Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding Page Turner
Review: Kathy Reichs has created a supremely excellent book dealing with forensic medicine. Intriguing situations unfold until the last page. Congratulations to Reichs and her first novel.
Warning: This book should be started early in a day to avoid bags under the eyes from staying up late in order to finish this masterful suspense novel.
Cornwell has been surpassed!
Rating:
Summary: Realistic!
Review: I really don't think Dr. Reichs is making any attempt to pattern her character after Kay Scarpetta. Temperance Brennan is a much more appealing and realistic character. As a former student of Dr.Reichs', I know that she is infinitely more knowledgeable about forensics than Ms. Cornwell and this is reflected in Deja Dead
Rating: 
Summary: Wow! A book about forensics/a serial killer. Great idea!
Review: Darn! If only I'd have thought of such an original idea for a book! I mean there can't be more than several hundred books on the exact same subject on the shelves right now. What a complete drought. And then that brilliant plot twist, so absolutely unpredictable, WHERE THE KILLER ACTUALLY BEGINS TO HOME IN ON THE DEAD BODY CHICK! Why do so many people compare this work to Cornwell's? Cornwell's dead body chick works in Richmond, VA, NOT CANADA!!! Jeeees! Some people
Rating:
Summary: Teeth clenching, nerve racking, blood chilling, TREMENDOUS!
Review: Read this book with the door locked, the lights left on and forget about putting it down until you finish reading it! Temperence Brennan is a great character! The author has taken the scientific knowledge and threaded it through the entire plot. The technical aspects of the story were fascinating. Really gives you an idea of what it must be like to discover a crime scene. You can feel the rain, the wind, the sweat, experience the smells and the sounds as you walk the street as Brennan. I can not wait to read the second book Reichs comes up with. I am very grateful that I do not share her line of work but I commend her ability to do it! Bravo! Congratulations! Oncore
Rating: 
Summary: Library Journal August 1997
Review: A superb new writer introducters her intrepid heroine to crime fiction. Dr. Tempe Brennan, a trowel-packing forensic anthropologist from North Carolina, works in Montreal's Laboratoire de Medecine Legale examining recovered bodies to help police solve missing-persons cases and murders. It's clear to Tempe that the remains of several women killed and savagely mutilated point to a sadistic serial killer, but she can't convince the police. Determined to prevent more brutal deaths, she sleuths solo, tracking her quarry through Montreal's seedy underworld of hookers, where her anthropologist friend Gabby, doing her own scary research, is being stalked by a creep. Despite her ability to work among fetid, putrfying smells that "leap out and grab" and her "go-to-hell attitude" with seasoned cops, Tempe is as vulnerable as a soft Carolina morning. When a grinning skull is planted in her garden, her investigation turns personal and escalates to an intense and satisfying conclusion. Except for imparting an excess of lab information, Reichs, also a forensic anthropologist, drives the pace at a heady clip. A first-class writer, she dazzels readers with sensory imagery that is apt, fresh, and funny (e.g., "fingers felt cold and limp like carrots kept too long in a cooler bin"). Recommended for all fiction collections, this read is sure to be in demand. -Molly Gorma
Rating:
Summary: A strong, new voice has arrived on the mystery scene.
Review: Move over Cornwall, Kathy Reichs has written a new forensic thriller that has Edgar nominee for best first novel written all over it. Forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs is an insider who know ther territory and she makes some of her predessors look like Sunday drivers. The rich Quebec setting and the authentic details make it a book, I did not want to end
Rating: 
Summary: Good but lacks the force of a Cornwell or a Rosenberg
Review: Southerner Temperance Brennan works for the Laboratoire de Medecine
Legale in Montreal as a forensic pathologist. Her job is to assist the
gendarmes in identifying the bodies of murder victims too mutilated or
decomposed to be recognized by normal police methods. When a female corpse
is found, mutilated and stuffed in garbage bags, Tempe fixates on a similar
case. She believes that the two murders were committed by the same person,
a sadistic serial killer who will strike again very soon.
The problem Tempe encounters is that none of the police officers
assigned to the current case take her theories seriously. Sergeant Luc
Claudiel turns into her most obstinate obstacle as he wants her off the
case so that the true experts can solve it unimpeded by "amateurs". As
more bodies are uncovered and evidence piles up linking the crimes to one
demented soul, a task force is formed to ferret out the sociopath into the
open. The killer has now focused his attention on Tempe, seeing her as the
only opponent needing elimination before she ruins his master plan. As the
murderer becomes more desperate and, in reaction, Tempe turns more
determined, it becomes inevitable that a confrontation is coming.
There is a certain similarity between Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta
and Kathy Reich's Temperance Brennan even though the latter does not seem
as strong a person as the former. She gets the job done through sheer
persistence as opposed to a dominant overpowering personality. She is
softer and more vulnerable than Scarpetta yet paradoxically she is more
appealing.
The pace is fast with the gritty forensic details so horrific that they
become hypnotically compelling. The secondary characters are unusual
enough to provide the tale with a very distinctive flavoring. Overall, the
novel is well worth reading, though the book seems to fall short of the
media hype, leaving, at least this reviewer, feel a bit short changed. Still, Kathy Reich definitely has the talent to reach the top.
Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book!!
Review: My first (but certainly not my last) Kathy Reichs book!! I was hooked from the very first of Deja Dead. Procedures were believable, informative and the book as a whole was very entertaining! I'll be looking for Deja Jour very soon!
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing look at forensic anthropology
Review: Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs deals with the work and life of Temperance "Tempe" Brennan, a transplanted southerner who works as a forensic anthropologist for the Laboratorie de Medicine Legale in Montreal. Her job entails the identification of remains and partial remains of bodies found by the authorities. It provides an intriguing look into this profession and is described in excellent detail. This book initially focuses on a number of seemingly unrelated murders where mutilated bodies are found in various locations around the city. Tempe works continually to find some connection between these and a number of unsolved murders which results in the investigation of a serial murderer who eventually focuses on Tempe. In her pursuit of this investigation, she is confronted by a male dominated organization and at times makes progress through sheer perseverance. I found the location a fresh departure from some of the more " standard locations" used in many mysteries. Some have compared Tempe Brennan to Kay Scarpetta and while there are similarities there are also enough differences to make this an unfair comparison. While there are many positives about this book, I found her continual battle with her inner demon of alcohol overdone and at time tedious which tended to interrupt the flow of the plot line. I also found some of the secondary plot lines such as her relationship with Gabby confusing since she seemed to drop in and out of the plot. Finally additional details about Temperance Brennan would have been welcome since they would have provided another dimension to this character. Overall I found the book to be well work reading and I look for more of Temperance Brennan
Rating:
Summary: Cruel murder series in Canada
Review: In summer 1994, the American Dr. Temperance Brennan works as forensic anthropologist at Montreal's Laboratoire de Médecine Legale. The discovery of a dismembered body which was buried in four garbage bags leaves Tempe suspecting that this murder case may have a connection to earlier unsolved murders. However, it's difficult for her to convince the local police of her serial killer theory, so that she decides to take the matter in her own hands, starting her own investigation.
Tempe Brennan is a convincing and believable character -- no "superwoman," who solves the case all alone. Yet her perseverance and professional competence are the crucial propelling factors finally leading to the solution of the murder series. Tempe's human weaknesses make the main protagonist very realistic. Kathy Reichs knows how to keep the interest of her reader throughout the book. Especially while reading the last 100 pages, it's extremely difficult to put "Déjà Dead" aside. Kathy Reichs' detailed researches on all kinds of science fields are remarkable, yet despite all those details the novel never gets "dry" -- quite on the contrary. The result is an excellent thriller about the abysses of human behavior.
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