The raves are in -- from Edgar-winning authors and internationally acclaimed forensic experts: Kathy Reichs andDéjà Deadare something special.Rarely has a debut crime novel inspired such widespread excitement. A born storyteller, Dr. Kathy Reichs walks in the steps of her heroine, Dr. Temperance Brennan. She spends her days in the autopsy suite, the courtroom, the crime lab, with cops, and at exhumation sites. Often her long days turn into harrowing nights.It's June in Montreal, and Tempe, who has left a shaky marriage back home in North Carolina to take on the challenging assignment of director of forensic anthropology for the province of Quebec, looks forward to a relaxing weekend.First, though, she must stop at a newly uncovered burial site in the heart of the city. One look at the decomposed and decapitated corpse, stored neatly in plastic bags, tells her she'll spend the weekend in the crime lab. This is homicide of the worst kind. To begin to find some answers, Tempe must first identify the victim. Who is this person with the reddish hair and a small bone structure? Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

With this assured and intelligent debut, Reichs introduces herself as a prodigious new talent in the crime game. Someone is murdering and dismembering women in Montreal, and forensic anthropologist Temperance "Tempe" Brennan, a middle-aged North Carolina transplant, is having a tough time convincing the Canadian version of the old boy network that the grizzly slayings are the work of a single killer. Since no one believes her theories, Tempe is left pretty much on her own to track the killer, following a trail that leads through demimondes of prostitution, religion and animal research. When a spreadsheet listing past victims‘and including Tempe's name‘is discovered in the home of a suspect, even the dyspeptic Constable Claudel is forced to admit that Tempe might be on the right track. Reichs handles the tension between Tempe and the men deftly, allowing the reader to despise their unfair treatment of her while understanding that an expert in such a field can be intimidating. A master of nimble phrasing, Reichs herself entertains readers even as she educates them in some of the finer points of forensics. Tempe is as comfortable negotiating the meaner streets of Montreal as she is talking about the myriadtypes of saws available to those with a penchant for dismembering their fellow human beings. The final confrontation scene is as gripping as anything in recent suspense fiction, and it is impossible not to like the vulnerable, observant and competent Tempe, who refreshingly admits to never having "gotten used to" the maggots that abandon corpses on the cutting table: "the seething blanket of pale yellow... dropping from the body to the table to the floor, in a slow but steady drizzle." Major ad/promo; simultaneous audio; foreign rights sold in 12 countries; BOMC main selection; author tour. (Sept.) FYI: Reichs, like her heroine, is a forensic anthropologist in North Carolina and Canada, and a professor. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Threatening to out-Cornwell Cornwell, forensic anthropologist Reichs pens a thriller about a forensic anthropologist. This might sound like déjà vu, but then how many first novels become a BOMC main selection and are sold for $1 million to 12 international publishers? From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Kathleen Joan "Kathy" Reichs was born in 1950 and is a native of Chicago. In 1971 she graduated from American University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology, and in 1972 she earned a Master of Arts in physical anthropology from Northwestern University. Reichs received her Ph.D. in physical anthropology from Northwestern University in 1975.

She works as a forensic anthropologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina and for the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale in Quebec and has taught at Northern Illinois University, University of Pittsburgh, Concordia University, McGill University, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her work as a forensic anthropologist is internationally recognized, as she has traveled to Rwanda to testify at the UN Tribunal on Genocide, helped in an exhumation in the area of the highlands of southwest Guatemala, done forensic work at Ground Zero in New York, and so forth.

In addition to having published academic papers and books, Reichs has written many works of crime fiction. Déjà Dead won the 1997 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. She is a producer on the Fox television series Bones, which is loosely based on her own life and writing.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.