Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs (2007, Unabridged, Compact Disc)

If Reichs wanted to see Acadie and Acadians as they are, she couldn't have picked a better guide. As Leger recounts Reichs' adventures in the province, her hands stay busy cutting up strawberries in the kitchen of her century-old farmhouse. 'Basically we shared our life with her as we live it -- no fuss, no muss,Leger has never been star struck around Reichs. By the time she figured out that she was famous, the two were fast friends. When Reichs arrived to do a week of research in the province last June, Leger put her up in a friend's quiet but very basic camp, filled her up on lobster and wine and sent her off with pickles and jam. She and her sister accompanied Reichs on a whirlwind tour of Acadie -- from Shediac to Caraquet, with stops at the giant lobster, the Acadian Village, and the Musee historique de Tracadie, operated by the two last nuns who cared for those suffering from leprosy. Leger says the woman who made the National Film Board documentary about her brother is from Caraquet, so Raoul's story is well known on the Acadian Peninsula, which meant she and her sister often got more of a celebrity welcome than Reichs. 'We went to the museum and the nuns said, 'Oh! Les soeurs de Raoul Leger!'' she says. 'And we said, 'And this is Kathy Reichs,' and they said, 'Oh, hello,' and then (came right back to us).' When they stayed at a local bed and breakfast, it was the Legers who got the suite, while a laughing Reichs had to content herself with occupying a simple bedroom. Leger says Reichs asked a constant stream of questions but barely took any notes. When she sat down to read an advance copy of the book, she marvelled at how many little things Reichs had retained from her visit. Even names picked up along the way appear in the book. There is a Kevin after a police officer they chatted with, an Obline after a story Leger told about meeting a woman from Texas who was looking for her Acadian grandmother of the same name, and an Estelle who in the novel is a woman of ill repute, but in real life is Leger's mortified daughter. Despite their friendship, Leger had never read a single one of Reichs' novels until Bones to Ashes. 'I sat and read it all the way through. I didn't get off the couch,' she says. 'And when I got done, I started crying.' Leger says Reichs has wonderfully captured Acadian culture and history in the book. 'She came to learn who we were and she listened to who we were,' she says. 'Not only did she get it, she has the ability to transfer it into words.' Leger expects the novel to have a huge impact on Acadians and on New Brunswick. 'We're being introduced to the world,' she says, pointing out that Reichs' novels are translated into 39 languages and sold all over the world. 'I've seen what her other books do,' she says. Fans of the novels often travel to see some of the landmarks featured in the books. But this novel is particularly special because it also revives a lost country. 'Ever since the deportation, we have no country to call our own. We have our customs and our flag,' Leger says. 'You can't go to Acadia. It doesn't exist.' But while it may no longer be on any map, the knowledge that it did once exist will now be conveyed to millions of readers. And this leads back to Raoul and the kind of person he was. 'My brother was so proud of his heritage, even in the '70s,' Leger explains. 'Never in a million years did I think that him loving his heritage would be explained in this way to this calibre.'

It was ok, not what I expected. Not my type of read. I found that it drifted too much for me and did not really follow the Brennen story line all that well. This is an ongoing problem when books are adapted to TV. There are holes in the story line and usually the books and the TV show do not run in tandum. All in all the book was entertaining but I will probably not read any more.