(2014) Novella - Funny and tense, Temperence finds herself helping out a friend who is performing a necropsy on a Burmese python in Florida and finds that there are human remains inside of a vulture that the snake has ingested. Leads to the discovery that murder was done to keep someone from becoming a top snake wrangler in the state's program to irradicate the python from the wild. Amazon Review: Many popular authors write short e-book novellas as promos for their next book, and in most cases they are really not worth reading. SWAMP BONES by Kathy Reichs is an exception - a great self-contained novella which covers new "bone" territory for Tempe Brennan and involves her investigating and solving multiple murders in a book that only takes a couple of hours to read.Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is taking a well earned vacation visiting a good friend Lisa Robbin in Florida. Lisa is a dedicated ornithologist who is checking out the stomach contents of introduced Burmese pythons who are eating their way through indigenous animal and bird species in the Everglades. Within minutes of meeting her friend in her laboratory, Tempe makes a chilling discovery that the stomach contents that Lisa is examining clearly contain human foot bones. Tempe's vacation is immediately put on hold.In a relatively few pages Reichs takes us through murder investigations in the Florida Everglades where the victims have been carved up by a chain saw and left as meals for vultures, pythons and alligators. The action takes place in the darkest depths of the swamp at the same time as many hunters are in the Everglades competing in "The Python Challenge" with prizes for the most killed, longest etc from State Fish and Wildlife.

This was a fun short story ( )

I decided to read the Temperance Brennan books after watching the television show Bones. The two are similar but also very different, I enjoy both. Kathy Reichs has a very detailed but still interesting writing style. I do not understand all of the technical jargon but that does not detract from my reading enjoyment. Tempe and Ryan are great characters and my favorite parts of the books are when they are in a scene together especially if it is out in "the field". ( )

Apparently, the Burmese python population is having an ecological effect on the Everglades. Tempe Brennan goes on vacation to visit with an ornithologist friend, and is dragged into a case where human bones are discovered in a python in the middle of a python hunting contest. As always, Tempe takes senseless personal risks to solve the crime. I would gave given three stars if the killer was not so damn obvious. ( )

So this was a really good story. It was fast and easy to read. I read it in a couple hours. I really liked the setting of the Everglades. It was informative..I learned a little about pythons, and the birds of the Everglades. The bad guy wasn't immediately apparent. The story was self contained, and wrapped up neatly at the end. All in all, I really liked it. ( )