Kathy Reichs

Forensic Anthropologist

• Born: 1950
• Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois

Biography

Kathy Reichs was born on July 7, 1948, in Chicago, Illinois, where she grew up reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries. She earned her undergraduate degree at American University and received her master’s degree and a PhD in anthropology at Northwestern University. Reichs is a practicing forensic anthropologist. She is one of only eighty-two forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and has been vice president and a member of the board of directors of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. She has practiced her specialty worldwide, traveling to Rwanda to testify at the United Nations tribunal on genocide, identifying individuals from mass graves in Guatemala, putting names to the remains of those killed in World War II and Southeast Asia, examining bones from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, sifting through the destruction at Ground Zero in New York City following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and examining the body of Caylee Anthony for the defense in the 2011 Casey Anthony murder trial in Florida.

Her experiences in the field have served as the authoritative background to Reichs’s novels, beginning with Déja Dead (1997). This book introduced her series character and alter ego, Temperance “Tempe” Brennan, a forty-something recovering alcoholic and forensic scientist. The book became a New York Times Best Seller and received the 1997 Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Since that auspicious beginning, Reichs has published a new entry in the popular series on an almost annual basis, producing such titles as Fatal Voyage (2001), Grave Secrets (2002), Bare Bones (2003), and Cross Bones (2005). As of 2016 Reichs has published twenty-four books in the Temperance Brennan series. In 2015 she released Bones on Ice, a novella in the series, as a digital-only edition. New installments of the series have appeared at the rate of about one per year beginning in 2020, including A Conspiracy of Bones (2020), which earned starred reviews on Booklist and Publishers Weekly, The Bone Code (2021), Cold, Cold Bones (2022), The Bone Hacker (2023), and Fire & Bones (2024). She also penned a standalone novel in 2017 entitled Two Nights.

In 2010 Reichs and her son, Brendan Reichs, published Virals, the first book in their Virals series for young adults. Other books in the series include the novels Seizure (2011); Shift (2013);Code (2013); Swipe; Exposure (2014); Shock (2015); Terminal (2015); and the collection of four short stories, Trace Evidence (2016). In the series, Temperance Brennan’s niece, Tory, and her science-loving friends are infected with an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that endows them with superhuman senses and reflexes. They then use their special powers to solve crimes.

Reichs serves as a forensic anthropologist for the Laboratory of Judicial Science and Legal Medicine for the province of Quebec, Canada, and also served the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in that capacity for years. She was a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte and is still a member of the faculty there, but no longer teaches. She has also taught a body recovery class to special agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and has frequently served as an expert witness on cause of death or postmortem wounds at criminal trials. In 2005 Reichs added television writer and producer to her resume with her work on the Fox network television series Bones, based on her Temperance Brennan character. The show ended in 2017 after twelve seasons but continued airing in syndication. Rumors that the members of the cast would reunite for a reimagined version of the show swirled for years following its cancelation.

Reichs has been married since 1968 to lawyer David Reichs. The couple have three children: Kerry Elisabeth, Courtney Anne, and Brendan Christopher;, and several grandchildren. Both Kerry and Brendan are fiction writers.

Bibliography

“About Kathy.” Kathy Reichs. Kathy Reichs, 2016. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

"Bones Renewal: Will Season 13 Ever Release? Here’s What the Creators Said." Economic Times, 8 July 2024, economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/bones-renewal-will-season-13-ever-release-heres-what-the-creators-said/articleshow/111585217.cms?from=mdr#google‗vignette. Accessed 2 Oct. 2024.

Kaspar, Wendi Arant. “Kathy Reichs.” Critical Survey of Mystery & Detective Fiction, Revised Edition (2008): 1–4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

“Kathy Reichs: The Ice Queen of Crime.” Independent. Independent Digital News & Media, 20 July 2006. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Laing, Sarah. "Bestselling author Kathy Reichs on Writing While Working Full Time, Forensic Science and How Her Series Might End." Globe & Mail, 25 Aug. 2023, www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-bestselling-author-kathy-reichs-interview/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2024.

Pinks, Caitlin. “Kathy Reichs: The Virals Novels Remain Every Bit as Tense as My Adult Work.” Guardian. Guardian News & Media, 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Reichs, Kathy. “The Inventory: Kathy Reichs.” Interview by Hester Lacey. Financial Times. Financial Times, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Reichs, Kathy. “Time and Place: Kathy Reichs.” Interview by Angela Wintle. Sunday Times. Times Newspapers, 16 Aug. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Wayman, E. R. “Forensic Anthropology.” Current Anthropology 47.1 (2006): 5. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.