What is real and what isn't? It's sweltering in Charlotte, North Carolina and Temperance Brennan, still recovering from neurosurgery following an aneurysm, is battling nightmares, migraines, and what she thinks might be hallucinations when she receives four mysterious text messages: each containing a new picture of a corpse that is missing its face and hands. Immediately, she's anxious to know who the dead man was, what his connection was to a decade-old missing child case, and perhaps most of all, how he came to have her cellphone number. But to get the answers, she must go rogue, working mostly outside the system. That's because her new boss, Dr. Margot Heavner, holds a fierce grudge against her and is determined to keep her out of the case. With help from veteran death investigator Joe Hawkins and the always-ready-with-a-smart-quip ex-homicide investigator Skinny Slidell, and utilizing new cutting-edge forensic methods, Tempe steadily unearths ever-more-bizarre and darkly significant clues. And then the unthinkable happens. Another child goes missing. And, suddenly, Tempe must race against the clock-and her own head-to uncover the truth. Praise for Kathy Reichs: 'Kathy Reichs writes smart-no, make that brilliant-mysteries that are as realistic as non-fiction and as fast-paced as the best thrillers about Jack Reacher or Alex Cross' James Patterson 'Nobody does forensics thrillers like Kathy Reichs. She's the real deal' David Baldacci 'Kathy Reichs continues to be one of the most distinctive and talented writers in the genre. Her legions of readers worldwide will agree with me when I declare that the more books she writes, the more enthusiastic fans she'll garner' Sandra Brown 'Each book in Kathy Reichs's fantastic Temperance Brennan series is better than the last. They're filled with riveting twists andturns. No matter how many novels she writes, I just can't get enough!' Lisa Scottoline 'Reichs always delivers a pulse-pounding story' Publisher's Weekly 'Every minute in the morgue with Tempe is golden' The New York Times Book Review 'Bloody good beach reading!' USA Today 'Brennan is a winner, and so is Reichs' Daily News.