Tempe Brennan joins a task force to investigate some biker gangs in Canada after a young girl is killed in the crossfire. Her nephew, Kit, also gets involved when he stays for a visit and professes to a love of motorcycles and gets a little mixed up in the gangs themselves.

The series is really good and has enough science without being too confusing for a layman. ( )

Deadly Decisions doesn't vary much from the pattern established in Reichs' first two Temperance Brennan novels. This one (again) features one of Brennan's friends/family in peril, and (again) teaches us much more about forensics than your average episode of CSI.This time the featured forensic topic was blood spatter. Five pages worth of lecture, which I have to admit that I didn't read. I skimmed until I found the conclusion: "so this means that the victim was beaten before he was shot?" I don't think my enjoyment of the book suffered for my laziness.The villains in Deadly Decisions are OMCs, Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs. Apparently there's a biker war in Montreal, and innocent bystanders are getting caught in the crossfire. Brennan volunteers for a multi-agency task force to address the problem, and as a result, she (and her readers) are treated to not one, but two lecture presentations about the history of OMCs in the U.S. and Canada. These presentations are complete with overhead and slide projectors. Like the blood spatter, the storyline would have made just as much sense even without such deep background. I realized the details were a severe distraction when I found myself putting down the book so I could construct an organization chart to keep track of all the parent clubs and puppet clubs.Maybe I'm just overly critical because this isn't my usual genre. Overall, it's a perfectly entertaining read. I just wish the surprises had been more... surprising. ( )

This is the third in the Temperance Brennan series. Good series based in Montreal - good bilingual dialogue and great insight into the workings of the forensic lab.

Back Cover Blurb:
A nine-year-old girl dies on her way to ballet class, caught in outlaw biker crossfire. Violence is spilling on to the streets of Montreal and Dr Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist for the state, has to pick up the pieces.
She knows she shouldn't let emotion get in the way of her role as scientist, but when nine-year-old Emily's body is wheeled into the morgue she cannot help but react. Tempe's nephew, Kit, is mesmerized by motorcycles. Does he understand the dangers posed by the outlaw gangs?
An exhumation uncovers the bones of another innocent, hidden in a clandestine grave close to a biker headquarters. With her boss in the hospital and her sparring partner Andrew Ryan disturbingly unavailable, Tempe begins a perilous investigation into a lawless underworld of organised crime. ( )

I like the twist on Ryan in this one, even though I know how it works out  A bit bizarre to be reading about OMC warfare given the current situation in Sydney but there you have it. I’d prefer there to be a little less IMMEDIATE danger to the people that Brennan loves in here, but I guess that’s a good way to build urgency. Taking that with a grain of salt, everything else is super. ( )

This series continues to appeal to me. The explanations are never too heavy handed, and Brennen is always in the wrong place at the right time and it makes her a bit more real even in the unlikeliness of it all. I think the best part though, is I feel like the author's pacing and general story development meshes insanely well with my reading style. I can almost feel every twist as it comes and it makes the whole read far more entertaining. ( )