Dr. Temperance "Tempe" /ˈtɛmpi/[1] Brennan is a forensic anthropologist, who investigates human remains at crime scenes where the flesh is too degraded for a coroner to obtain evidence (victims of arson, mutilation, advanced decomposition, etc.).
Before the first novel, Brennan left her husband, Janis "Pete" Peterson, and overcame a lifelong struggle with alcoholism; as a result she usually drinks only Diet Coke, or an occasional Perrier water.
She divides her time between teaching at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte and advising on crime scenes, and spends about half of the year in each country.
Kit's daughter Tory Brennan features in the Virals series of novels written by Kathy with her son Brendan Reichs.
She and her sometime lover Detective Andrew Ryan share a cockatiel named Charlie who remains in Montreal, while her husband's Chow cross dog Boyd is often left with her in Charlotte.
On the show Temperance "Bones" Brennan writes crime novels with a fictional forensic anthropologist named Kathy Reichs as the protagonist.