No, he had been a litigation attorney for three years and was not enjoying it. So when Brendan came to me with the idea of doing a YA series, it seemed like a good idea. I knew that kids were jumping right into the adult books, some of my adult books deal with subjects – like dismemberment – that might be a little strong for some young readers. Well, a lot of young people watch Bones, and many have come to my adult book signings. What compelled you to bring Temperance’s grandniece to life in a YA series?

I was lucky enough to be invited on a USO tour to Afghanistan last year, and Bones of the Lost, which is coming out in August, draws on that experience. Not every book is based on a specific case, but they’re all related to something I’ve done, like disaster relief work or human rights work. I’m not going to say exactly how many years I’ve been practicing forensic science, but I’ve worked on a lot of cases, and have a lot of experience to draw on. You’ve published 16 Temperance Brennan novels – are they all inspired by actual forensics cases you’ve worked on? But the novel took me two years to write, since I was teaching full time and also doing forensic work. So all of that came together, and I saw an opportunity for me to do something new. I’d just worked on a serial murder case with some interesting elements to it, so I had an idea for a story. And I also sensed an interest at the time for a strong fictional female character with a science background. I had written textbooks and scientific articles, and forensic science in the air – there seemed to be more attention than ever being paid to it. I started my first book, Déjá Dead, in 1994, when I was a full professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. How did you initially come to parlay your work as a forensic anthropologist into fiction? While on tour with Brendan to promote the new novel, Kathy Reichs spoke with Bookshelf from Salt Lake City about balancing her various professional paths and collaborating with her son. On March 12, Putnam published the third Virals novel, Code, with a 50,000-copy first printing.

The second installment, Seizure, was released in 2011. The series, which launched in 2010 with Virals, incorporates some supernatural elements but is grounded in science. Reichs has teamed up with her son, Brendan, to create a YA spinoff series called Virals, about Temperance’s teenage grandniece Tory and her crime-solving friends. Kathy Reichs is the creator and producer of the Fox TV show Bones, based on her bestselling adult thriller series starring Temperance Brennan the main character, like the author, is a forensic anthropologist.

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