Tag Archives: Brennan

Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs (2002) – BR00048 (2005) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
May 25 2005

Plot or Premise

Tempe finds herself in Guatemala investigating a mass grave, and while she’s there, the local police decide to avail themselves of her forensics expertise to investigate four missing girls and one dead body in a sewer.

What I Liked

The cast of characters is large and there are some historical elements included related to Guatemalan history.

What I Didn’t Like

Tempe bounces around Guatemala too much, helping the only honest detective in a sea of corruption, and figures out missing girls, links to stem cell research, and takes her sweet time doing it. She even finds time to link it to her friends in Montreal, who just so happen to have gone to school with her detective partner in Guatemala. Beyond far-fetched, and casting aspersions on everyone she describes and the way they work, this one should have been a secret Reichs took to the grave. And finally, a bit of a spoiler, she rips off Janet Evanovich’s technique of not finishing the romance part of the book — you know she’s chosen someone but not whom. Stay tuned to the next in the series to find out which one, I suppose.

The Bottom Line

Pass on this one in the series.

Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs (2000) – BR00024 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

In this third installment in the Dr. Temperance Brennan series, there are biker gangs in Montreal, and they are killing each other. Most of it happens in Montreal, which is an improvement over the bopping around in previous books.

What I Liked

The story is interesting, and Reichs is still above average.

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the characters are fast becoming clichés. And if you don’t figure out a sub-plot (spoiler alert!) about her love interest being a dirty cop, you need to take Mystery Fiction 101 again. Temperance also gets to play Mommy again, this time to a nephew, but it isn’t particularly exciting. More of a Scarpetta rip-off. Again, too, Reichs plays fast and loose with a couple of clues that make Brennan look like an idiot to any intelligent reader and really detracts from the story. The final ending is almost surreal, and reads more like a script for an action TV series than reliable fiction.

The Bottom Line

Not up to the standards of the first book.

Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs (1999) – BR00071 (1999) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
October 10 1999

Plot or Premise

Twisting sub-plots make it hard to describe as one common theme, but in essence, Dr. Temperance Brennan is back with a problem — dead people, including babies, are popping up all over the place as a result of a religious cult. Even her sister gets involved, not to mention a young female relative (can we say Kay Scarpetta’s niece?). In fact, the majority of this book comes even closer to a rip-off of that other series, but closer to the lousy writing near the end of the Scarpetta series than the tight stories that launched the female coroner genre. The story starts in Montreal, and then moves to Carolina, and then eventually back again to the Montreal area. Unlike the first book, you never get the same sense of place.

What I Liked

A difficult question…the story is interesting, just with a lot of holes and loose threads. One really good thing that is missing from this story that was in the previous one is the removal of the francophone / anglophone dynamics, that is not only annoying, but also inaccurate for the timeframe.

What I Didn’t Like

The list is growing…First, and most important, I hate the way it mirrors the Kay Scarpetta stories, essentially ripping off the work that has gone before. Second, Reichs has a really bad habit — trying to build suspense and mystery by an old trick of hiding certain things. At least two major “clues” in the sub-stories are not revealed, instead having Temperance kind of taunt the reader in an I-know-but-the-reader-won’t-until-I-feel-like-revealing-it-to-them way. None of the “clues” are that big, nor are they worth waiting for, and the reader is just left feeling irritated and cheated by the story. Either the waiting has to be worth it, by making the news so unbelievable that you say “WOW!”, or you have to play fair with the reader and share the news as it comes along. Finally, I have to say that not only is this book not particularly great, but it is also a real let-down from the first one. It reads like Reichs threw it together from two separate stories, and with a lot of extra characters thrown in, none of which are any more than wooden extras.

The Bottom Line

A let-down from the first one.

Scarpetta’s Winter Table by Patricia Cornwell (1998) – BR00087 (1999) – 🐸⚪⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
October 10 1999

Plot or Premise

A cookbook disguised as a novel.

What I Liked

Nothing.

What I Didn’t Like

It was ADVERTISED as a combination of a cookbook with stories about Dr. Kay Scarpetta, and in that light, it fails on all counts. There IS no story, and nothing happening in the non-story — and worse still, none of the characters act like they do in the novels. The recipes are interesting, but far from revolutionary. This book seems to have been issued for one reason and one reason only — to milk some money out of the fans and to give them almost nothing in return.

The Bottom Line

Worthless.