Some time ago, in a beautiful suite in the Shelbourne Hotel, I got the opportunity to speak with the multi-talented Dr Kathy Reichs while she was visiting Dublin to discuss her then latest addition to the Temperance Brennan series of books, Mortal Remains, and about how she manages her many careers and still take the occasional holiday - albeit a working one.
Before I met Kathy Reichs I was already in her awe. Her CV is along the lines of spectacular; with novelist, forensic anthropologist, producer, actress, lecturer among her many list of credentials. When I came face to face with her, I would never have guessed that this woman has been working so much - non-stop - and it seems like she takes it all in her stride.When I asked her where does she finds the time to be in a million different places at once, she responded, "Well I don't do anything full time; I do everything part-time. It just takes discipline and organisation and they're the types of careers that, unless I get a subpoena or there's a plane crash or something and I have to go, the cases can wait. With the work I do in Quebec they can hold the cases. I go up one week in every six or something like that".
Considering her already busy career and scientific education it seems surprising that Reichs became a novelist. "Déjà Dead (Her debut novel) I started in 1994. I made full professor at the university so I could do whatever I wanted to, so it seemed like more fun than doing another text book and I had just finished a serial murder case which had something interesting features to it."
Given Reichs’ line of work and that of her protagonist, I asked are there many parallels between Kathy and her heroine. "Her job is the same as mine but I don't go with the cop investigating or interviewing witnesses like that; I'm not there for the big take-down. But otherwise, what she does in the lab and body recovery and the kinds of pieces she works on, that is what I do. And our sense of humour is the same, she gets that from me. But she has her own flaws and her own problems: her alcoholism, her broken marriage, her troublesome daughter and all of that, they're just Tempe's."
In Reichs' latest novel, the thirteenth installment of the Temperance Brennan series, Mortal Remains, the forensic anthropologist is called in on a case where a body is found recently deceased, but the man, John Lowery, was on record having died during the Vietnam War. When asked had she ever come across a case like this before Reichs replied, "The story is fictional but I did consult for years in the Central ID lab out in Hawaii JPAC so I was very familiar with how it works and the kinds of cases, but I made up this particular case."
In some respects Reichs has always tried to open up the field of forensic anthropology to the reader and Mortal Remains is no exception. "In this one you learn a little bit about Hawaii and shark feeding behaviour, a little bit about the Vietnam era and a bit about how our central ID lab identifies these remains that are thirty, forty or fifty years old. There have been cases like this where identities have been done incorrectly." Knowing the version of her character in the long running Fox show Bones, I was quite delighted with this answer; it's so like something Bones/Temperance Brennan would say!
A fact not all viewers of the TV show might not know is that the concept is based on Reichs' Temperance Brennan novels. To add to the writer's long list of accolades, "I’m a producer on Bones and I'm on the set as often as I can be; it's a long way from the east coast to the west coast. I acted in an episode in the second season which was directed by David Duchovny and Ryan O'Neil was in it. I wrote my first episode this year in Season Five."
Reichs has been constantly impressed by the TV adaptation of her fictional heroine: "The writers amaze me; they come up with the different stories and ideas for every episode. Each is an original story that they come up with and then I help them with the science, what bone markers would there be to show this or that and I read every script and give them feedback on the science."
For such a successful woman in so many different fields I ask Reichs what has been her career highlight so far. "Going to number one with the first Temperance Brennan novel on the London Times was a pretty good high. Having our one hundredth episode of the show was one too as there are so few shows that make it at all, much less that long. It's entering its sixth season now."
As if all of the above wasn't impressive enough, the Reichs has now decided to enter the world of young adult fiction with a new series called Virals. "It's Tempe's Brennan's 14-year-old great niece Tory Brennan. The cover will say for twelve-year-olds and up but we think adults will like them as well. Her and her friends solve mysteries using high-school forensics."
It seems the apples haven't fallen far from the tree as Reichs' children have also entered the world of literature. "I’m writing Virals with my son. He's much better at the teenage dialogues, though he's not a teenager. He knows the language and the technology. My daughter has also just brought out her second book. Her name is Kerry Reichs, named after Co. Kerry where a lot of my relatives are from. Her second book has come out. It’s called The Good Luck Girl. First both my kids went to law school, but they didn't like practicing law so they're both writers. They stayed away from the science side of things."
Finally, I asked the multitasking author/scientist/producer does she ever take a holiday. "I’m about to go on a cruise ship that they put authors on board and you do lectures and they give you a cruise." So, true to form, Reichs takes working holidays and this is no big surprise for someone who seems to have endless energy. With her writing contract for the Temperance Brennan series recently being extended to nineteen novels, it seems it will be a while before she takes a holiday without it involving work, but I can't imagine she'd want it any other way.
Mortal Remains is now available and is published by Heinmann.
Originally published in Verbal, February 2011
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