Deja Dead

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the best!
Review: Kathy Reichs takes the reader through a stunning range of emotions on a thriller of a roller-coaster ride of crime detecting. As a forensic anthropologist her subject is well researched, and the analytical scientific information is imparted in an attention-grabbing style. Her characters are well developed and evoke a strong response in the reader. I could hardly put this novel down, I wanted the sadistic serial-killer to be stopped before he got to MY door. And yet, I did not want the book to end-Professor Reichs style is so engaging. I look forward to more of Tempe and Ryan and Claudel. Definitely tops Cornwell, and is as readable as Aaron Elkins.

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: exciting read, I stayed up too late
Review: Kathy Reichs is the new Patricia Cornwell. Her forensic investigator heroine Tempe Brennan is smart and sassy, and this book kept me turning pages later into the night than I should have. The heroine has a dry humor that I liked, and the suspense, action and characterization were first-rate. A good, suspenseful read!

Rating:
Summary: Tempe to the rescue...
Review: I remember seeing Kathy Reichs' "Déjà Dead" a number of years ago, but after reading this fabulous book, I'm angry at myself for not picking it up sooner! "Déjà Dead" is a bit like "CSI" meets Montréal: a match made in heaven if ever I've seen one. Reichs' voice at once rings true: like her protagonist Temperance Brennan, Reichs herself is a forensic anthropologist for North Carolina and the province of Québec.

"Déjà Dead" blends the fascinating world of forensic pathology with the vibrant scene that is Montréal, the largest French-speaking city outside of Paris. Reichs throws in colourful joual, perfectly captures a number of different Québec accents, and brings a fantastic vision of Montréal to the page as well as intimately involving the reader on a quest to identify the five bodies left behind by a brutal serial killer. Reichs' in-depth details are NOT for the overly squeamish: "The limbs retained large portions of putrefied soft tissue. Maggots were dropping from the body to the table, from the table to the floor, in a slow but steady drizzle." Consider yourself warned.

This is an amazingly satisfying debut that left me craving more, mainly because the book brought back so many memories of La Belle Province, Québec, that I've called home. The descriptions of the various processes that Tempe and her colleagues use to identify the mutilated remains and track the killer never seemed forced or out of place. At times the book crawls to a standstill as Reichs becomes a little too enthusiastic about certain forensic procedures that could have been pared down (like a chapter dealing with the intricacies of bone saws in technical jargon that seemed to go on forever), and clichéd lingo, with loads of great, sometimes cheesy metaphors, but Tempe Brennan and her deliciously eccentric friends and colleagues seem wonderfully three-dimensional, always human with their own flaws and fears. The book is peppered with French and Québécois phrases, explanations and neighbourhood desriptions, and at times it felt a bit like a travelogue as Tempe would describe her favourite area restaurants and various haunts.

If you enjoy mysteries, forensics, "CSI," or Montréal, this book is for you. Be warned that there is a good deal of death, autopsies, mutilation, and violence towards animals and women. If that bothers you then you'll want to look elsewhere, but for the rest of us Tempe and Kathy bring us a fascinating world of postmortems, the vibrant metropolis that is Montréal, and the hunt for a vicious killer that takes on a personal side for Tempe as her daughter, best friend, and Tempe herself are all in danger. I can't wait to continue Tempe's adventures with other books in the series! Merci à Kathy Reichs and keep up the good work!