Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs

This one is something of a departure for Reichs. In these e-editions of her books there is generally a statement from her at the end mentioning how her own work and the cases that cross her autopsy table have suggested the plot of the preceding story. This one, while there are a couple of murders and a lot of general mayhem, not to mention a high speed chase through the streets of Jerusalem, is really an archaeological mystery with questions which address the fundamental assumptions of Christianity.

What if the bones of a crucified man found in the tomb really were those of the man Jesus of Nazareth? We can all relax, the bones which begged that particular question were destroyed in an accident, and the motivations all round were the usual greed, betrayal, and revenge rather than the speculative conspiracies involving members of any one of the world's three great religions, all of which claim their origins in that same contested piece of desert.

I don't know if I've mentioned how much I enjoy Reichs' throw-aways of lines from classic rock and roll songs. Most of them are completely apropos. As Tempe and her friend, archaeologist Jake, are huddled in a tomb on a rocky hillside, trapped by radical conservatives, who violently oppose the disturbance of Israel's sacred dead, stoning them when they show themselves and a starving jackal in the lower cavern, one of them says to the other, "We've got to get out of this place" and the other responds "If it's the last thing we ever do." Gotta love it. I can almost visualize them breaking into a musical comedy-style song and dance number.

By the way, in case you were wondering, Ryan does go to Israel, too. In fact, he persuades Tempe to go. And a good time is had by all - in between stonings, and shootings, and trashing of hotel rooms, and aforementioned high speed chases.