Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: Reichs does a nice job of weaving this story together. It was a little slow in the beginning, but came on strong late in the book. If you like stories about forensics, you will enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: To much going on.....
Review: After a year of false starts, I finally read "Death du Jour." I found myself a bit disappointed. Kathy Reichs has been compared to Patricia Cornwell, but Kathy Reichs is no Patricia Cornwall. For one thing, Ms Cornwall writes exceedingly well. She was a journalist covering the police beat in Richmond before she began writing crime novels. Her books in some sense are extensions of these stories. Cornwall's writing is exceedingly original and based on real events according to our local papers. Although I liked Ms. Reich's first book "Deja Death" -- mainly because it took place in Montreal and had an exotic setting -- certain aspects of it bothered me. I found myself very irritated with Ms. Reich's second book. Ms Reichs books seem to consist of warmed over material from other books. While Reichs books may be based on real events, and I am sure she is a good nonfiction writer, she does not write fiction very well. For one thing, "Death du Jour" is far too busy. There are too many characters and not enough character development, too many plot twists and subplots and not enough development of the central plot. For me, one of the great attactions of Poirot, Morse, or Kay Scarpetta is the mental game. 'Du jour' is loaded with action but don't expect much of a mental game. Sure, I know police work is different from detection, but Cornwall does both--that's what makes her stories so strong. Also, I like a lead character I can identify with on some level. One appealing characteristic of Kay Scarpetta is her ability to reflect. All through her novels Ms. Cornwall has Scarpetta pull back and reflect. Often she does it over a meal she has prepared for her sidekick detective. Ms. Reichs character Tempe Brennan attempts to do this but even when she sits in front of her fire place she's nervous and twitchy and something is always happening, from break-ins to fires. Tempe Brennan is very nearly perfect, and she is far to active and she needs to cut back on the diet coke. Oh somewhere, someone might try to do everything Tempe does, but I seriously doubt they could do any of it very well. My willing suspension of disbelief gets pretty stretched with Tempe. How many times is she going to be beaten, mugged, burgled, and held prisoner. This is only book two and she's been pretty battered already. And, she's a fool at times. She deals with the worst sort of killer, and refuses to carry a weapon--give me a break. In "Death du Jour", over a three week period, Tempe Brennan becomes involved in some facet or other of investigations into at least ten suspicious deaths. These bodies scattered from Canada to Beaufort SC. And Brennan is teaching a graduate course at UNC, writing papers for a professional conferences, investigating the bones of a supposed RC saint, and taking time out for a weekend getogether with her college age daughter. I was exhausted by the middle of the book. (And she jogs regularly!)
Rating:
Summary: Saints and Cults
Review: Death du jour is the second book in this series and begins in Montreal with Dr. Tempe Brennan, forensic anthropologist, searching for the remains of a Catholic nun who is being nominated for sainthood. The investigation is continued as a side thread throughout the book, a nice subplot to help Tempe pass the time. We are quickly introduced to the main plot: what is the connection between the deaths of several adults and babies in a rural Canadian farmhouse fire, and the bodies discovered on a secluded monkey research island in South Carolina? Tempe returns "home" to North Carolina, leaving her sister Harry in Montreal at a self-enlightenment seminar. Harry brings considerable angst to Tempe throughout the rest of the book. I enjoyed the virtual tour of Charlotte, North Carolina, having been there recently, but it didn't seem as detailed as Reich's descriptions of Montreal.
The main plot brings Montreal detective Andrew Ryan to Tempe's turf in the Carolina's, where things heat up between them with a moderately graphic make-out scene. I enjoyed meeting Tempe's ex-husband in this book, and spending more time with her college-aged daughter. I love learning new things when I read fiction, and this installment of the Tempe Brennan series teaches the reader about the lifecycles of the flies and beetles that flock to a dead body. We also learn about life in Montreal in the late 1800s during a smallpox outbreak. Of more relevance to the main plot, Kathy Reichs puts forth theories about the formation of cults and their techniques for attracting and retaining members. Following the pattern in the first book, the action is just approaching climax when Tempe is injured and the book wraps up with a stilted question and answer session. Overall, I would say I enjoyed the first book, Deja Dead, more than this book, but I'm not yet discouraged and look forward to picking up the next tome.
--Lynellen.com
Rating: 
Summary: This one made me a dedicated Tempe fan
Review: I think that this was the first Tempe Brennan that I read and may likely be the one I've enjoyed the most. Tempe's relationship with Andrew Ryan starts to form and they 'dance' around each other, knocking heads as each does his job. You get a real feeling of the cold of Montreal to your bones as Reich's sets the scenes and the atmosphere and you see Tempe as a real person, a pathologist who's also sleuth, and the confusing life that Tempe lives as she commutes between Montreal and North Carolina. I think that what I like best about Reich's is that she builds her characters carefully, each has a real personality and as you become immersed in the plot you truly feel that you're in there among them. Read this, and then grab hold of the others! You'll become addicted!
Rating:
Summary: Forensic Mystery
Review: Cults and Canada... I should've loved this. But it was hard to get into (though reading with the cricket on TV or with music on probably wasn't a good idea). I also didn't quite understand the business of exhuming a dead nun in relation to the cults. Still, Dr Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist, is a character to follow. But I'm hoping that she stays in Canada, and doesn't duck out to the US again. I'm bored with American settings. (B+)
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not her best
Review: I love this whole series, but this was the most difficult to read. Though the story of the nun's remains was interesting, it too got bogged down in what appeared to be a grab for suspense - that is, leaving details just beyond the reader's reach.
It's certainly a very readable novel and as usual, the combination of facts about forensic recovery, and the on-again, off-again romantic life of Tempe, certainly hit the right balance. If you're a fan of the series, pick it up - but if you're new to these books, start with a different one, like Fatal Voyage (one of my personal favorites).
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read
Review: This is the second in the Tempe series, and it was not quite as good as the first. The story line tying where she worked in the winter to where she worked in the summer was just too coincidental for my taste. Made it unbelievable. But her forensic writing was still on top. Nobody does that better. No gratuitous gore! Overall, still a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: Reichs does a nice job of weaving this story together. It was a little slow in the beginning, but came on strong late in the book. If you like stories about forensics, you will enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry Tempi, you blew it for me
Review: Meet Tempe Brennan--she is a forensic anthropologist who divides her time professionally between Quebec, Canada and Charlotte, NC. In this tale, Tempe is drawn into the mystery behind several heinous deaths in the small Canadian town of St-Jovite; at the same time, a young college girl has mysteriously disappeared, Tempe's own sister is demonstrating bizarre behavior--even for her--and bodies are discovered on the elite Carolina primate island of a close friend. What, if any connection, do any of these things have--to each other, or to a mysterious cult? With plenty of mystery, drama, suspense and forensic detail, fans of Kay Scarpetta will readily embrace this writer. I've found yet another new favorite! DYB
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent and Entertaining
Review: This mystery, featuring forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan, settles nicely in tone between Aaron Elkins sunny Gideon Oliver series and Patricia Cornwell's gory and dark Kay Scarpetta mysteries. The crimes are recent, the perpetrators frightening, and the suspense gripping. But the main characters are likeable and much less tortured than Cornwell's protagonists. Kathy Reichs, herself a forensic anthropologist with a boatload of credentials, offers up plenty of technical detail about the nitty gritty of forensic work, interesting settings in Montreal and North Carolina, a dose of religious fanaticism, and a character who is easy to identify with and root for. This isn't great literature, but it's a pretty good way to spend an afternoon.
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