I like the Bones books much more than the TV show. The characters are rounded out, the stories are well-plotted and engaging and the humour is dry rather than slapstick.

I have been working my way through the novels off and on for five years or so and this book joins a shortlist of two of ones I found tough going.

The location is Hawaii and is a pleasant variation on the usual North Carolina and Montréal. Ryan is present throughout. What I found hard to get through, though, was keeping track of the confusion surrounding the numerous bodies – I should have taken notes!

Along with this was the hugely over-used trope of old cases being interlinked with new. Camila Lackberg uses it so often I want to scream and Reichs has been down this route before but generally in a much subtler fashion. Not so here.

The story moves the whole Brennan-Ryan relationship along a little but does little for their daughters who despite being 24 and 19 are portrayed as though they are petulant 12- or 13-year-olds.

On the whole I would advise skipping this one. Here's hoping the next finds Tempe firmly back on track.