Kathy Reichs is a highly accomplished American author, forensic anthropologist, and academic. She is well-known for her Temperance Brennan series of crime thriller novels, in which the protagonist is also an anthropologist. Reichs' professional and personal experiences have greatly contributed to her writing, as she incorporates technical details and suspenseful storylines in her books.
Reichs is a forensic anthropologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina and for the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale in Quebec. She is one of only fifty forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and is on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. In addition to her work in the field, Reichs is a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received her Ph.D. at Northwestern University and now divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal.
In 1997, Reichs' first novel, Déjà Dead, was published, becoming a New York Times bestseller and winning the Ellis Award for Best First Novel. She has since written numerous Temperance Brennan novels, including Death du Jour, Deadly Décisions, Fatal Voyage, Grave Secrets, Bare Bones, Monday Mourning, Cross Bones, Break No Bones, Bones to Ashes, Devil Bones, 206 Bones, Spider Bones, Flash and Bones, Bones Are Forever, Bones of the Lost, Bones Never Lie, Speaking in Bones and the short story collection, The Bone Collection. Reichs also co-authors the Virals young adult series with her son, Brendan Reichs. The series follows the adventures of Temperance Brennan's great niece, Tory Brennan.
Reichs' work as a forensic anthropologist has taken her to various parts of the world, including Rwanda, Guatemala, and Southeast Asia. She has assisted in identifying war dead from World War II, Korea, and Southeast Asia, as well as aiding in the identification of remains found at ground zero of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Reichs' expertise and dramatic work experience have been brought to the hit Fox TV series, Bones, which is based on her work and her novels. She is a member of the National Police Services Advisory Council in Canada and has 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.