Thursday 19 December 2013

CRIME REVIEW: Temperance Brennan 16: Bones of the Lost - Kathy Reichs

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.

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