Release Date: 30/07/15
Publisher: William Heinemann
SYNOPSIS:
The compelling new Dr Temperance Brennan novel from the world-class forensic anthropologist and Number 1 bestselling author Kathy Reichs.
When forensic anthropologist Dr Tempe Brennan is approached by amateur detective Hazel ‘Lucky’ Strike, at first she is inclined to dismiss the woman’s claims that she’s matched a previously unidentified set of remains with a name.
But as the words of a terrified young woman echo round her office from an audio recorder found near where the bones were discovered, something about the story won’t let Tempe go.
As Tempe investigates further she finds herself involved in a case more complicated and horrifying than she could ever have imagined.
REVIEW:
The latest book from Kathy and to be honest I have to admit to being a bit of a Brennan addict, so much so that even after 17 other books I’m at the forefront to get my hands on this title. The reason that its not been reviewed prior to this is that I always like to keep a cracking book in my TBR pile for when I get desperate and need something to pick me up.
Like the other books in the series, the reader is in for a well written plot, with some great characters and a twist or two to get you hooked right from the get go. As usual with Kathy, it’s a one more chapter type of book and you’ll end up seeing the sun poking its head through the curtains. Great fun and as usual a wonderful read.
Release Date: 26/03/15
Publisher: Conerstone Publishing
SYNOPSIS:
This is a terrifying new Virals adventure for Tory Brennan - great niece of Dr Temperance Brennan - and the Virals team as they come face to face with their greatest enemy. From the producer of the hit TV series Bones and No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Temperance Brennan series. Tory Brennan and the Virals are forced to confront the existence of a rival pack - The Trinity - who wants them off the scene - declaring war by engraving 'One Territory. One Pack' on a local landmark. What's more this pack's powers seem stronger and their eyes glow red rather than golden when they flare. Chance Claybourne, who now owns his father's pharmaceutical company, shares The Trinity's powers - he accidentally infected himself and his ex-lab tech Will Speckman. Chance claims he's on Virals' side but can they trust him? And if Speckman is one of The Trinity, who are the other two? As the tension mounts between the two packs an even greater threat looms. Covert government agents are closing in on them, determined to find out exactly how their powers work, to experiment on them. Have The Trinity pack given them Virals to save themselves? Or are both packs at risk?
REVIEW:
The new book in the delightfully addictive Viral’s series that has had me glued (as well as my Mum) from the very beginning.
As you’d expect the plotline is fast moving, the characters a sheer joy to hang around and when added to a story arc that really does keep on giving for the reader will leave you in no doubt that Kathy’s UF series has serious legs for readers.
Back this up with some great dialogue, a few twists and all round, you’ll have a great time. Just don’t blame me for lost sleep or for a sick day due to exhaustion. LOL
Release Date: 10/04/14
Publisher: William Heinemann
SYNOPSIS:
Tory Brennan - great niece of Dr Temperance Brennan - and the Virals return for their most terrifying adventure yet. Morris Island has barely had a chance to return to normality after the high profile trial of the Gamemaster, when two local students seem to vanish into thin air. Tory Brennan and the Virals pack move quickly in their attempts to discover what has happened to their twin classmates. But the pack's canine powers are growing wilder, and it is becoming ever harder to conceal the secret which protects them. When Tory and her friends find evidence of blood in the students' basement, they realise that the disappearance is no game. But in order to save the twins, the Virals must risk the exposure of their powers, and in doing so put even their own lives in terrible danger.
REVIEW:
The latest YA Thriller from Kathy Reichs to continue the story of Tory Brennan and her pack and to be honest its become a guilty pleasure for me. I love the way that the author can bring together such a young cast that will appeal to older readers as well as the younger ones as she takes them into a world that she (the author) knows too well as crime thriller meets YA in this title.
Its fast paced, works extremely well with Kathy’s strengths and when added to the fact that the “virals” powers are burgeoning keeps the reader on the edge of their seats and the situations becomes more dire alongside the threat of exposure. All round a cracking read and one that is a definite recommendation for any YA reader looking for something cracking that could lead them into the world of adult fiction. Great stuff.
Release Date: 15/08/13
Publisher: William Heinemann
SYNOPSIS:
This is the gripping new Temperance Brennan novel from the world-class forensic anthropologist and Number 1 bestselling author Kathy Reichs. The body of a teenage girl is discovered along a desolate highway on the outskirts of Charlotte. Inside her purse is the ID card of a local businessman who died in a fire months earlier. Who was the girl? And was she murdered? Dr Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist, must find the answers. She soon learns that a Gulf War veteran stands accused of smuggling artefacts into the country. Could there be a connection between the two cases? Convinced that the girl's death was no accident, Tempe soon finds herself at the centre of a conspiracy that extends from South America to Afghanistan. But to find justice for the dead, she must be more courageous - and take more extreme action - than ever before.
REVIEW:
OK, I’m a huge Kathy fan and I’ve loved her writing for years. The science is real, the forensic side of things comes across so that a layman can understand and it makes perfect sense when the pieces are put together by the reader. The writing as usual has some great twists, there’s great prose and of course a principle character and cast that help the whole thing work on so many levels.
That said, the main disappointment for this book was the incredulity of having the three seemingly unrelated cases come together within an overall conspiracy thread. It seemed silly and to be honest pushed my belief a little too far. Yes I love it when things get global, yes I love the fact that the author can really weave a tale that hooks, but please, having so huge a leap between really does leave the reader wondering if it might perhaps have been better splitting them without the conspiracy to have a book of short stories for readers to dip into when travelling.
Don’t get me wrong I did have fun with it. I did keep the pages turning late into the night but when you push things a little too far, that’s when the reader may well question how many more novels the author can weave for the character to appear in.
Release Date: 15/08/13
Publisher: William Heinemann
SYNOPSIS:
This is the gripping new Temperance Brennan novel from the world-class forensic anthropologist and Number 1 bestselling author Kathy Reichs. The body of a teenage girl is discovered along a desolate highway on the outskirts of Charlotte. Inside her purse is the ID card of a local businessman who died in a fire months earlier. Who was the girl? And was she murdered? Dr Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist, must find the answers. She soon learns that a Gulf War veteran stands accused of smuggling artefacts into the country. Could there be a connection between the two cases? Convinced that the girl's death was no accident, Tempe soon finds herself at the centre of a conspiracy that extends from South America to Afghanistan. But to find justice for the dead, she must be more courageous - and take more extreme action - than ever before.
REVIEW:
As a fan of Kathy’s for quite some time I always look forward to her books landing. I love the mystery that she brings to the fore, the twists and turns alongside bringing real life experience to the fore to help give it a realistic flavour that will more than grab the reader. Its for these reasons that she’s always been so popular with readers and whilst osme of the books have felt a little bit flat, they still entertain in oh so many ways.
What this latest book brings is a story that has a lot of emotional context within, some great character interaction which when added to the various cases within really gives you something to sit back and savour. My only real gripe is that I do feel, at times, that having so many seemingly unrelated cases come together can take it a little too far however in this book it does work wonderfully well. All round I had a lot of reading pleasure with this, whether it’s sitting there and letting the story take me away or even sitting back, looking at the clues and trying to figure it out on my own, it’s there for the taking. Great stuff.
Release Date: 16/08/12
SYNOPSIS:
A newborn baby is found wedged in a vanity cabinet in a rundown apartment near Montreal. Dr Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist to the province of Quebec, is brought in to investigate. While there, she discovers the mummified remains of two more babies within the same room. Shocked and distressed, Tempe must use all her skills and inner strength to focus on the facts. But when the autopsies reveal that the children died of unnatural causes, the hunt for the mother - a young woman with a seedy past and at least three aliases - is on. The trail leads Tempe to Yellowknife, a cold, desolate diamond-mining town on the edge of the Arctic Circle, where her quest for the truth only throws up more questions, more secrets, and more dead bodies. Taking risks and working alone, Tempe refuses to give up until she has discovered why the babies died. But in such a hostile environment, can she avoid being the next victim?
REVIEW:
As a long term fan of the Temperance Brennan series I really couldn’t wait to get my hands on this new title, however upon reading the opening, I noted that this book was going to be darker than a lot of the other titles, not because the crime scene was darker than others but because it will hit the reader on a deeper more personal profound level.
It’s a tale that keeps the reader emotionally charged throughout and as such really has you moving through the title at an unbelievable pace to discover the outcome that effects all involved. In addition to this it’s a tale that has solid crime analysis, a good sense of pace and of course just the right mix of inter-character relationships to keep you going. All in a book that will spark a lot of chatter among the fans and one that I was pleased I read.
Release Date: 01/09/11
SYNOPSIS:
In the run up to the biggest NASCAR race week of the year, Dr Temperance Brennan is called to a landfill site backing onto the Charlotte speedway track in North Carolina. Someone has discovered a barrel of hardened asphalt with a human hand poking through the top.
With the country's press trained on Charlotte, it is up to Tempe to try to release and identify the body in the barrel. But there is more than one potential victim: the brother of a girl who went missing with her boyfriend ten years before comes forward, and the trail he sets in motion leads Tempe to one of America's largest fascist organisations.
But before she can discover anything, the FBI confiscate the body and destroy it. What terrible secret could they be hiding? As tension at the speedway mounts, Tempe tries to unravel the conspiracy of lies surrounding the missing couple, the body in the barrel, and the horrific death at the track of yet another victim...
REVIEW:
To be honest this has been a hard review to write as I’m really not sure what to make of it. Yes the crime and the forensics were interesting but for me, I really didn’t give a stuff about all the Nascar information. It’s unnecessary and knowing how it functioned was less important to me than the crime and its solution.
Then with Brennan becoming a little too repetitive I started to wonder if she’s had her day and if Kathy might be better handing the reins over to someone younger who can take a different path and give us something new to jump onto in much the way she did with Virals. Don’t get me wrong, the book was reasonable enough for a crime thriller but against a lot of her other titles it felt a little flat and without the love interest working to improve her emotionally and give the reader a little something else it felt that it was more formulaic than anything else. A great shame to be honest.
Release Date: 14/10/10
SYNOPSIS:
When Tempe is called to the scene of an autoerotic death, she has little idea of the tangled chain of events that will follow. Because the man whose body she is examining apparently died in a helicopter crash in Vietnam 40 years before. So who is buried in the soldier's grave?
Tempe's investigations take her to Honolulu where she is caught up not only in the mystery of the unidentified body in the soldier's grave, but also dragged into investigating who, or what, killed the young men whose body parts have floated up onto a popular Hawaiian beach. And as Tempe gradually unravels the tangled threads of the mystery, it becomes clear that there are some who would rather the past stays dead and buried. And when Tempe proves difficult to frighten, they turn their attention to the person who means more to her than anyone else in the world.
REVIEW:
First of all, I’m going to inform the readers of the review not to get too excited about hearing about a new book released shortly called Spider Bones. Why? Well to be honest it’s this book under a different title, why publishers on different sides of the Atlantic decide to do this is anyone’s guess but more than one reader has been caught out by this previously so with luck we’ll save you some money with the warning. Now back to our thoughts.
Mortal Remains is the thirteenth title in the Temperance Brennan series and whilst the number bodes ill for most things, for Kathy it seems to have a bit of a charm about it. Yes its full of technical knowledge as well as up to date forensic methods but the real draw for readers (in my opinion) is Kathy’s style of storytelling which remains where the fans like it: Fun and Quirky, Add to this some wonderful misdirection that the reader as well as the characters fall for, a good dash of skulduggery and finish it off with the usual Kathy type ending and the reader really has a lot of fun in store. Murder never has had it so good.
BOOK BLURB:
'You have an enemy, Dr Brennan. It is in your interest to learn who placed that call'. A routine case turns sinister when Dr Temperance Brennan is accused of mishandling the autopsy of a missing heiress. Someone has made an incriminating accusation that she missed or concealed crucial evidence. Before Tempe can get to the one man with information, he turns up dead. The heiress isn't the only elderly female to have appeared on Tempe's gurney recently. Back in Montreal, three more women have died, their bodies brutally discarded. Tempe is convinced there's a link between their deaths and that of the heiress. But what - or who - connects them? Tempe struggles with the clues, but nothing adds up. Has she made grave errors or is some unknown foe sabotaging her? It soon becomes frighteningly clear. It's not simply Tempe's career at risk. Her life is at stake too.
REVIEW:
What perhaps has gotten to readers of Reichs’ over the years is Brennan’s unnerving ability to be permanently right and never to suffer from self doubt which has caused a number of readers to fall out with Kathy’s writing. As a fan I was more than happy with this offering, I got what I’ve come to expect from her writing, a cracking story, character growth and above all a mystery that keeps me guessing up to the last few pages. With this offering many of Kathy’s fans will be happier with the way that she’s returned to an earlier writing form and given Tempe a bit of discomfort as she has to learn that she’s not always right.
