KEY POINTS:
Kathy Reichs is quite at home looking for tool marks on human bones in the hope of catching a killer, but just don't ask her to do a bungy jump.
The author - the real-life inspiration for TV's forensic anthropologist Bones who turned her own life into blockbuster crime novels - told yesterday's Herald Dymocks Literary Lunch she was distracted because her daughter intended to do a bungy off the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Perhaps surprising from one of just 50 certified forensic anthropologists in the United States whose work on grisly crimes has sent serial killers behind bars, she also said she was squeamish when it comes to cooking crayfish.
She spoke of "wonderful lobster parties" as she researched her ninth book, Break No Bones, set in Acadia, Canada.
"I would be handed this crustacean. I made the mistake of bonding with it, then I had to drop it in boiling water - I didn't like that part."
Her tenth novel Bones to Ashes is just released.
Like the TV character Temperance, who was based on the heroine of Dr Reichs' novels, the author used to be called "the bones lady" by police.
"They didn't really understand what I did, so I was the bones lady because I had bones in my lab and I taught bioarchaeology."
Now they can watch the show on TV, she's more often known as "Doc".
Dr Reichs' work is a complex mix of real-life investigations, writing novels and working closely as a producer on Bones to "keep the science honest".
Real-life investigations involve a recovery phase and laboratory work, often to try to identify remains.
Unlike the fictional accounts, not all cases were solved, Dr Reichs said - and she insisted the work was not as glamorous as shown on television.
TV3 started screening the show last year and although it is off air for now, TV3 publicist Jacqui Loates said it rated well and would return.
Random House said Dr Reichs' new book had sold 15 per cent more in New Zealand than last year's release, which was up 20 per cent on the year before.
Don't be surprised if more references to this country spring up after her fourth visit here.
After a previous trip, a line about opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa featured in one of Dr Reichs' novels.
"I was driving one day listing to a Te Kanawa tape," she said. "So my character was driving along, so I had her listen to it."
Such is the fasciation of reality TV, Dr Reichs was called in on another show. She assists New York State Police chief forensic pathologist Michael Baden in Autopsy, not on here but which - as the name suggests - screens an autopsy an episode.
"Harry Houdini is on the calendar," said Dr Reichs, a Chicago native.
A toxicologist and a lawyer are also involved in the planned exhumation of the late magician. "He annoyed a lot of the spiritualists of his time, so there were death threats against him.
"There have always been conspiracy theorists who think he may have been murdered. So, we'll see what we can see."
