Grave Secrets

Kathy Reichs publishers' comparisons of her with the mega-selling Patricia Cornwell are based on the fact that more and more people (readers, critics, other writers) are calling her better than Cornwell! On the evidence of Reichs' splendid new novel, Grave Secrets the answer is yes--particularly as several recent Cornwell titles have been misfires.

Reichs' speciality is the powerfully realised female protagonist: Dr Temperance Brennan is the best of the many forensic specialists rubbing shoulders in the genre at present: she's professional (never, of course, fazed by her often grisly work), forceful in everything but her messy private life. This time, Tempe travels to the Guatemalan village of Chupan Ya tracking the bodies of 23 women and children dumped in a mass grave. But while digging in the pit of death, Tempe finds the present contains further horrors: four girls have gone missing from Guatemala city--and one of them is the daughter of an ambassador. Soon Tempe is up against both a recalcitrant district attorney and municipal corruption, grimly aware that there are those who want the deaths in both the past and the present to remain a mystery.

What makes this such a distinguished addition to the Reichs library (in a class with such winners as Death du Jour) is the brilliantly realised Guatemalan locales. Not many thriller writers can evoke comparison with such masters of foreign climes as Graham Greene, but Reichs pulls it off with aplomb. The web of deceit that Dr Brennan encounters is satisfyingly tangled, and the unravelling of the mystery has all the quirky energy of Reichs at her most stylish. Perhaps future Brennan outings will have to bring in new personal elements for the heroine to avoid staleness, but Grave Secrets has everything in place for the most diverting of reading experiences. --Barry Forshaw

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Guaranteed to Give you Nightmares - Rated
Tempe is in Guatemala, helping to unearth the bodies of 28 villagers disappeared (killed by the govt.) during the civil war there. Two of her colleagues are attacked, one dies. Tempe has to be careful, as there could still be people in the government that were involved in the massacre.

Then she gets involved with the disappearance of four girls, one of them the daughter of the Canadian ambassador and all of a sudden the authorities that were so eager for her help with the decomposing bodies of the villagers want her out of Dodge.

To add to the plot there is a Latin love interest who just happened to go to school with old flame Ryan who comes to Guatemala because one of the four missing girls is the daughter of the Canadian Ambassador.

This book seemed somehow different than Reichs' previous four. That's not bad, an author should change and grow. Tempe seems to have a little more punch. Also this book starts off on a dark note that lasts throughout, but with Reich's detailed description of the death pit, how could it not be dark.

A word of caution, don't read this five star thriller before dinner, especially the secptic tank part, because it'll definitely throw you off your feed. Don't read it before bed either, because if you do, nightmares are guaranteed. Read it on a rainy day, then watch an episode of the Honeymooners to get it out of your system.

Review submitted by Katie Osborne

Too technical - Rated
I forced myself to finish this book despite finding most of it being too technical for my liking.
Certainly not the most exciting of her books and the ending is left up in the air.

Blanked Out - Rated
Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is in Guatemala to dig up the remains in mass graves. Meanwhile, four young women are missing, including the daughter of the Canadian ambassador. And how does stem cell research fit into all this? Well, I must've blanked out during that stage, but it sure was nice to see my city, Melbourne (in Australia), get a mention! (A)

Bare Bones -Kathy Reichs - Rated
Bare Bones will keep you on the edge of your seat, once I started to read it I couldn't put it down, I had to keep turning the pages to see what happened next and I wasn't disappointed.

Good, but not Reichs' best - Rated
Kathy Reichs is one of my favourite writers, and Tempe Brennan, one of my favourite characters. As always, Reichs confidently grounds us in the setting, steering us through Guatemala and Montreal as though we are actually there and she is pointing out the sights, sounds, and smells as we go. There is the usual grisly description of the dead, and the accompanying forensic information that goes with that. Reichs excels in describing in plain English the details of potentially complicated and confusing subjects, but I think in this novel, more than her four previous in the series, she relies too heavily on facts and figures to fill the pages, which tends to slow down the action. Although, having said that, cliffhangers at the end of every chapter kept me turning the pages.

It would have been nice to catch up with some characters from the previous novels (Tempe somehow has close friends we've never heard of in every book, while she rarely associates with any from the ones that came before), but as the the love interest, Detective Ryan, seems to be getting more annoying each time I see him, maybe that's actually a good thing.

Overall, a good book, and an enjoyable read, but not quite in the same league as Deja Dead or Death Du Jour.