Q&A: Kathy Reichs, Author of The Bone Hacker

Briefly tell us about your book.

The Bone Hacker opens with Tempe and Ryan caught in a violent storm while observing fireworks at the old port of Montreal.  Tempe is on her normal rotation to Quebec.  She and Ryan are living together, enjoying their new high-rise condo.

To Tempe’s dismay, Ryan has been called back from retirement by the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) the province’s police force, to assist in investigating renewed gang violence. Meanwhile, she is busy at the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale (LSJML), the province’s forensic science lab.

While examining infant skeletons exhumed at a rural farm, Tempe is asked to recover and analyze the remains of a person struck by lightning during the same storm that she and Ryan survived.  Days later, when the rest of the victim’s body is dredged from the St. Lawrence River, Tempe discovers an unexpected cause of death.

A tattoo leads Tempe to believe that the “lightning” victim is from the Turks and Caicos Islands.  She reaches out to Detective Constable Tiersa “Ti” Musgrove of the TCI Royal Police Force, who despite Tempe’s protests, insists on flying to Montreal.  When Musgrove arrives, her true motive for making the trip is revealed.

Musgrove explains that there has been a series of homicides and missing persons cases in TCI.  All the victims are young males—tourists come to the island for short stays.  One was found seven years earlier in an odd location, dead, with his hands cut off, creating a minor media frenzy at the time.  The other victims simply vanished.   Now, there are two new developments.

First, both of the earlier missing young men have turned up dead, their bodies reduced to bone.  Both skeletons were found in unlikely locations.

Second, yet another young man has disappeared.  In his mid-twenties, he is a junior official in the F.B.I.’s operational technology division.

Musgrove knows of Tempe’s expertise and wants her to go to TCI.  Her desperate hope is that Tempe will observe something about the remains that will put the TCI team on a path to the killer.  Tempe agrees to make the trip.

As Tempe investigates, she senses that something is amiss.  Her intuition tells her that bigger things are at play than a random serial killer preying on soft targets.  Soon, her investigation takes her beyond the autopsy room into a world of cybersecurity, surveillance software, encrypted communications, hacking, and spyware.  The more she uncovers, the more she realizes the vulnerability of all who tap a keyboard or pick up a phone.

What was the research process like for the book?

As with each of my books, I did a great deal of research before beginning and while writing The Bone Hacker.  My pattern is to check every tiny detail of every story.

In this case, I looked into the hydraulics of the St. Lawrence River, the current gang situation in Montreal, the impact of lightning on human flesh, the varying details of cut marks in bone, NSO and Pegasus, the workings of a bionic arm.  I visited the Turks and Caicos Islands.  I spent time with Lisa Mitcheson, former superintendent of police, head of crime and public protection, Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.

Yes, I agree.  Having to spend time on a Caribbean Island wasn’t harsh duty.

If I looked at your internet history, what would it reveal about you?

My internet history would reveal that I am into some very dark topics.  And that this has been the situation from the very start of my writing career.

Déjà Dead dealt with serial killers.  Death du Jour centered on doomsday cults.  Deadly Décisions featured outlaw biker gangs. Bare Bones looked at trafficking in endangered species.  Devil Bones took a peek at Satanic worship.  Bones to Ashes examined human trafficking.  The Bone Code considered the possibility of manipulating DNA for criminal purposes.  The Bone Hacker focuses on the malignant use of spyware and cybercrime.

Each story involves endless research.  The ones I’ve mentioned are just a few examples.

How did you think of the title of the book?

Sometime a title comes early and easy.  Déjà Dead was with me from the moment I sat down at the keyboard.  The French-English nuance.  The bilingual take on a common expression.  The appealing optics of the phrase when printed on the book cover.

Sometimes finding the perfect title is a struggle.  I like cleverness, word play, the double entendre.  But a title must also have relevance to the plot. And, hopefully, a catchy something that tickles the reader’s interest.

The Bone Hacker was perfect.  The story involves a serial killer who hacks off the hands of his victims.  And features a cybercriminal involved in spyware and — you guessed it—hacking!

What’s your daily writing routine like and what are you working on at the moment?

I wrote my first novel while employed full time as a university professor and simultaneously commuting between North Carolina and Quebec to consult to forensic labs on each end.  And I was raising three teen-aged kids.  Consequently, in the early years, I would write whenever I had a free block of time.  The post-dawn hours before going onto campus.  Weekends.  Holidays.  Summers.  I would spend every free moment at the keyboard, sometimes putting in as much as eight hours a day.

Now I have the privilege of writing full time.  My creative sessions are more leisurely, my alarm set for later in the morning. (Or not at all!)

I write every day, but only until early afternoon.  Then I break for lunch and spend time on other activities.  Swimming laps.  Tennis.  Pickleball.  Grandkids.  A new puppy named Roy.

At the moment, I am writing the twenty-third Temperance Brennan book, Fire and Bones.  The story takes place in Washington, D.C. and —you guessed it— involves a mysterious fire.  Victims are found in the charred rubble of an old building in the Foggy Bottom section of the district, and our heroine is asked to help with recovery and analysis.

Buy a copy of The Bone Hacker here.