate. The puzzle surrounding Sister Elisabeth's life and death provides a welcome contrast to discoveries at a burning chalet, where scorched and twisted bodies await Tempe's professional expertise. Who were these people? What brought them to this gruesome fate? Homicide Detective Andrew Ryan, with whom Tempe has a combustive history, joins her in the arson investigation. From the fire scene they are drawn into the worlds of an enigmatic and controversial professor, a mysterious commune, and a primate colony on a Carolina island. Featuring the kind of forensic detail that only Kathy Reichs can provide - from skeletal reconstruction to insect analysis - Death du Jour takes the listener on a riveting journey from the morgue to the lab to the crime scene, from the warmth of barrier island to the frigid cold of a deadly ice storm. With this poignant and powerful work, Kathy Reichs confirms her status as a brilliant new crime-writing star.