Devil Bones

When the skull of a young woman is discovered in a basement cauldron and the carved torso of a young man turns up at a lake, in Devil Bones, the citizens of Charlotte, N.C., suspect Wicca, Santería, voodoo, or satanism. Enter forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, the inspiration for the Fox drama Bones, whose work is described in painstaking but fascinating detail (as usual). Though the alcoholic Tempe goes on a captivating bender, the mystery itself is all too predictable. And Reichs’ moral — ”Americans have become a nation afraid” — is spelled out so clearly it’s almost condescending. B