Kathy Reichs Books In Order – Complete List

Forensic anthropologist and New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs is best known for her popular Temperance Brennan forensic crime mystery series which was also made into the beloved Bones TV series, and her off-shot Virals, aka Torry Brennan series.

Here are the Kathy Reichs books in order of publication for both series as well as her standalone novels and short stories.

New Kathy Reichs Books

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Temperance Brennan Books In Publication Order

1. Deja Dead, 1997
2. Death Du Jour, 1999
3. Deadly Decisions, 2000
4. Fatal Voyage, 2001
5. Grave Secrets, 2002
6. Bare Bones, 2003
7. Monday Mourning, 2004
8. Cross Bones, 2005
9. Break No Bones, 2006
10. Bones to Ashes, 2007
11. Devil Bones, 2008
12. 206 Bones, 2009
13. Spider Bones, 2010 (aka Mortal Remains)
14. Flash and Bones, 2011
15. Bones Are Forever, 2012
16. Bones of the Lost, 2013
17. Bones Never Lie, 2014
18. Speaking in Bones), 2015
19. A Conspiracy of Bones, 2020
20. The Bone Code, 2021
21. Cold, Cold Bones, 2022
22. The Bone Hacker, 2023
23. Fire and Bones, 2024

Temperance Brennan Short Stories in Publication Order

• Bones In Her Pocket (#15.5), 2013
• Swamp Bones (#16.5), 2014
• Bones on Ice (#17.5), 2015

Other Temperance Brennan Books

• Bones: Buried Deep, 2006 (with Max Allan Collins)
• The Bone Collection, 2016 (short story collection)

Virals / Tory Brennan Books In Publication Order

with Brendan Reichs

1. Virals, 2010
2. Seizure, 2011
3. Shift (#2.5), 2013
4. Code, 2013
5. Swipe (#3.5), 2013
6. Exposure, 2014
7. Terminal, 2015
8. Shock, 2015 (#0.5)
9. Spike (#5.5), 2016

Virals Short Story Collection

• Trace Evidence, 2016

Standalone Novels in Publication Order

• I’d Kill For That, 2004
• No Rest For the Dead, 2011 (with others)
• Two Nights, 2017

Anthologies in Publication Order

• Suspense Magazine November 2011, 2011
• The Killer Cookbook, 2012
• The Dark Side of Mysteries & Thrillers, 2014
• MatchUp, 2017 (edited by Lee Child)
• Birds of Prey: The Harlan Coben Challenge, 2022 (edited by Harlan Coben)

Non-Fiction Books

• Forensic Osteology: Advances in the Identification of Human Remains, 1998 (written as Kathleen J. Reichs)

Kathy Reichs Biography

Kathy Reichs was born in 1950 in Chicago, Illinois. She studied anthropology at American University, following which she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology in 1971. She studied for her Master’s and eventually earned her Ph.D in Forensic Anthropology in 1971 from Northwestern University.

Next, she continued her studies and got her M.A. in 1972, followed by her Ph.D. degree in physical anthropology, which she got at Northwestern University.

For four years, between 1974 and 1978, she worked as an assistant professor at Northern Illinois University, and then she moved to work at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

In the 1980s she started consulting the office of the chief medical examiner in North Carolina. Over the years, she was also a professor at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, while she also worked for a bit each year at the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale in Quebec.

During her long-time career, Kathy Reichs has been involved in various important activities. For example, she helped identify the remains of many victims after the 9/11 attack, she testified that human rights violations happened during a certain event at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal Rwanda. In Guatemala, she worked with Dr. Clyde Snow at the Lake Atitlan burial site for the Foundation for Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology.

She wrote numerous scholar papers in her field, and edited three non-fiction books related to the fields of physical and forensic anthropology, followed by her popular Temperance Brennen series and her newer Virals series.

In her books, Kathy Reichs draws from experience, being a well known forensic anthropologist in Montreal. As part of her job she has taught FBI agents on the art of finding and recovering human remains has traveled to far away countries like Rwanda and Guatemala and she has helped identify WWII, Korea and Southern Asia victims remains.

I didn’t know that before, but it seems that there are only 100 US forensic anthropologists officially certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and Kathy Reichs is among them! So when you read her novels, you know that she writes from a point of authority, even though most of her books are fictional.. She also previously served as vice president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

The first book I’ve read by Kathy Reichs was incidentally her first Temperance Brennan novel called Deja Dead. If I am not mistaken, it was that very book that sparked my interest in forensic crime fiction – way before the CSI TV series became popular. I’ve read since many other books in this genre, but Kathy Reichs is for me the authority on the subject, no questions asked.

Currently, there are two main series written by Kathy Reichs: the Temperance Brennan series (which prompted the creation of the Bones TV series), and Virals, a Young Adult series co-written with her son Brendan Reichs. There is also Sunday Night, a series that started in 2017, however, as it only has one book so far, it is listed as a standalone novel.

In Virals, the main character is Tory Brennan, the great-niece of Temperance Brennan.

With over 20 novels written mostly inspired by her work as a forensic anthropologist, Kathy Reichs has long become the queen of the forensic fiction genre.

Currently, she spends her time either at her South Carolina coastal retreat or her home in Charlotte, N.C

Kathy Reichs Books Adaptations

The Temperance Brennan series has been adapted into the successful Bones series featuring Emily Deschanel as Tempe Brennan and David Boreanaz as FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth. The series ran for 12 seasons for a total of 246 episodes between 2005 and 2017.

The series received two Emmy nominations, won two Genesis Awards for two awareness episodes, and Emily Deschanel was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama in 2006.

Kathy Reichs Awards and Nominations

• Deja Dead won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel in 1997
• Deja Dead was nominated for the Dilys Award for Best Book in 1998
• Virals was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best Children/Young Adult Fiction in 2010
• Spider Bones was nominated for the CrimeFest: Sounds of Crime Award in 2011
• Kathy Reichs received the 2023 Alumnae Award of Northwestern University

Should We Read the Kathy Reichs Books in Order?

I have read all her novels and while it is nice to read them in order (that’s how I’ve usually read most of the crime series I pick up), it’s not an absolute must.

Each book stands on its own with its own case for Tempe (or Tory & gang) to solve. However, there are some recurring themes (relationships at work and overall character development, as well as the basics of her life) that are nice to follow the way they occur.

So should you read the Kathy Reichs books in chronological order? Yes if you like reading your series in order of how things develop, but no if you came across a book in the series and want to start with it, without having to go back to the previous ones. You won’t lose much.