Rating: 
Summary: REICHS RULES THE MEDICAL EXAMINER COMPETITION!
Review: Sorry Cornwell, but Temperance Brennan is a lot better of a character than Kay Scarpetta. In Kathy Reichs's novels there are no soap opera whining periods like Cornwell likes to do. Dr. Tempe is on the hunt for a killer who burned down a house in Quebec. There were four people inside the house, all burned alive. As Tempe investigates, she is greatly disturbed to discover a possible "cult" connection. In this fast-paced novel of thrills and murders, Reichs takes readers on a hunt from Quebec, Canada to North Carolina to try to stop this group of evil cult members before they kill again. The only part that I didn't like about this novel was that in Tempe's free time, she investigated a century year old remains of some religious member at a local church. That part could have been cut of the novel. Overall, "Death DeJour" is a worthwile read!
Rating:
Summary: Impressively real
Review: Generally I do not read a lot of narrative prose, but when I do my preferred genre is the murder mystery. My friend Mo recommended Kathy Reichs' Death du Jour to me because of my interest in the sciences and anthropology. I have to admit the book sat on my shelf for about 3 months before I finally got around to examining even the cover, but when I did the author's professional credentials engaged my attention. Dr Reichs is a forensic anthropologist trained at Northwestern University and employed by both the state of North Carolina and the Province of Quebec as an expert in forensics and by the University of North Carolina as a professor of anthropology. Her expertise is definitely reflected in the content of the novel. After reading the first few lines of the book I was hooked. So much was this the case that I finished it in the space of a single afternoon. Each of the characters is a real person with a distinct personality. The heroine Tempe, a forensic anthropologist--who is much as I imagine Dr. Reichs to be herself--is clearly defined as an individual. She has a past and a present and family relationships and problems much as we all do. Her sister Harry is not simply a carbon copy of the heroine. She too is an individual. The mise en scene of the action in both Quebec and North Carolina are vividly recreated for the reader. One can almost feel the damp bone-chilling cold of a Canadian winter and the balmy days of a southeastern coastline. Incorporating the little details of activity such as specific restaurants eaten at and things ordered there, specifics of the medical examiners' offices in Montreal and how the character proceeds with her work there add verisimilitude to the narrative. It is abundantly apparent that the author knows her setting and her topic with the thoroughness of the professional participant as opposed to the diligent journalist. To a certain extent, there is a rather more graphic description of each of the deceased than in many mysteries that I've read with a similar format, but there is no attempt to make the subject particularly sensational, just very, very real. Dr. Reichs' writing style is engaging and carries the reader along swiftly. The central characters are likable and human, much as those of Rita Mae Brown who's mysteries I tend to read just to "visit" old friends. Dialogue is realistic and is not gratuitous and designed to fill space but forwards the story well. Furthermore, it is well tailored to each of the individual characters, contributing to their three dimensional quality. Their mannerisms in speaking, their use of dialect all create a sense of "real people." The rhythm of the words encourages the reader to keep moving smoothly to the denouement. My one and only complaint would be that the conclusion of the story of Sister Elisabeth Nicolet, the threads of whose history is woven through the main theme, is not quite as interesting as it might have been and leaves one feeling rather more distracted than entertained. Certainly a mystery worth reading. If nothing else, you'll learn a lot about what forensics.
Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT!!!
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: A Character and a Series Coming Into Their Own
Review: Anyone who has read Kathy Reichs can see her hitting her stride as an author. Her main character, Tempe Brennan, splits her time between the Laboratoire de Medicine Legale de Montreal (and my french never sounded better!) and the University of North Carolina - Charlotte. Though a forensic anthropologist, the obvious comparisons to Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta are almost inevitable. But, to my mind of late, Tempe brings much more to the table. She is not as whiney as our Kay and the secondary charcaters are much more believable and founded in reality than the stereotypes who support Dr. Kay these days. This novel runs parallel plots with the excavation of a long dead nun who is up for beatification, an arson induced house fire, and the disappearance of a college assistant, that takes Tempe from Montreal to the Carolinas. This all leads her to the pursuit of a cult and, through the course of the novel, gives us some flicker of insight into what can get people to sign up for places like Jonestown. Like her discussions on pathology, Ms. Reichs doesn't use the vast amount of material she has acquired about cults to shock us, but, rather, uses it to move the pace along quite well. We also see more insight into Tempe herself than we did in the first book. We gain (better) insight into her relationship with her sister - both as a sibling and as a rival. And we also get a better focus on her relationship with her daughter. Once the story moves to the Carolina's, we see, dare I say, even a more sexy Tempe. This all makes her character much more believable and maybe much more vulnerable. More like you and me and so we tend (and want) to root for her. So, why not 5 stars? I found the exacavation of the nun fascinating and, quite frankly, was waiting for it to be tied in neatly with the cult. That never came to be. Still, this was a very good read and held my interest through out. The kind of story you read by a roaring fire with a brandy or maybe sitting under an umbrella on the beach. But, if you read it on an island off of South Carolina, you might find yourself looking over your shoulder. Kathy Reichs, she's that good.
Rating:
Summary: Move over, Kay Scarpetta
Review: After the disappointment of Patricia Cornwall's latest books, I've greatly enjoyed Kathy Reichs new series, which features Tempe Brennan, a forensic anthropologist based in Montreal and Charlotte. In this book, Charlotte and other parts of North Carolina are much more central to the story than in Reichs' earlier Deja Dead. The plot is entertaining and you'll learn a few things along the way that you probably didn't really want to know about maggot life cycles. Although I found Death du Jour not quite as terrifying as Deja Dead, it's a definite page turner. Recommended for the non-squeamish...but don't read it when you're home alone.
Rating:
Summary: Nifty little forensic thriller
Review: In her debut novel "Déjà Dead" Kathy Reichs introduced the character of Temperance (Tempe) Brennan, a forensic anthropologist who spends half her time practicing in her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina and the other half in Montreal, Quebec. A series of murders and bizarre findings led Tempe to go undercover and explore Montreal's seedy underworld of drugs and prostitution. In "Death du Jour", Tempe seeks to uncover the mystery behind a devastating house fire in St-Jovite that killed 4, including 2 infant babies. It is soon discovered that the cause of the fire is arson and all signs point to a dangerous cult as being the culprit. As ususal the main strength of a Reichs novel is the believability of its protagonist Tempe Brennan. Tempe is a truly complex character of many emotions that are felt thoughout the novel's engaging first-person narrative. The synergy between herself and detective Ryan is irresistible and reminiscent of Mulder and Scully from the X-files except this time the female is the believer and the male the pessimist. This is a very technical and academic work of fiction with in-depth descriptions of forensic procedures, fossil descriptions and coroner reports. In technical terms the author certainly knows what she writes about since she practices forensic anthropology herself, lending the novel a high sense of genuineness. I found to be most fascinating the in-depth knowledge of cults that we learn throughout, both fictional and historical such as the Solar Temple cult. I was also impressed with Reich's ability to describe the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, having lived there myself I thought she was bang on with some of her descriptions. The climactic final pages take place during the throes of Quebec's devastating ice storm of 1998 and the descriptions are done extremely well, amid a breakneck pace. As much as I enjoyed "Death du Jour" in my opinion this novel is not quite as good as Déjà Dead. I was disappointed that the French Canadian flavour of the first novel was not as omnipresent and found that the book lost a bit of its steam once the action shifted away from Quebec and into North Carolina. My major beef is that there were way too many wild coincidences; Tempe's sister Harry, who lives in Texas has just registered for a new course that happens to have a field work assignment in...you guessed it Montreal! The house fire in Quebec has links to a cult in the U.S. Where in the U.S.? Why in the Carolinas, right by Tempe's hometown! There were many other improbable links that felt somewhat insulting to a seasoned mystery reader like myself but did not ruin my enjoyment of the novel too much. I found Death du Jour to be very entertaining. It fell short of the accomplishment of her debut novel but with "Déjà Dead" Reichs had set herself a very high pedestal to keep up with. Death du Jour was certainly good enough to make me want to keep reading more Tempe adventures.
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.
Rating:
Summary: Mystery, Danger, Action and Suspense
Review: Once again I was bowled over by Kathy Reichs. She manages to give her readers a wealth of information without ever talking down to them. She weaves subplots together like the master she's become, and in only two books. Though, sadly, she does at times withhold information from the readers that she shouldn't. If it's told in the first person and our heroine knows the info or clues, then we should too, however this is just a niggling and minor complaint and didn't really take away from the book at all. The book opens with Tempe in a church graveyard. A long dead nun is being considered for sainthood and Tempe is charged with aiding the Church's investagation. The bones aren't where they're supposed to be, but Tempe can't give this her full attention, because she's quickly drawn into an arson murder case that's tied in to a university student from North Carolina who recently joined a cult, then disappeared. Mystery, danger, action, suspense all add up to a five star winner for Kathy Reichs. Review submitted by Katie Osborne
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Believable
Review: This second Tempe Brennan novel opens with our heroine digging up the remains of a a nun who died in 1888 that the church is considering for beautification. Her work on the poor sister's remains is interpreted by a tragic murder arson case that will draw her in and have her snooping, not only in her adopted Montreal, but into a cult in North Carolina. A lot of coincidence here, Tempe's case just happens to span both her American and Canadian stomping grounds, but Reich's is a deft writer and it's easy to overlook. As in "Deja Dead" we are treated with brilliant and believable description into and about forensic medicine. Reichs also paints true to life pictures of cold, cold Montreal and languid, balmy North Carolina. She is a master at description, never boring. Though in this one I found the cult deal a little much and I didn't like wacky sibling Harriet (Harry) at all, so I am giving Death du Jour four stars. Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Rating:
Summary: not bad
Review: This book is not bad, but it needs a little more work. She has a good start on her characters, but they need a little more work so that they have more depth or something as they seem a little superficial. Maybe it is because I have read and enjoyed so many of Patricia Cornwell's books and, as they are both about a woman who is in forensics or pathology, I unconsciously compare them and I shouldn't because they are very different heroines.
The book is about a woman who splits her time between Canada and North Carolina who examines dead bodies. A lot of the story has been told by the other reviewers so I won't go into too much detail except to say that she looks into the death of a century old woman that nuns want to make into a saint and many mysterious deaths that are extremely gory. It keeps you on your toes and is packed full of murder and hayhem.
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