Forensic anthropologist Temperance "Tempe" Brennan of the Laboratoire de M?dicine L?gale in Montreal makes a triumphant second appearance in Reichs's powerful followup to her bestselling debut, D?j? Dead. The novel opens atmospherically in a frigid church graveyard as Tempe labors to exhume the century-old remains of a nun so that the Church can posthumously declare her a saint. But the bones aren't where they're supposed to be according to the graveyard map, and there's something suspicious about them when they do turn up. Tempe's caseload multiplies as a house fire proves to be a horrific instance of arson and a university teaching assistant who's recently joined a cult goes missing. The three seemingly individual events begin to braid together, as the doings with the doomsday cult draw Tempe to North Carolina. As in D?j? Dead, ReichsAherself a forensic anthropologistArenders comprehensively and believably the cool, tense intelligence of her heroine. A North Carolina native who consults in Montreal only a few months of the year, Tempe still hasn't acclimated to the bone-chilling Northern cold, and if she's come to expect the misogynist attitudes of some of the Canadian officials, she still bristles at them. Also well presented are Tempe's refreshing compassion in the face of relentless autopsies, her ability to describe a corpse with judiciously graphic detail and her penchant for revealing the art behind the science on such matters as the preservation of a corpse's teeth. Reichs's first novel, which won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel of 1997, was compared justifiably to the Kay Scarpetta novels of Patricia Cornwell. Soon, Cornwell's novels may be compared to Reichs's.

October Meet Up of Canberra Book Crossers

I picked this up at the Canberra BookCrossing meet, held this month at King O'Malley's Pub in Civic, ACT.

Needle-n-Thread said she is enjoying reading "Déjà Dead", by the same author, so I also sent this book her way. I'll get it back again when she has finished with it.

Another spine chiller by Kathy Reichs, “Death du Jour”. Gruesome in parts, but a book which makes you keep reading, and you feel like you are with Dr Brennan when she is escaping from people trying to kill her. Quite spine chilling. I give this book 9 out of 10.

I am visiting Kermit58 and will pass this book onto them. Then it will be returned to Goldenwattle.

Thank you for the book, but I have already read it. Kathy Reichs is a good author. I'll return it to Goldenwattle.

Returning to Goldenwattle.

This is Kathy Reichs’ second novel, more realistic, but less engaging than her first.
In the last story she had a best friend. In this novel her sister filled the same roll. Her friend and sister had similar characters (both scatterbrained and hard to reason with) and both got into trouble. The difference was that her sister lived while her friend in the previous novel did not. The middle of the book was full of filler, lots of tedious descriptions. Although not her area, Tempe would know a lot about insects and dead bodies, but she needed to have it explained to her as if she knew nothing about it. I know it was done for our benefit, but it was unrealistic. Tempe was too slow to work out that her sister Harry was mixed up with the cult, even though the clues were screaming at her. Then, like the last story, there was the ubiquitous storm for the finale. I am pleased Tempe’s diet has improved a bit with this story. When the main character has such a lousy diet for no good reason, I wonder about the author’s diet. Is it as bad?

There are a number of people with this book on their wishlist, so I will offer it up as a Bookray.

Bookray

LIST:
wandering-B (Hong Kong)
-JAFFA- (Lincolnshire, UK)
Icila (Pays de la Loire, France)
herchelle (Alberta, Canada)
penelopewanders (Switzerland)

17/1/2011: Posted to Wandering-B in Hong Kong. Flying with Déjà Dead. Happy reading.

This Bookray has finished. Feel free to start another Bookray, RABCK, put it in a book box, or if no-one wants it, to wild release.

Received - thanks so much for sharing!

Parts of this book are well written but a bit contrived, but it is an enjoyable read nonetheless. Kathy Reichs is very good at leading you toward an answer and then swinging you in the opposite direction.

I read with interest goldenwattle's comments about the character's eating habits and had not ever really considered them a factor in their character traits. Hmm. Never really cared before what they had for dinner but suppose I should be more observant in the future.

Thanks for sharing and when I get a mailing address I will post it onward. Thanks again for sharing.

The next reader asked to be skipped, so requesting JAFFA's address.

Posting off on Monday, 21 February to JAFFA. Enjoy!

They arrived today!! I have a book I need toi finish first so I am going to pass them to a friend to see if I can get her intresred (hopefully) in bookcrossing.

Sorry, tried but did not enjoy this book, but I always enjoy trying new authors.

Thanks for including me books en route to icila

Rescued by the french mail ( the package was totally wrecked and re-conditionned) I received it yesterday along with "Déjà Dead".

Pleasant reading but on the same model as Déjà Dead with the same tricks.

On its way to Canada.

Death Du Jour has arrived safely and I am looking forward to reading this very well travelled book. Thanks everyone!

This was a great book to take on holidays! I'm not usually one to read while being a passenger but I really enjoyed it. I am a big Kathy Reichs' fan and was not disappointed. I found that her travelling from Montreal and North Carolina with all the connections in the case was interesting. Thanks for sharing this one with me. PMing mictkc for address now.

This ray has arrived safely in the Alps. As I appear to be the last in line I might save this for a time when I have less on my plate (if this is not the case, please let me know and I'll proceed as usual with rings and rays so as not to hold it here too long).
I was intrigued by the previous Tempe Brennan book that came round, so look forward to reading a follow-up. Thanks so much for making this available! I'll journal when I get down to reading it.

Ah, I see this was the end of a ray - and it got buried in a mountain of TBRs...
When I picked this up I realized I had never journalled my impressions of another book I'd read by this author... which was quite a while ago.
This, it turns out, was the second in the series, although I don't think it's a tight series as some others are. This focused on a series of surprisingly related murders in both Montreal and South Carolina, with Brennan travelling to and fro between the two. That even Brennan's favorite sanctuary was affected did make it seem a little bit contrived though. Nonetheless, it was a gripping read - the only reason it took me four days to read was because of work and real life intrusions. The references to cult groups like the Temple Solaire, Charles Manson's group, the Jonestown Massacre provided a strong backdrop to this story. I did feel the ending lacked credibility - that Brennan be so personally involved, and the 11th hour resolution... Still a very entertaining read.
I will post this on the forum and see if, several years down the road, there is renewed interest for it.

Reserved for the alphabet VBB hosted by greenbadger

This was selected from the Alphabet VBB and now, after travelling by car from Switzerland to France, heads off to the UK. I'm sorry this was a bit slow in getting out, but given the price of postage in Switzerland, waiting to send from elsewhere remains very worthwhile! Enjoy! and thanks for selecting my book from the VBB.

I’m excited to have received this very well-travelled book from the Alphabet VBB - thank you so much penelopewanders! Looks like an engrossing read!