Rating: 
Summary: Fresh and invigorating
Review: Like a cold shower, this novel is. (I don't know where i got this analogy from...it was just a thought that struck me while i was reading it. And it still strikes me as a truism.)The writing is sharp, and her depiction of the dead is something to behold. She never for a second lets you froget that the people whose bodies she is investigatin were once real people, just like us, who lives and breathed and laughed. And she chooses to brutally remind us of that fact at the most well chosen and impacting times. The developments in Ryan and Tempe's relationship are satisfying in adequate (reviews who complain....you cannot expect big developments in EVERY book.) and the inclusion of another love interest gives an interesting slant to the book. The plot is great...interesting, and filled with forensic insights. (Although sometimes they tend to feel a bit forced...unlike Cornwell, whose nuggets of know-how slide from the prose easily) The characters are drawn adequately (although not quite so well as in previous books) the plot strands converge brilliantly at the end, pulled taut as only an expert can do. The ending is exciting and tense, and what leads up to it is a very very good read. This book is not quite as good as such winners as the sublime Fatal Voyage or incredibly impressive Death du Jour, it is still a high class novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best in the series.
Review: Tempe Brennan is summoned to Guatemala to dig a well where twenty-three women and children, all victims of rape and murder, lie buried. During this dig two of Tempe's colleagues will be viciously attacked leaving one dead, and the other warning of future violence if the digging is not stopped. As this case goes from bad to worse, Tempe is asked by the Guatemalan police for help in another case. In this separate case four well-to-do young women have disappeared from Guatemala City. One of the young women happens to be the daughter of the Canadian Ambassador. Teamed with Special Crimies Investigator Bartolome Galiano, and Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, Tempe will start her investigation into the disappearances only to find herself in a twisted web of lies and deceit that reach far beyond Guatemala City, and in the shadows powerful figures will track every move, stopping at nothing to silence Tempe and her crew. As the stakes rise in both cases, Tempe must make life altering choices. 'Grave Secrets' is a fast-paced thriller, but a somewhat confusing one. The two cases are interesting, but the introduction of too many characters and complex twists in both plot lines makes the book confusing. When the climax is finally reached the reader is not as surprised as they are let down by the outcome. Kathy Reichs burst onto the forensic thriller scene with her blockbuster debut novel 'Deja Dead', she followed it up with three equally excellent novels; 'Death Du Jour', 'Deadly Decisions', and 'Fatal Voyage'. Unfortunately, Ms. Reichs fifth novel 'Grave Secrets' is too intricately plotted and the result is a book that lacks the fun and entertainment of the previous novels in the Tempe Brennan series. Nick Gonnella
Rating: 
Summary: a bit disappointing
Review: Admittedly i am a fan of very long books, but i found this one to be a bit thin (physically and metaphorically). It is still a good mystery, but a few things about it bothered me: (i) the characters were pretty sketchy, except for the regular characters to whom we bring the history of the prior books; (ii)there is not real DEVELOPMENT of the existing characters; the events that occur don't seem to change them at all; (iii) the various plot elements are tied up in a big bow in a rabbit-out-of-a-hat kind of way, and the pace at the end of the book is too swift compared to the rest of it. Almost an Hercule Poirot abruptness to the ending. It was, nevertheless a "good read" and unlikely to be more than a little disappointing to fans.
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell fans defect to Kathy Reichs!
Review: Believe the jacket blurb from the San Francisco Chronicle: "Reminiscent of Patricia Cornwell at the top of her game." Detailed without being cold and well plotted without being predictable, GRAVE SECRETS is not just a compelling beach read, it's an educational one. Kathy Reichs invokes setting and lays out forensic detail with equal amounts of poetic skill. Heroine Temperance Brennan is conflicted without being self absorbed and driven without being fanatical. I devoured the earlier works of Patricia Cornwell for precisely these reasons. But I've been greatly dissapointed as Kay Scarpetta ventured off into a realm of woman-against-the-world fantasy divorced from brutal murders and forensic detail. The Temperance Brennan series has so far avoided monotony. Each new novel strongly focuses on a fresh mystery in a unique locale, making it both a welcome addition as well as a strong stand-alone thriller inviting to new readers. While the flirty yet stand-offish relationship between Temperance and handsome police detective Ryan is threatening to grow stale, a somewhat cliffhanger ending leaves some hope that Reichs will begin fleshing out her heroine's personal life with the same skill and narrative authority she uses to construct riveting and elegantly executed forensic mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: Dead and Buried
Review: Grave Secrets , the fifth Temperance Brennan novel, is another excellent addition to the series which has blasted Kathy Reichs to fame. This time, Tempe is sent to Guatemala to recover the bodies of the dead (known as "the Disappeareds") massacred during that country's vile civil war. It is in the village of Chupan Ya that she uncovers 28 dead bodies, and on the way to the site, two other forensic scientists are attacked on the road, shot, and left for dead. It is the beginning of an investigation which will haunt Tempe in the coming weeks. Shortly after, her help is sought by the local police. Four teenage girls have gone missing in Guatemala City, and one of them is the daughter of the Canadian Ambassador. Is there a serial killer at work? Soon after, a decomposing body is found in a septic tank of a local hotel, and the investigating begins in earnest. Reichs' writing is sharp; the plotting tight and complex. Her characters are interesting, often drawn with only a few choice words, and her descriptions of the dead are brilliant. Reichs' books ring with authenticity, as she has been and done the same sorts of things as her main character. This fuels the writing with realism and a relentless compassion for the dead, which really comes out in the story. She never lets you forget that these people walked, breathed, laughed, talked...that they used to be us. Her use of forensic detail is interesting, and the way she writes about science doesn't make you feel as if you're reading a textbook. (In this area, she is almost on a par with Cornwell.) However, with this book there is one too many plot lines, leading them to become confused in the mind of the reader. However, careful reading does tend to remedy this. Guatemala is described well, the horrors of the war still brood over the landscape. Tempe's relationship with Ryan develops and complicates with this book when she also finds herself attracted to a Guatemalan police officer, who once knew Ryan. Tempe's conflict is done well and serves to bolster the roundness of her character. Being a devout Cornwell fan (I even liked Isle of Dogs ) it is hard for me to say, but Tempe is a more realistic, well drawn, and likeable character than Kay Scarpetta. The... conclusion... is chilling, and brings the book to a satisfying close. While Grave Secrets is not quite as good as last year's offering (Fatal Voyage), it is still first class.
Rating:
Summary: Another Hit
Review: Kathy Reichs is turning out to be the master of forensic thrillers. Her newest, Grave Secrets, is a compelling and heart-felt mystery alternating between Montreal and Guatamala. The plot speeds along at a breakneck pace. The book is loaded with interesting forensic details which, rather than bog down the plot, only serve to enhance it. Included is a chapter on septic tanks, that, despite how it sounds, is actually quite riveting. The character of Dr. Brennan is one of the best fleshed out characters in modern mysteries. In Grave Secrets, we see many more character elements added to her, that she never becomes stale, unlike that doctor up in Virginia.
Patricia Cornwall should be afraid, very afraid.
Rating:
Summary: superb yet frightening crime thriller
Review: Between the years of 1962-1996, Guatemala was involved in a bloody civil war and many of the peasants who were thought to be rebels were killed or disappeared. In the present, the government is now sending in forensic teams to find and identify the victims so they can be given a proper burial. Dr. Temperance Brennan, a famous forensic anthropologist, is one of the members who are trying to sort out the body parts on the site of a massacre. While doing her work, she is asked by an honest policeman to examine the body of a woman who was found in a septic tank. It seems that in the past few months, four young women have gone missing and the authorities fear they have a serial killer on their hands. While working the case, Temperance finds herself in danger from an unexpected source and only a miracle will save her life. Kathy Reichs is a fantastic writer of crime thrillers and her latest work GRAVE SECRETS is even better than usual because of its locations. Based on facts and true events, readers get an inside look at a Central American country where genocide on the local people occurred for more than three decades. Temperance is the kind of heroine most women aspires to be. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Lots of Forensic details
Review: GRAVE SECRETS
AUTHOR: Kathy Reichs
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster
REVIEWED BY: Barbara Rhoades BOOK REVIEW: Kathy Reichs' character, Tempe Brennan, is back in another forensic anthropology tale. This time Tempe is in Guatemala to investigate what happened at Chupan Ya. While this is where the story starts, there are many side stories in "Grave Secrets". The listener needs to pay attention to every detail or he/she will lose track of what is going on. The atrocities that were inflicted on the women and children of this village by soldiers are unthinkable. The people of the village want to know if any of the victims are their family members. Ms. Reichs also give extremely detailed forensic information in this book. Her others books with Tempe as the character have given forensic information but this time, she has given much more intense descriptions of the workings of forensic anthropology. These details make for added realism. One of the side stories concerns the disappearance of an ambassador's daughter along with three other girls. Remains are found in a septic tank and Tempe just happens to be an expert in recovering remains from such a place. Another story is about the killing of one and the wounding of another of Tempe's colleagues on the Chupan Ya diggings. Then, of course, Andrew Ryan is a part of the story as Tempe's love interest. Then to make matters all the more juicy, Bartolomé Galiano, a Guatemalan investigator, becomes yet another love interest who just happens to have gone to school with Andrew and is looking into the disappearance of the girls. Do any of these stories tie together? Do they all tie together? To get the answer, read "Grave Secrets".
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner
Review: Kathy Reichs' Dr. Temperance Brennan (Tempe) is one of the more complicated main mystery characters being written today. She is a combination of strength (in this book she must spend a day digging around in a septic tank) and emotional caring that makes for an interesting person that is not cookie-cutter like so many of today's 'sleuths.' The mystery begins with Tempe working in a remote Guatemalan village uncovering long buried victims of a junta's attack. She is then dragged, somewhat unwillingly, into investigating the disappearance of four young women in Guatemala City, leading to complications in which the government is involved. The action moves from Guatemala to Canada and back again. There is romance involved, as well, as she begins to be attracted to the Guatemalan detective with whom she is working (he is also an old friend of Tempe's sometime boyfriend Andrew Ryan which provides further drama). I enjoyed this book as I have all of Reichs mysteries. One thing did stick out in my mind though as I was reading: several times Tempe is complaining (which she has toned down since her first book appearance) about being constantly surronded by death. I could not help but think, "Well, that is your chosen profession. Sure it must be disheartening at times but if it is creating that much travail, change jobs." I guess my feeling was a throwback to that first book in which Tempe came across as somewhat whiny. That aside, I will definitely be reading the next books in the series.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT MYSTERY / SUSPENSE NOVEL!!!
Review: This is the second Tempe Brennan novel that I've read, and I was not disappointed. In this tale, the heroine is sent on a goodwill mission to Guatemala, to aid in the recovery and identification of the remains of the victims of a massacre that took place many years ago. Amidst the drama at Chupen Ya, Tempe also becomes involved in the disappearances of several young girls that appear to be linked....is a serial killer on the loose?
While identifying the innocent victims of Chupen Ya, the search for the present day killer brings Tempe in close contact with the handsome Galiano, the local detective who is determined to bring both past and present day killers to justice.
Though the story was certainly engaging and enlightening, I did at times find the dialogue somewhat difficult to follow (who's speaking now??).....and most readers will long for more interaction with the obviously handsome Galiano; or even Ryan, the returning Quebec-based detective with whom Tempe already has a history. The ending was a treat, leaving readers looking for the next novel in the series to find out with whom Ms. Brennan may be finding romance this time around.....
This one is a difficult one to put down.
DYB
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