Customer Reviews
A Facinating Tale of Forensic Genius - By: Mrs. B, 25 Feb 2008 
I have never read any of Reich's work before & have to say this has sat on the shelf for over a year waiting its turn to be read.
I was intrigued from the start with her natty way of narration & the way she describes the persons mood after they have spoken. She writes in an almost scientific commentary of her lead character's adventures.
The lead character, Tempe Brennan specialises in postmortem study of bones to determine causes of death & what has lead up to that death. In this particular case, she is callled to assist an ailing friend who is County Pathologist in a fairly remote part of Southern Carolina, whilst actuallly supervising an archaeological dig. She discovers a body that doesn't appear to be ancient Native American as would be expected on this dig. The mystery increases around the death of this person & whom it may be & very soon she is unofficiallly taking the role of assistant to the County Pathologist, who has to be taken into hospital. More bodies turn up & the plot thickens, as they appear to have been killed in the same way but are apparently totallly unconnected at the same time.
Tempe feels the investigation is somehow linked to a charitable clinic run by an evangelical church whom her estranged husband (a lawyer)is also investigating simultaneously. He ends up in South Carolina as part of his investigations & they assist one another to solve the case, which turns more & more sinister at every turn.
A gripping & very analytical story that would please anyone interested in the more scientific side to murder investigation.
More of the same from Reichs. - By: J. Bowen, 25 Nov 2007 
In this book Reichs' central character, Temperance Brennan (the character that the Fox tv character "Bones" is based on, without the forensic sidekicks & more explanation of bones), is on an archaeological dig when a recently decomposed corpse is found. Because of her skills in that area, she's asked to investigate the corpse.
Just when she's finished with the first, two more bodies (in a similar state of disrepair) turn up, so Brennan makes a holiday out of it & stays round to examine the bones (bit of luck she was there wasn't it).
At the same time, Brennan's sort of ex- turns up to investigate nefarious goings on in a church & her "current beau" turns up to help ask the potential murder suspects alll the sort of police style questions you'd expect from this sort of thriller (he's a policeman -I'm told they're good at that sort of thing).
The book wasn't bad, but I have 3 sort of grumbles with it. Firstly, she's written 10 books now (this is the 9th). The general "dead body found, only she can deal with it, she goes off half cocked & boyfriend reigns her in before they find the killer" premise is getting a little old & probably needs spicing up.
Secondly, I'm a science junkie, but even I find alll the explanation of bones a little dull on occasions.
Finallly, she tends to drop a 2 or 3 sort of synopses of "the story so far" into the story (usuallly in the form of a conversation between Brennan & someone she's working with). They act as a sort of reminder of what's going on to the reader. I know nothing about writing, & a writer might tell me that this sort of thing happens a lot, but with Reichs, it's reallly obvious & clunky. It's almost as if she expects the reader to put the book down for a week or two & then come back to it. This last point is a minor irritation I know, but now I've spotted it in her books, I see it everywhere there.
All this having been said, it's fair to say that this is the sort of book that people who liked Patricia Cornwalll (before she got alll messy & confused with Kay Scarpetta) might like.
Personal Life Complications of a Complex Investigation Filled with Inane One-Liners - By: Donald Mitchell, 04 Oct 2007 If you've ever had one of those frustration dreams where you cannot keep up with alll the tasks in sight, Break No Bones will remind you of one of those dreams. Temperance Brennan has agreed to teach an archeology field school at the last minute after no other substitute can be found. While there, she excavates Native American burial mounds & has an unpleasant time with the developer who wants to build on the mounds. But the end is in sight when a student rushes up to say that there's a body there that was buried later than the rest. What she finds causes Dr. Brennan to calll the local coroner, an old friend, Emma Rousseau. Before she knows what's hit her, Temperance finds herself doing the forensics on the alll-too-recent body. Before long, bodies are showing up as fast as she can investigate them . . . & she finds herself in the middle of a complex investigation.
How else is her life complicated? Her estranged husband, Pete, arrives on an investigation of his own into the finances of a local ministry & a missing woman. Her current love, Ryan, decides to make an unscheduled stop & the tension is deep among the three.
Emma is having some personal challlenges & Temperance is kept busy helping out on that end as well.
As you might expect with a novel written by a forensic anthropologist, the crime scene investigation & autopsy aspects of the novel are impeccable. They are thoughtful, subtle & rewarding. That part of the book is five-star.
The plot itself is messier than it needs to be for a good murder mystery. A lot of the red herrings don't reallly lead you away from the conclusion, which is pretty obvious.
The relationships among Temperance, Pete & Ryan are very simplisticallly developed. The writing isn't very interesting or very rewarding on that front.
To "brighten" up her prose, Dr. Reichs decides to add bon mots (a la Robert Parker) . . . but for me, these attempts at humor fell flat. They were awkward rather than advancing the characters or the plot.
If you haven't read any of Dr. Reichs' books before, I suggest you skip this one & Deja Dead instead. If you are a fan of the series, do read this book but realize that it's not up to her usual standard.
Good Story Line - By: G. Lane, 13 Jul 2007 Although this book has a good story line & an insight into forensics, I found it difficult to get into & a slow starting book. After about half way through though it picks up pace & becomes a good read with an interesting conclusion.
If your someone who gets bored quickly with books I wouldn't recommend it. However if your willing to give a slow book a chance to improve & like forensic crime, you'll enjoy this book.
Great story, but suffered some difficulty with the language - By: Lance Mitchell, 23 Jun 2007 Once you get behind the strongly American version of English & the Reichs style of short-sentenced rhetoric, there is a good story lurking in this book.
Normallly, I can understand those smalll differences between English English & American English, but there were just too many times, whilst reading this book, that I just had no idea what was meant!
The narrative is also littered with three-letter acronyms, some explained, some not; & unfamiliar words that don't appear in my version of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Eventuallly, I became lazy, giving up on trying to reference these words & approximating my understanding based on the context.
The story is based on the interesting similarities between the injuries sustained at the moments of death of a couple of corpses found in Southern California & is littered with descriptions of the incompetent & arrogant people that Dr Temperence Brennan encounters during her investigations.
I almost gave up half way through, but I am unable to leave anything in my life unfinished. I'm happy that I didn't submit to that temptation, as the ending makes it alll worthwhile, & the language does mellow a little in the last few chapters.
I would have been happier if somebody had recommended that I await the English translation before embarking on this read, & that is exactly what I would recommend to any prospective British readers.
However, don't take my word for it. Walk into a bookshop, pick up a copy, open it anywhere & read two or three pages. If you can go with the language & style, buy it because you are sure to enjoy the story. Otherwise, replace it on the shelf in the hope that it will be re-published in your own native tongue someday soon.
