Rating: 
Summary: Easy Decision- Read It
Review: In this, Kathy Reich's third book, Tempe Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, splits time between North Carolina and Montreal. She has been assigned as liaison to Operation Carcajou, a task force on criminal activities of motorcycle gangs.The setting for the story occurs mainly in the Canadian spring " when the thaw offers up the dead, hidden by the snows of a long winter". Two skeletons are found as well as the skull and leg bones of a teen whose body had been lain to rest in North Carolina in 1984. The mystery facing Tempe is to determine how the skull ended up in Montreal and what is the connection to the skeletons of the two motorcycle gang members buried with it.To complicate her life and add depth to the story, Tempe's love interest , Andrew Ryan, has been arrested for selling drugs. Her nephew Kit, whom she treats like her own son, has come to visit and is fascinated by Harley Davidsons. As the story progresses, she becomes more concerned and worried as Kit becomes involved with intrusive slime-ball reporter Lyle Crease, who also has a love for motorcycles. She becomes afraid for Kit and feels a sense of urgency as bikers are killing each other in a power struggle for the drug trade. The decisions faced by these characters is the underlying theme of the story. Tempe is presented as a three- dimensional, increasingly complex and sensitive woman expressing her beliefs, fears, attitudes, and feelings. The book is written in the first person so we are privy to Tempe's innermost thoughts. She is a serious and dedicated scientist but we also learn of her feelings toward victims, perpetrators, co-workers, family, and herself. From the beginning, she describes how she feels about children and how she respects victims of violence. She has vowed to use her talent of interpreting evidence and "reading bones" to identify and convict the perps of violent crime especially against children. As Kathy Reich continues to write, she creates plots and characters with depth while using creative techniques that add to the suspense. For example, I found myself looking forward to the end of most chapters. They usually contained a surprise or made a point that moved the story, making it difficult to "put down the book ". She ties the story together brilliantly at the conclusion while leaving an openning and running a common thread to the next book if she wants to use it. Highly Recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs
Review: Reichs is following her successful formula in this third installment of the "Tempe Brennan" series. The formula reminds me a bit of how the CSI TV series are run: two main crimes being investigated in each installment. While the CSI TV series rarely has a connection between the two crimes, Reichs is often focusing on discovering the connections between the crimes in order to solve them simultaneously. Reichs also continues her pattern of having Tempe travel between North Carolina and Montreal; and of using a family member character to bring tension and emotion into the story. The ending of the plot again wraps up with a hospital setting and a question/answer session. Like many a popular/bestselling romance author, Reichs is sticking with plot patterns that have been financially successful in the past.
I love learning something when reading fiction, and in this book the reader is lectured on the techniques of blood splatter interpretation, and the history and workings of "Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs" such as the Hell's Angels.
I again loved the details about the flavor of Montreal. Reichs is detailed and adept at painting mental pictures of the setting. I think Reichs did a better job with the closing question/answer session in this book than in the previous two books, making it blend with the story more readily. On the characters that Reichs chooses to flesh out, she does so with skill, capturing teenaged rebellion and proud/stubborn professionals equally. Tempe, however, does not seem to learn from her past rash mistakes and runs headlong into mortal danger routinely. But perhaps that is part of the fun of these books: a woman protagonist who is not only smart, not only working in a "man's field", but also courageous enough to take risks.
--Lynellen.com
Rating:
Summary: Innocence caught in the crossfire of a biker war.......
Review: In Deadly Decisions, Kathy Reichs brings her story to Quebec where a biker war claims the life of an innocent child. Tempe Brennan is a forensic anthropologist. When she sees the life of a child ended by senseless evil she feels compelled to bring the murderer to justice. Along the way she is brought in to a special combined police group that is focusing on the increase of biker related violence and the fear that a major biker war is going to occur in Quebec. As the investigation expands from Quebec to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where another young girl appears to have been murdered by the biker gang, Tempe learns that her new love interest has been arrested and jailed on multiple charges. Tempe begins to doubt her ability to judge the true character of others.
With the investigation in full and frightening swing, her nephew, Kit,arrives unexpectedly to stay with her for "a while" complicating her life but giving her a human touch. Tempe begins to fear that Kit may have become a pawn in one of the outlaw biker gangs. As the story progresses, more biker murders occur and it seems that it is just a matter of time before before a deadly gang battle ensues........the question is, who is going to be caught in the crossfire!!!
Kathy Reichs draws on her own background as a forensic anthropologist giving the story the real grit and enough facts to keep it real! Her familiarity with Quebec is clear as she paints a vivid portrait of a fascinating city. I enjoyed the French phrases that she throws in because it reinforces the unique culture of Quebec that Tempe finds herself transplanted in from her North Carolina home.
This is a fast paced novel that will keep you turning the pages in rapid succession as you are thrown into the biker gang culture and their attempts to assimilate and blend themselves into the establishment while still maintaining their outlaw ways. This is an interesting and alarming look at these groups and is based on real investigations and facts.
Rating: 
Summary: Tempe and the bikers
Review: This was one of my least favorite of Kathy Reich's Tempe Brennan books. I found the solution rather far fetched and the whole thing about the bikers to be contrived but maybe that's only because I have no use or tolerance for such groups. But Tempe is Tempe, and whether the best of not, it's a fast paced, good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Pardon My French
Review: This is the first book by Kathy Reichs that I have read, and it is definitely the last one by Reichs that I will read. It drags slowly for the first half, and never reaches anything approaching fast pace. Scribner needs to do better proofreading also, spelling "Shallotte" two different ways, using "television" in one paragraph, followed by "TV" in the next paragraph. And Reichs using French phrases detracts from the readability of the book - using the English equivalent would not have broken my concentration.
Reichs book would be better if she dropped the French, dropped useless Ryan from the plot, and sped up the pace.
Rating:
Summary: Action Packed
Review: This is the third in the series, and it was still brought down by too many coincidents. Another mystery involving the Montreal and North Carolina. Perhaps Ms. Reichs needs to travel a little bit, spend some time in other cities to give her fresh (and less coincidental) plot lines. Her forensic writing stays fresh, though. And this one has more perilous action than number two int the series. A good read!
Rating:
Summary: The biker gangs of Quebec
Review: In "Déjà Dead" Dr. Tempe Brennan tried to solve the murders of several prostitutes that were left for dead in Montreal's red-light district. In "Death du Jour" Tempe investigated a series of bizarre murders by religious cults in Quebec and in the Carolinas. In this third installment of Kathy Reichs' series, Tempe becomes immersed into the biker circuit of Montreal. Quebec has long been a haven for biker gangs. Outside of the California Bay Area, Quebec is the North American area with the highest number of Hells Angels chapters and in the years leading to the publication of this year-2000 novel, home to the biggest biker turf war in the world. When several biker-related shooting deaths occur in the same week (including the accidental death of a nine-year old girl) Brennan and the Sûreté du Québec begin investigating and drawing leads from several biker gangs including The Rock Machine, The Heathens and The Vipers, a Hells Angels Puppet club. In the midst of these investigations Tempe receives a surprise visit from her nephew Kit, who moves in with her temporarily. But is Kit's visit really attributed to Auntie love and wanting to see Montreal sites? Or is it that Kit's undying love of the Harley Davidson has made him some questionable new friends? The tone set by Deadly Décisions is quite different than that of its predecessors. This time Reichs is less interested in providing the viewers with hands-on academic knowledge of forensic and medical procedures instead giving us a fast-paced and action-packed mystery thriller that focuses more on its characters. The usual suspects are here; Claudel, Charbonneau and Ryan but the novel most benefits from the addition of Kit, Tempe's visiting nephew from Texas. Kit likes to indulge in the usual 19 year old pleasures like girls, drinking, partying, rock music, sony playstation, etc. but possesses a Southern charm and gentleman manners that are most endearing. It was also great to see Tempe for once finally place some of her trust in discussing her case with a personal acquaintance, and Kit being able to help due to his wealth of knowledge on motorcycles. Reich's descriptions of the structure of outlaw motorcycle clubs is highly entertaining and very well researched as she explores some of the connections between the "big four", The Hells Angels, The Outlaws, The Bandidos, The Pagans, and their many sub-clubs. All of Deadly Décisions takes place in and around Montreal and as usual Reichs delivers a hands-on crash course of this French Canadian city's sites and culture for the unitiated. A native Montrealer, I couldn't help but marvel at the accurate portrayal of the city, especially the East-Side and Rue Hochelaga which has long been a nest of biker gangs and biker bars. However although Reichs obviously knows the city very well, it does show sometimes that she is a transplanted American and not a "pure laine" member of La Belle Province. For one, French Canadians do not say "Chien Chaud" when ordering a hot-dog. They might in France but not in Quebec. Also, any Montrealer the least bit familiar with the province's huge biker circuit will be able to tell you that there are a lot more of these clubs in neighbourhoods such as NDG or Côte-des-neiges than in St-Basile-Le-Grand. I also found it strange that Reichs failed to mention anything about Satan's Choice, who were Quebec's second largest biker gang before losing a well-publicized turf war against the Hells Angels in the later part of the 1990's. I found Reich's third item in her series to make for truly fast and compulsive reading. I must admit to being quite surprised at the low reviewer rating this novel has and the opinion of many fans of this being the weakest entry in Reichs' series. Instead of sending the reader on a wild goose chase of improbable coincidences and links like she did in "Death Du Jour" Reichs keeps it straightforward and the results are highly entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs
Review: In the third visit with Temperance Brennan, the reader wanders into the world of outlaw murdercycle gangs. Reconstructing the blown up Vallancourt twins was an interesting exercise - but pointless? Does this really happen? The turf wars of rival motorcycle gangs have been taking a few innocent bystanders with them, and keeping the morgue quite busy. Tempe is on hand when a pair of decade old bodies are recovered ... and also finds a very mysterious skull. Some bizarre coincidences make this book a little hard to grasp at times. Nephew Kit makes an appearance and manages to get in with just the wrong crowd. Tempe's keeping company with the feline Birdie mostly, since something odd is up with Detective Ryan. But the scene where Tempe blunders into the Biker Bar looking for her nephew is so chillingly threatening that it should be mandatory reading for any female titillated by bikers - startlingly raw, frightening and realistic, the reader is left with no illusions on the value of women to these outlaws. While the story wanders quite a lot and the science gets pretty detailed, the setting and characters are wonderfully real.-Mamalinda
Rating: 
Summary: Save yourself! Spare yourself the time wasted reading this.
Review: This book was boring for almost the entire 368 pages; I kept checking to see how many more pages I would have to trudge through in order to finish the book. The subject is on outlaw biker gangs and set in Canada. Maybe could be an interesting starting point, but not in this book. The characters don't have much draw and the plot slowly progresses to a mediocore ending. If you want a good book, go read something by Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson or Lisa Gardner.
|
