Best-selling crime writer Kathy Reichs is the inspiration for Bones, which brings her character Dr Temperence Brennan to the screen and draws on her own work experience as a forensic anthropologist.
- 1. Kathy still finds time to practice forensics, including all the cases in Quebec and private clients. She has testified in cases at the United Nations and carried out forensic work at Ground Zero in New York.
- Reichs says 'I think of Bones as a prequel to my books. Tempe's early years. She is thirty, not forty. She is in Washington DC, not Quebec and North Carolina. She has not married or had a child. She is less polished, so passionate about her work she is a bit of a social nerd. And her people skills have some developing to do.'
- Among her favourite writers are Ian Rankin, Harlan Coben, Dennis Lehane, PD James and Michael Connelly
- Her first novel, Deja Dead, which went on to become a best-seller and win the 1997 Ellis Award for best first novel, was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to.
- She has signed to do five more Temperence Brennan novels, and is currently working on the tenth in the series.
- Reichs is a producer on the show, which she says is mainly to 'keep the science honest'.
- Break No Bones, the ninth and latest book in her series, opens with Dr Temperence Brennan's archeology students working on a prehistoric grave site, when a decomposing body is found in a shallow grave near a lonely beach.
- On the book she is currently writing (her tenth), Reichs says 'The next book will take Tempe to a remote area of New Brunswick and will touch on the subject of the Acadian expulsion. In the eighteenth century, many French speakers were forced, by the British, to leave Canada. They ended up in Louisiane, our Cajuns. The term comes from the word Acadian.'
- Forensic anthropology identifies skeletal, decomposed or otherwise unidentified human remains using standard scientific techniques including carbon dating, DNA analysis and blood spatter pattern analysis
- For budding forensic anthropologists, Reichs offers this advice: '...Study hard science. Learn an actual area of expertise. Biology. Chemistry. Microbiology. Do not major in a broad spectrum forensics degree. It will teach you about the field, but give you no saleable skill.'
- You can test your understanding of forensics and knowledge of all Reich's characters by taking the Cross Bones challenge.
- Kathy Reich will make a special guest appearance as a member of Zach Addy's dissertation committee in an upcoming episode directed by David Duchovny.
- Kathy Reichs is from Chicago. She is married with three children
- She began writing the Temperance Brennan novels after becoming a university professor.
- Reichs is often compared to fellow crime writer Patricia Cornwell, and there is often a suggestion of rivalry between them, which Reichs denies.
- Reichs divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, where she works with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and Quebec, where she is the forensic anthropologist at the medical-legal laboratory.
- Because of her involvement with Bones, she has had to give up working with the military and with the United Nations.
- Reichs never studied creative writing. 'I didn't know anything about writing fiction and had no training in writing - I prefer taking science classes - so I just wrote the kind of book I would like to read.'
- All nine of her books have been international bestsellers
- Her books in chronological order are: Deja Dead, Death du Jour, Deadly Decisions, Fatal Voyage, Grave Secrets, Bare Bones, Monday Mourning, Cross Bones, Break No Bones
Best-selling crime writer Kathy Reichs is the inspiration for Bones, which brings her character Dr Temperence Brennan to the screen and draws on her own work experience as a forensic anthropologist. 
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