Customer Rating:  
Summary: First in the series
Comment: I've read several of Kathy Reichs'Temperance Brennan novels (out of order of course) and I wanted to go back and read the first in the series. Had this been the first of the Brennan novels I read, I probably would have been willing to give others a try. This book was okay, but Kathy Reichs does much better as the series progresses. I saw where another reviewer did not like the use of one word sentences. I honestly loved the technique. It was short and got the point across without going into boring statements. Which of these is better?: "Could be" Ryan or "Could be" Ryan said. That's just a matter of taste and I thought it gave the novel(s) kind of that Dragnet dimension. Anyway, this novel seemed kind of hard to follow for me as Tempe was (and she does in other novels) putting herself into situations that were dangerous and dealing with a large number of characters I couldn't keep track of. Would a real person go to these places knowing what kind of dangers lurk there? Why was she the best investigator working a serial killer case? Why can't the police put clues together? The characters seemed consistent and were people you could care about one way or another. Claudel was a jerk, sure, but even he mellowed. If you've read the other Brennan novels but not this one, you should read it just so you haven't missed anything. If you want to read the whole series, you should read this one and go from there but don't quit after this one because they do get much better. If you're looking for a stand alone novel to read and have no interest in the series, I might pass on this one. If you're going to read it because you like the TV show "BONES' well, maybe that's not such a good idea. The Brennan in the television show is a lot mor low key than this one, although they both could use some social skills classes. Finally, I want to comment on the ending: This was a let down, right out of a Lifetime movie or a made for Sci-Fi movie or just about any other movie/TV show where the hero or heroine was in a desparate situation and an item that would save him or her was handy and just within fingertip reach. After 500 pages I think the reader deserves a little more imaginative ending than that. 3 stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books I ever read
Comment: A friend of mine recommended this series, since she likes the TV show, so I decided to give the first book a try - I was terribly disappointed. First of all, I cannot believe that so many amazon reviews were highly positive about the book - does anyone recognize bad writing or storytelling any more or is it enough for them that a book made it to TV?
The writing is so bad, I was barely able to finish the book - constant comparisons - like this, like that etc. - if she would stop doing this, the book would only be half as long. She also is very fond of one-word sentences, which are ok now and then, but - Get. Boring. After. A. While. Also, she tries to sound so smart, by throwing in French expressions all the time and then translating them for her uneducated readers. Just decide if you want to write in French or English - we all know that Canada is bilingual!
The story is incredibly stupid and most of the characters behave like idiots. She uses every klichee in the book - does she really want to make us believe that every policeman uses expletives of the worst kind in each and every sentence? Why are policemen always described as chauvinists - but then in the end they come around and acknowledge the heroine (after saving her life, of course, because after all she cannot take care of herself). Why does the police not follow up on the clues - a cross on a map and nobody wants to check on it? Except, of course, out heroine, who decides to go out in the middle of the night, in a storm, with a defective flashlight, to try to find a buried body. Why does nobody care about her daughter being on the killers list of victims and why does her mother not tell the police that her daughter is actually on her way to visit her? No, instead she just sits there, with a "knot in her stomach', waiting for the killer to show up at her apartment.
And why can I not find any good mystery novels any more?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not a favorite
Comment: A fan of the TV show Bones, I sought out the first novel in the series which contains the character the show is based on.
I was disappointed. About the only thing the TV character has in common with her novel counterpart is name and occupation. The TV character is quirky and charming while the novel Tempe is boring and makes some rather stupid choices to further the plot.
The novel also committed what I consider a sin in the mystery genre - it did not give the reader enough clues to figure out the whodunnit, and actually gave "clues" which had nothing to do with the murder at all. What happened to the heavy handed allusions to the fish tanks? The killer becomes a rabbit out of the hat trick since we've only met his Uncle, and even that is brief.
I was a bit discombobulated by the vast differences in the Tempe character from TV to novel, and would have maybe liked the book better had I not first been a fan of the TV show. But I still found the plot paced awkwardly, the characters a bit stilted and one-dimensional and the mystery lacking.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Shaddap, already! Tell your story.
Comment: I would guesstimate this book to be 150,000 words long. It should have been no more than 90,000 words, if that. Novice novelist Kathy Reichs goes way overboard in her description of place, people, feelings, and scientific techniques. I can imagine consultations with her editor, who must have - should have - tried to get her to cut, cut, cut out the excessive verbiage. But, being new at this, I can understand that Reichs would have fought tooth and nail to protect her verbosity. And she apparently won out. That being said, I will now do a 180 degree turn and exclaim that this is one spellbinding and emotionally charged book. Her protagonist, Temperance Brennan, is a marvelous creation, an intelligent woman in a man's world who constantly has to fight this discriminatory attitude. And fight she does, often to her personal detriment. Yes, this is the same Brennan of the highly popular TV series "Bones," but once you get by the name and professional of a forensic scientist, there the similarities end. This Temperance has far more baggage to deal with than her TV counterpart, she is located in Montreal, and - as she tells us often enough - she is horny. But, like the TV show, we are caught up in a complicated, dangerous, and mesmerizing tale of crime and terror. This is the first of a series of Brennan books. I am going to take a break and then try another, hoping Reichs has learned from her mistakes and has cut back drastically on her blather while retaining her terrific story telling abilities.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bones works wonders with death
Comment: If you have seen the TV show Bones, this is where it comes from. Kathy Reichs is a forensic pathologist for the provence of Quebec and the state of North Carolina. Her charactor is the same. It is part of the one of the few series that is good first book to last with no weak parts. If you like this type of book, this is your meat. Read this and you will want to write your own comment.
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