Book 20 - 2011
Book 20: Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs – 300 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
Tempe Brennan has come to Montreal from Charlotte in early December to testify as an expert witness at a trial. As Forensic Anthropologist for the province of Quebec, that's part of her job. She should be going over her notes, but she's freezing her behind off instead, digging in the basement of a pizza parlour. Not fun. Not with all the rats. And the cold. And, now, the skeletonised earthly remains of three people, three young women. When did they die? How did they get there? Homicide detective Luc Claudel, never Tempe's greatest fan, believes the bones are historic. Not his case, not his concern. The pizza parlour owner, the Prince of Pizza as Claudel calls him, found some 19th century buttons with the skeletons, another indicator of the bones' probable age. But Tempe has her doubts. Something doesn't make sense. She'll look at the bones in her lab and do Carbon 14 testing to establish approximate age. And she can analyse the tooth enamel to tell approximately where the women were born. If she's right, Claudel has three recent murders on his hands. Definitely his case. Detective Andrew Ryan, meanwhile, is acting mysterious. What are those private phone calls he takes in the other room, and why does he suddenly disappear just when Tempe is beginning to trust him and to hope he might be part of her life? Looks like more nights at home for Tempe with a good book and Birdie, the cat. As Tempe searches for answers in both her personal and professional lives, she finds herself drawn deeper into a web of evil from which there may be no escape. Women have disappeared, never to return...Tempe may be next.
Thoughts:
These books all start to blend into each other after awhile, which is funny really, because there’s only 14 or 15 books and over a 130 episodes (of the TV show based on the books) and I can remember nearly every episode’s plot (and key Bones/Booth moment) within the first five minutes. If I remember correctly, this one featured the bones of three women found in a pizza parlour basement that Tempe spent half the book trying to prove were modern (which in a way seems strange for a forensic anthropologist specializing in ‘ancient’ remains). It also saw a bit of backwards and forwards with Tempe’s relationship with Ryan, and of course, a perfectly reasonable explanation for any such issues though only after Tempe had spent half the book making up a hundred ridiculous reasons for why the relationship was doomed (somehow Bones’ reluctance to hook up with Booth because she didn’t want to hurt him (episode 100) seemed far more endearing). An enjoyable though pedestrian read.
20 / 50 books. 40% done!
7633 / 15000 pages. 51% done!
I'm trying to get through the 11 reviews I have to do before the ticking over of the clock on Saturday (which is made equally more pressing by the fact that I have a flight to catch at 12pm on Sunday morning (I'm going to Tasmania!)).
Currently reading:
- The Iliad by Homer – 408 pages
- Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Story by Eric & D’eva Redding – 239 pages
- The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve – 293 pages
And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson – 500 pages
- The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory – 437 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer – 324 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
Tempe Brennan has come to Montreal from Charlotte in early December to testify as an expert witness at a trial. As Forensic Anthropologist for the province of Quebec, that's part of her job. She should be going over her notes, but she's freezing her behind off instead, digging in the basement of a pizza parlour. Not fun. Not with all the rats. And the cold. And, now, the skeletonised earthly remains of three people, three young women. When did they die? How did they get there? Homicide detective Luc Claudel, never Tempe's greatest fan, believes the bones are historic. Not his case, not his concern. The pizza parlour owner, the Prince of Pizza as Claudel calls him, found some 19th century buttons with the skeletons, another indicator of the bones' probable age. But Tempe has her doubts. Something doesn't make sense. She'll look at the bones in her lab and do Carbon 14 testing to establish approximate age. And she can analyse the tooth enamel to tell approximately where the women were born. If she's right, Claudel has three recent murders on his hands. Definitely his case. Detective Andrew Ryan, meanwhile, is acting mysterious. What are those private phone calls he takes in the other room, and why does he suddenly disappear just when Tempe is beginning to trust him and to hope he might be part of her life? Looks like more nights at home for Tempe with a good book and Birdie, the cat. As Tempe searches for answers in both her personal and professional lives, she finds herself drawn deeper into a web of evil from which there may be no escape. Women have disappeared, never to return...Tempe may be next.
Thoughts:
These books all start to blend into each other after awhile, which is funny really, because there’s only 14 or 15 books and over a 130 episodes (of the TV show based on the books) and I can remember nearly every episode’s plot (and key Bones/Booth moment) within the first five minutes. If I remember correctly, this one featured the bones of three women found in a pizza parlour basement that Tempe spent half the book trying to prove were modern (which in a way seems strange for a forensic anthropologist specializing in ‘ancient’ remains). It also saw a bit of backwards and forwards with Tempe’s relationship with Ryan, and of course, a perfectly reasonable explanation for any such issues though only after Tempe had spent half the book making up a hundred ridiculous reasons for why the relationship was doomed (somehow Bones’ reluctance to hook up with Booth because she didn’t want to hurt him (episode 100) seemed far more endearing). An enjoyable though pedestrian read.
I'm trying to get through the 11 reviews I have to do before the ticking over of the clock on Saturday (which is made equally more pressing by the fact that I have a flight to catch at 12pm on Sunday morning (I'm going to Tasmania!)).
Currently reading:
- The Iliad by Homer – 408 pages
- Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Story by Eric & D’eva Redding – 239 pages
- The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve – 293 pages
And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson – 500 pages
- The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory – 437 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer – 324 pages
