Kathy Reichs

Dr Kathy J. Reichs[1] CM
Reichs in 2013
Born	Kathleen Joan Toelle (1948-07-07) July 7, 1948 (age 76) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Forensic anthropologist novelist professor Producer
Education	American University (BA) Northwestern University (MA, PhD)
Genre	Crime
Notable works	Break No Bones (2006) Bones (2005–2017)
Spouse	Paul Reichs
Children	3
Website
www.kathyreichs.com

Dr. Kathleen Joan Reichs (PhD) (née Toelle, born July 7, 1948) is an American crime writer, forensic anthropologist and academic. She is a professor emerita of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is well known for inspiring the television series Bones.^[2]

Kathleen Joan Toelle was born in 1948 in Chicago, Illinois.^[3]

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in anthropology from American University in 1971. In 1972, she completed her Master of Arts in physical anthropology at Northwestern University, where, in 1975, she completed her PhD, also in physical anthropology.^[4][3]

Since 1975, Reichs has taught at Northern Illinois University, University of Pittsburgh, Concordia University, and McGill University, and currently holds a position as professor emerita of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In the past, Kathy Reichs has consulted for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina.^[4][5]

Reichs has appeared in Tanzania to testify at the United Nations's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.^[6] She has assisted Clyde Snow and the Foundation for Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology in an exhumation in the area of Lake Atitlan in the highlands of southwest Guatemala. She was a member of the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team assigned to assist at the World Trade Center disaster.^[4]

She is one of 100 anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology^[7] and is on the board of directors of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She is also affiliated with the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Quebec.^[4]

In addition to technical books, as of January 2019, Reichs has written 23 novels, which have been translated into 30 languages. 20 of those novels constitute the "Temperance Brennan" series.^[8] Her first novel, Déjà Dead, won the 1997 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel.^[9]

The fictional heroine in her novels, Temperance "Tempe" Brennan, is also a forensic anthropologist. Her lifestyle closely mimics that of her creator,^[10][11] with Reichs stating that Brennan and she "have the same CV"^[10] and that "Some of Tempe's personality traits are also mine,"^[11] but there are differences in their personal lives, such as the character's alcoholism.^[10] A good portion of the novels are based on real life science, and Reichs has stated that she is "fastidiously conscientious about getting the science right."^[12] She has used experience from her career in her novels and said about Déjà Dead that "Everything I describe in the book, I actually did."^[11] In the novel Grave Secrets, she uses her experience from her visit to Guatemala.^[12]

She has also co-written (with her son Brendan) the young adult novels series named Virals, centered on Tempe's great-niece, Tory Brennan, and a pack of her friends, Ben, Hiram, Shelton, and wolfdog Cooper.

A stand-alone novel, Two Nights, published July 11, 2017, features Sunday Night, a tough-talking, scarred heroine.^[13]

The 2005 Fox television series Bones is inspired by Reichs' life and novels.^[14] The series borrows the name of her books' heroine, Temperance "Bones" Brennan.^[15] As in the books, Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is a forensic anthropologist; however, there are many differences: the television character is younger, more socially awkward,^[15] and is based in the Jeffersonian, a fictionalized version of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.^[15] Additionally, the Brennan character in the TV series moonlights as an author,^[14] writing about a fictional forensic anthropologist named Kathy Reichs.^[16] Aside from the character's name and occupation, there are few similarities between the TV show and the novels.

Reichs worked as a producer on the show to "keep the science honest".^[15] She appeared in the second-season episode "Judas on a Pole", playing Professor Constance Wright, a forensic anthropologist on the Jeffersonian's board of trustees who conducts Zack Addy's dissertation defense.^[17]

Reichs wrote the season five episode, "The Witch in the Wardrobe,"^[18] the season nine episode, "The Dude in the Dam," and wrote the season eleven episode, "The Stiff in the Cliff" with her daughter Kerry.^[19]

In 2011, Reichs was an expert witness in the Casey Anthony murder trial. Reichs was reluctant to get involved, but later agreed and performed a full skeletal analysis of Anthony's daughter, Caylee, but could not determine a cause of death. She concluded that there was no evidence of abuse and that the child appeared to be well-nourished.^[20]

Reichs has two daughters and a son.^[21]

• Reichs, Kathleen J. (October 1993). "Quantified comparison of frontal sinus patterns by means of computed tomography". Forensic Science International. 61 (2–3): 141–68. doi:10.1016/0379-0738(93)90222-v. PMID 8307523.
• Grynpas, Marc D.; Huckell, C.B.; Reichs, K.J.; Derousseau, C.J.; Greenwood, C.; Kessler, M.J. (August 1993). "Effect of age and osteoarthritis on bone mineral in rhesus monkey vertebrae". Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. 8 (8). American Society for Bone and Mineral Research: 909–17. doi:10.1002/jbmr.5650080803. PMID 8213253. S2CID 21510646.
• Reichs, Kathleen J. (June 1992). "Forensic anthropology in the 1990s". The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology. 13 (2): 146–53. doi:10.1097/00000433-199206000-00014. PMID 1510066.
• Reichs, Kathleen J. (July 1989). "Treponematosis: a possible case from the late prehistoric of North Carolina". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 79 (3): 289–303. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330790305. PMID 2669501.
• Reichs, K. J. (January 1989). "Cranial suture eccentricities: a case in which precocious closure complicated determination of sex and commingling". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 34 (1): 263–73. doi:10.1520/JFS12632J. PMID 2918285.
• DeRousseau, CJ; Reichs, KJ (July 1987). "Ontogenetic plasticity in nonhuman primates: I. Secular trends in the Cayo Santiago macaques". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 73 (3): 279–87. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330730302. PMID 3618758.

• Forensic Osteology: Advances in the Identification of Human Remains (1st ed.). Springfield: Charles C. Thomas. 1986. ISBN 9780398068042.
• Reichs, Kathy, ed. (1983). Hominid Origins: Inquiries Past and Present. University Press of America. ISBN 9780819128645.

This series was co-authored by Reich's son, Brendan Reichs. Tory Brennan, the great niece of Temperance Brennan, is the titular character of this series.^[22]

Reichs has released six downloadable short stories:

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kathy Reichs.

• Official website
• Kathy Reichs at IMDb 
• Kathy Reichs: Turning a lifelong career into writing success at Jarrah Loh.com
• Kathy Reichs Interview Shots Ezine October 2012
• EBc-KReichs Kathy Reichs in Encyclopedia Britannica