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Canine capers from Bones scribe

Anthropologist Kathy Reichs writes the Bones novels that inspired the TV show. Both feature investigators called Temperance Brennan – though the Brennan of the books is older. This is Reichs’s move into YA territory, featuring the 14-year-old grandniece of Temperance (the book one).

A chip off the family block, tomboy Tory investigates an old missing-girl mystery, dragging three boys with her. A Marvel-style development gives the kids canine DNA and matching powers. It’s better than last year’s “superkid” book, I Am Number Four , though without its potential for film pyrotechnics. However, despite murders and mild cussing, Virals Disneyfies the darker possibilities of doggie DNA, and the end whiffs of “If it wasn’t for those pesky kids…” Andrew Osmond

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