A newborn baby is found wedged in a vanity cabinet in a rundown apartment near Montreal. Dr Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist to the province of Quebec, is brought in to investigate. While there, she discovers the mummified remains of two more babies within the same room. Shocked and distressed, Tempe must use all her skills and inner strength to focus on the facts. But when the autopsies reveal that the children died of unnatural causes, the hunt for the mother - a young woman with a seedy past and at least three aliases - is on. The trail leads Tempe to Yellowknife, a cold, desolate diamond-mining town on the edge of the Arctic Circle, where her quest for the truth only throws up more questions, more secrets, and more dead bodies. Taking risks and working alone, Tempe refuses to give up until she has discovered why the babies died. But in such a hostile environment, can she avoid being the next victim? Author Biography As a forensic anthropologist to the province of Quebec, Canada, Kathy Reichs has often said that she works with the dead, but for the living. Forensics are an integral part of her world, with cases constantly coming in to her lab. And yet her chosen profession is, she says, like any other job. You may get used to what’s happening around you, and to the sounds and smells and sights of death, but this doesn’t mean you become immune to it. Each of her books is based loosely on the cases she’s worked on, or some experience she’s had. She believes that her stories remain fresh because they originate form her being enmeshed and engaged in forensic work on a regular basis. Kathy Reichs is one of only eighty-two forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. She served on the Board of Directors and as Vice President of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and is currently a member of the National Police Services Advisory Council in Canada. She is a Professor in the Department at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. She is a native of Chicago, where she received her PhD. at Northwestern. She now divides her time between Charlotte, NC and Montreal, Québec.