Review: Kathy Reichs "Grave Secrets" (Brennan #5)

Publisher: Scribner Book Company

ISBN: 9780684859736

My rating: 3/5

A harrowing excavation unearths a chilling tragedy never laid to rest.
They are “the disappeared,” twenty-three massacre victims buried in a well in the Guatemalan village of Chupan Ya two decades ago. Leading a team of experts on a meticulous, heartbreaking dig, Tempe Brennan pieces together the violence of the past. But a fresh wave of terror begins when the horrific sounds of a fatal attack on two colleagues come in on a blood-chilling satellite call. Teaming up with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolomé Galiano and Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, Tempe quickly becomes enmeshed in the cases of four privileged young women who have vanished from Guatemala City — and finds herself caught in deadly territory where power, money, greed, and science converge. (www.kathyreichs.com)

My thoughts

I'm still not quite warming to Kathy Reichs' writing style, but I have to admit I'm getting more and more interested in her stories.

Now this one was confusing, I have to say, but the bits I was able to follow were good. Tempe Brennan is in Guatemala to uncover details from the country's violent past. But when SCI Galiano asks her for help in a local investigation she hesitantly agrees.

So far so good. With my list of names, I make it through the story and it's good enough to keep me interested. Disappearances of young girls and the attempted murder of one of Tempe's friends.
And then she lost me during the last third of the book. I couldn't follow and things didn't make sense.

A trademark of Kathy Reich is to explain science into the smallest details. Her fans love it ... for me it's sometime to much, but I loved how she made fun of it herself occasionally.

Kathy Reich - Deadly Decisions

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9781448106608

My rating: 3/5


The third gripping Temperance Brennan novel from world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, the international no. 1 bestselling crime thriller writer and the inspiration behind the hit TV series Bones. A nine-year-old girl is killed in crossfire on her way to ballet class. Soon afterwards, the body of a teenager killed in North Carolina is found hundreds of miles away. Forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan knows she must stay professional, but when the young girl's body is wheeled into the morgue she cannot help but react. And when an exhumation reveals the bones of yet another innocent in a hidden grave close to a biker gang headquarters, Tempe begins a lone and risky investigation into the lawless underworld of organised crime.

 

My thoughts

Number 3 didn't really rock my world.

It's all about Motorbike gangs and the accidental death of a young girl. I have to admit, it took me a while to get my head around the story. As much as I like the extra details Reichs gives in regards to pathology or in this book blood spattern, IMHO there's right and there's too much. I thought it was all a bit too much. Everything was in too much detail, I thought.

The rest of the story is the same as previously - add a family member (BTW - the nephew Kit is a hoot!) and put Brennan in a dangerous situation - voila, another Brennan story. Well more or less.



#1 Kathy Reichs - Deja Dead

#2 Kathy Reichs - Death Du Jour

#4 Kathy Reichs - Fatal Voyage

Kathy Reichs - Fatal Voyage

Publisher: Pocket Star

ISBN:  9781416510567

My rating: 3/5

She has a passion for the truth . . . and this time, it's taking her down.

A commercial airliner disaster has brought Tempe Brennan to the North Carolina mountains as a member of the investigative agency DMORT. As bomb theories abound, Tempe soon discovers a jarring piece of evidence that raises dangerous questions -- and gets her thrown from the DMORT team. Relentless in her pursuit of its significance, Tempe uncovers a shocking, multilayered tale of deceit and depravity as she probes her way into frightening territory -- where someone wants her stopped in her tracks.

My thoughts

This is a great story, but way to long and sometimes way too much into detail to keep me reading/interested. I like the whole forensic stuff, but there's a limit for my little brain - this book gave me an overload.

So there's a plane crash in in North Carolina and Tempe Brennan is (coincidental) just around the corner and is asked to help out. Ryan (the Montreal cop) will join the crash site (coincidental) as well. She goes of in the forest for some rest and .... surprise surprise finds a foot which is not belonging to the crash site. Then it starts to get reasonably interesting as the pressure is on her to prove that she did follow protocol with this foot. Pressure from the high ranking Lieutenant Governor of the State. Then it's really like a roller coaster, well it would've been if Reichs wouldn't yadi yadi yada around. The plane crash? Don't ask me, it was like a second, irrelevant plot.

I'd say less would've been more. The constant repetition of questions, not only regarding work, but her private life really made me skip pages in the end. And as I said above, the plane crash a big fizzer!

I think you will enjoy it if you're a Reichs Fan!

Kathy Reichs - Death Du Jour (Brennan #2)

Publisher:  Pocket Star (August 1, 2000)

ISBN:  978-0671011376

My rating:  3/5


In the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, Tempe Brennan is digging for a corpse buried more than a century ago. Although Tempe thrives on such enigmas from the past, it’s a chain of contemporary deaths and disappearances that has seized her attention — and she alone is ideally placed to make a chilling connection among the seemingly unrelated events. At the crime scene, at the morgue, and in the lab, Tempe probes a mystery that sweeps from a deadly Quebec fire to startling discoveries in the Carolinas, and culminates in Montreal with a terrifying showdown — a nerve-shattering test of both her forensic expertise and her skills for survival. (http://www.kathyreichs.com/)


My thoughts

This is number two in the Temperance (Tempi) Brennan series. Like the first book I found this book long and difficult to read as well.

The plot in its basic was well thought of, but the execution, if I may use this word, was odd. It turns out that one would like to stay away from Brennan the same way one wants to stay away from Jessica Fletcher – it was Brennan’s friend in the first book, this time around it’s Brennan’s sister. But I can live with that, because after all it’s a story and not real life – what I did have problems with though were the coincidences where the killings were happening.

The book starts with the exhumation of a nun’s bones (I still haven’t figured out the relevance of that storyline), then the killing a family and then I lose track ... yet wherever Brennan is in the USA there’s a murder and she’s there as well – and all murders are tying into a religious cult.

Oh yes and for the romantic in me, there’s also a bit of snogging with Ryan – but I’d recommend for Reichs to keep concentrating on what she does best: writing crime novels.

Nuff said!

Kathy Reichs - Deja Dead (Brennan #1)

Publisher: Scribner

ISBN: 978-2702818329

My rating: 3/5



Her life is devoted to justice — for those she never even knew.
In the year since Temperance Brennan left behind a shaky marriage in North Carolina, work has often preempted her weekend plans to explore Quebec. When a female corpse is discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in trash bags, Tempe detects an alarming pattern — and she plunges into a harrowing search for a killer. But her investigation is about to place those closest to her — her best friend and her own daughter — in mortal danger…. (www.kathyreichs.com)



My thoughts

I finished the book a few days back but still haven't decided what to think of it. It certainly wasn't a book that kept me hooked until late nights or even early mornings - okay, it did for the first 100-something pages, but then lost me as it dragged on.

Brennan is leaving behind a failed marriage and takes up a full time job in Montreal (extra kudos for the location!) And within the first few pages we have our first victim and a few further pages we have Brennan wondering whether there’s a serial killer out there ... with a lot of testosterone driven cops around her, so she’s left with finding evidence to prove the killer’s existence.

So once Brennan goes of to do exactly that .... the story loses my interest, it's long, drags on and the constant solo investigations were irritating. But it’s also the scientific terminology that I had problems with. Even though Reichs own background, I thought it was an overload.

I did like the cops, though, and thought Reichs did well “portraying” them in their coolness and “protectiveness” of their area of expertise – finding the killer! Claudel is a hoot!

Overall I thought a great first novel for Reichs, yet I expected more.