If you don't ask, you don't get. Last time I talked about these books I specified my biggest problem with them as being my inability to immediately grasp some of the scientific content. Which, all things considered, is a pretty hefty problem with a series based around forensic anthropology and related disciplines. This time around, the science is scaled back considerably from previous levels. Which proves beyond all doubt that Kathy Reichs wrote this one just for me.
What? She wrote it when?
Alright, yes, I am still many moons behind with these books and I'll concede that it's unlikely something I wrote (and about 3 people read) a couple of months ago affected the plot of a book released almost 5 years ago but still...
Of course, Kathy Reichs being who she is, and what she is, the technical aspects are never going to disappear altogether. And nor should they. Indeed, once I manage to get my dunce cap off and actually get my head around this stuff I invariably find it enlightening and fascinating. It's just hard work is all.
Those concerns aside, what of the plot this time out? Well, after their foray into the investigation of religious relics in the Holy Land last time out the characters are staying a little closer to home here, with a series of unidentified corpses being discovered in South Carolina. Seemingly unrelated at first their deaths are revealed to share certain unexplained characteristics. I don't suppose it's giving too much away to say that yes, the disparate cases are indeed linked, in a suitably twisty turny fashion and it's erstwhile heroine Brennan to the rescue.
I have to confess, by the midway point of this book I was starting to flag a little. Several pieces of information had been revealed that led me to be pretty certain of where the story was headed and I was, in all honesty, a little disappointed, feeling that the coming 'twists' were obvious and a far cry from Reichs best work. I felt she had let herself down.
Which would have been the case, had any of what I was so adamant about actually happened. Instead, things played out in a manner which completely took me by surprise while at the same time seeming far more logical and believable than the 'obvious' route I had predicted. So my streak of never, ever, ever figuring out these things continues unbroken. And I was back to loving it again.
As always with this series the investigative storyline is complemented by the ongoing soap opera of Tempes life. Aside from an example of that one thing that is guaranteed to wind me up big time* but is, I'll concede, probably a necessary dramatic conceit, the soap aspects continue to be a major asset here, with a couple of pretty major developments on the domestic front promising changes afoot for Brennan. A large part of the appeal of these books is that the characters - not just Tempe herself but all the supporting regulars too - manage to remain sympathetic despite flaws and all manage to interact and co-exist in the way that real people do. They may not all get along but there are no ogres here, no cliched 'bad guys'. Professional, rational adults living their lives. It's one of the ways that, no matter how convoluted the plots, these books remain real. It's a quality that Reichs' work possesses that is sadly missing in that of many of her contemporaries.
I'm yet to dislike one of these books but I have to say that the slightly toned down tech talk, developments on the home front, the sidesteping of all my expectations at the mid point and a particularly gruesome case means that I'd probably rate this as one of my personal favourites.
*A visitor arrives unexpectedly in the exact 10second window to see something compromising out of context and storms off before getting an explanation
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