Déjà Dead (1997)

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Déjà Dead
Published 1997 by Scribner

Her life is devoted to justice — for those she never even knew.

In the year since Temperance Brennan left behind a shaky marriage in North Carolina, work has often preempted her weekend plans to explore Quebec. When a female corpse is discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in trash bags, Tempe detects an alarming pattern — and she plunges into a harrowing search for a killer. But her investigation is about to place those closest to her — her best friend and her own daughter — in mortal danger….

It's impossible (for me, anyway) to read a forensic mystery without comparing it to the Scarpetta novels. This one was awesome! I haven't read a forensic science mystery this good since the early Scarpettas!

These novels are the basis for the TV series, "Bones." I've never watched that show, so I didn't come into this with any expectations and I can't compare the book to the show. But the book by itself was really good. This is the first in a series featuring Dr. Temperance Brennan. She's a forensic anthropologist who has just relocated full-time to Montreal. The book opens with Tempe being called out to a scene to decide if bones found by city maintenance are old, archaeological-find-bones or new, current-crime-that-needs-to-be-investigated bones. To paraphrase the book, "Old bones don't smell."

The science in the book was fascinating and--I'm assuming because the author is herself a forensic anthropologist--authentic. The characters, especially Tempe, are well-drawn, complex, and interesting. The plot started out a little bit slow, but once it took off, I couldn't put it down. I took it with me to an optometrist visit and didn't even notice that I spent two hours in the doctor's office!

My only complaint is that some stuff seemed really obvious to me. Not everything, just some things, but they were kind of big things. I kept wondering, "Am I really supposed to have figured this out already for some reason? Or is Tempe really that clueless sometimes?" I am not a person who figures out Agatha Christie mysteries before Poirot reveals the solution. I read a mystery and I'm surprised at the end. For me to figure out something in a mystery before it's spelled out to me is very unusual. This didn't really take away from my enjoyment of the book. In fact, it was kind of nice to know something that the main character didn't for a change! This is Kathy Reichs' first book, so this could just be a beginner thing. Maybe it's fixed in later novels. Oh, and I thought the title was cheesy. It's explained toward the end of the book, but I still think it's cheesy.

I still highly recommend this to mystery fans, especially fans of Scarpetta and probably all those CSI shows. ( )

Listened to the audio book narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. Definitely liked Rosenblat as a narrator more than Bonnie Hurren (who narrated the 2nd book). I find the character of Temperance in these books to be so different from the Bones character but equally engaging. The secondary characters in the books haven't captured me as much so far, but that may develop a little more in future books. I'll probably stick with the series, but for now I need a break to listen to something a little bit lighter. I can only take so much death and dismemberment all in a row! ( )

I've read and enjoyed a few random books in this series over the years, so I finally decided to head back to the beginning. This book was a decent opening, but I would have liked it a lot more if there had been a lot less of the "intelligent, competent woman making blindingly moronic decisions to go it alone against a killer" pattern. Gee, why NOT head out to explore a remote, unpopulated and unfamiliar area late at night, during a massive thunderstorm, no less, with a measly flashlight? D'oh! Sorry, but you deserved to get bashed on the head for that, Tempe; I felt like clocking you myself for the stupidity the author afflicted you with there! Loved the Montreal setting, the forensics, and almost everything about the main character, aside from this one dubious trait, though she was also a little too "superwoman-strong" emotionally throughout a seriously hair-raising time. Get real and cry, damn it, cry already! LOL ( )