While Kathy Reichs still works as a forensic anthropologist, she’s more selective about the cases she takes on. “I do work with cops, but I’m on the crime scene with them, or in the labs.” “I don’t take the same risks that Tempe takes - I don’t get as involved with interviewing witnesses and working side-by-side with special agents,” Kathy Reichs said. However, Kathy Reichs said generally her life isn’t quite as action-packed as Temperance Brennan’s. We can’t bring police into the courtroom because it would seem prejudicial, so if he goes for you, don’t get out of the witness stand.’ I’m thinking in my head right away, ‘I know exactly where I’m going - I’m going to dive behind the judge.'” “The prosecutor came up to me and said, ‘The defendant says he wants to kill you. “One time I was testifying and it was a very nasty murder dismemberment case,” Kathy Reichs said. She traveled to Rwanda to testify at the UN Tribunal on Genocide, helped exhume a mass grave in Guatemala and assisted with identifying remains found at ground zero of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, among many other cases - sometimes at risk of her life. Kathy Reichs doesn’t have to extend far beyond personal experience to shock.

“I don’t like cutting corners, or bending the truth about what is possible simply for shock value.”

“I’m usually able to keep my novels both relevant and true to the science I use every day, which is important to me,” Kathy Reichs said. The “Virals” series follows the adventures of Tory Brennan, niece of Temperance Brennan, who discovers an unsolved murder and becomes infected by an experimental virus that gives her special powers described as “flaring.” Kathy Reichs said details in her books are drawn from her professional experiences with fascinating and often gruesome cases. Kathy Reichs, a practicing forensic anthropologist, writes crime novels about her literary alter-ego Temperance Brennan-the lead character in “Bones.” Now, in an unusual mother-son collaboration, both she and Brendan Reichs are co-writing the “Virals” series, the newest release of which, “Code,” they promoted at a Provo Library event on March 19. For Kathy Reichs, author and creator of the crime television series “Bones,” and her son Brendan Reichs, passion for writing runs, well, bone deep.

Virals book series in order