Grave Secrets (Temperance Brennan 5)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Kathy Reichs publishers' comparisons of her with the mega-selling Patricia Cornwell are based on the fact that more and more people (readers, critics, other writers) are calling her better than Cornwell! On the evidence of Reichs' splendid new novel, Grave Secrets the answer is yes--particularly as several recent Cornwell titles have been misfires.
Reichs' speciality is the powerfully realised female protagonist: Dr Temperance Brennan is the best of the many forensic specialists rubbing shoulders in the genre at present: she's professional (never, of course, fazed by her often grisly work), forceful in everything but her messy private life. This time, Tempe travels to the Guatemalan village of Chupan Ya tracking the bodies of 23 women and children dumped in a mass grave. But while digging in the pit of death, Tempe finds the present contains further horrors: four girls have gone missing from Guatemala city--and one of them is the daughter of an ambassador. Soon Tempe is up against both a recalcitrant district attorney and municipal corruption, grimly aware that there are those who want the deaths in both the past and the present to remain a mystery.
What makes this such a distinguished addition to the Reichs library (in a class with such winners as Death du Jour) is the brilliantly realised Guatemalan locales. Not many thriller writers can evoke comparison with such masters of foreign climes as Graham Greene, but Reichs pulls it off with aplomb. The web of deceit that Dr Brennan encounters is satisfyingly tangled, and the unravelling of the mystery has all the quirky energy of Reichs at her most stylish. Perhaps future Brennan outings will have to bring in new personal elements for the heroine to avoid staleness, but Grave Secrets has everything in place for the most diverting of reading experiences. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
Anne Rivers Siddons If there is anyone as good at the forensic thriller, I don't know who it is. Kathy Reichs's science is cold and elegant, and her characters are warm and complex. The result is irresistible.
--This text refers to the
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Kathy Reichs writes another amazing book.
Its fast paced and quick moving and she definitely keeps you on your toes with storylines!
Its fast paced and quick moving and she definitely keeps you on your toes with storylines!
Dr Tempe Brennan is in Guatemala trying to uncover the bodies of many women and children dumped years ago in a mass grave. As usual something else always crops up and Tempe begins to get entwined in another case. Four girls, one an embassadors daughter, are missing and Tempe has to dig a body out of a septic tank. This scene is so well written!
As well as the trials and tribulations of the cases she is on we begin to see more of Tempes personal issues and thoughts coming through in this book. Another love interest appears and as usual Detective Ryan is still on the scene.
This is defintely worth a read and i will be pre-ordering the next installment!
54 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This, the fifth Tempe Brennan novel, is another excellent addition to the series which has blasted Kathy Reichs to fame.
This time, Tempe is sent to Guatemala to recover the bodies of the dead, massacred during the countries vile civil war. The people known in Guatemala as "the disappeareds". It is in the village of Chupan Ya that she uncovers 28 dead bodies, and on the way to the site, two other forensic scientists are attacked on the road, shot, and left for dead. It is the beginning of an investigation which will haunt Tempe in the coming weeks.
Shortly after, her help is saught by the local police. Four teenage girls have gone missing in Guatemala City, and one of them is the daughter of the Canadian Ambasador. Is there a serial killer at work? Soon after, a decomposing body is found in a septic tank of a local hotel, and the investigating begins in earnest.
Reichs' writing is sharp, the plotting tight and complex. Her characters are well drawn with a few choice words, and her descriptions of the dead are brilliant. Reichs' books really ring with authenticity, as she has been and done exactly the same sorts of things as her main character. This fuels the writing with realism, and a relentless compassion for the dead, which really comes out in the writing. She never lets you forget that these people walked, breathed, laughed, talked...that they used to be us.
Her forensic's are interesting, and the way she writes about them doesn't make you feel as if you're reading a textbook. (In this area, she is almost on a par with Cornwell.) However, with this book there is possibly one too many plot-strands, as they become intertwined in the mind of the reader, sometimes leading to confusion. However, careful reading does remedy this.
Guatemala is described well, and the evil of the civil war events still broods over the landscape.
Tempe's relationship with Ryan develops, and complicates, with this book, when she also finds herself attracted to a Guatemalan police officer, who once knew Ryan. Tempe's conflict is done well, and only serves to bolster the roundness of her character. Being a devout Cornwell fan (i even liked Isle of Dogs) it is hard for me to say, but Tempe is a more realistic, well drawn, likeable character.
The tense and atmospheric conclusion inside a morgue is chilling, and brings the book to a satusfying close. While this book is not quite as good as last year's offering "Fatal Voyage" it is still first class.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Kathy Reichs is a solid series writers, and Tempe Brennan, a solid series characters. As always, Reichs confidently grounds us in the setting, steering us through Guatemala and Montreal as though we are actually there and she is pointing out the sights, sounds, and smells as we go. There is the usual grisly description of the dead, and the accompanying forensic information that goes with that. Reichs excels in describing in plain English the details of potentially complicated and confusing subjects, but I think in this novel, more than her four previous in the series, she relies too heavily on facts and figures to fill the pages, which tends to slow down the action. Although, having said that, cliffhangers at the end of every chapter kept me turning the pages.
It would have been nice to catch up with some characters from the previous novels (Tempe somehow has close friends we've never heard of in every book, while she rarely associates with any from the ones that came before), but as the the love interest, Detective Ryan, seems to be getting more annoying each time I see him, maybe that's actually a good thing.
Overall, a good book, and an enjoyable read, but not quite in the same league as Deja Dead or Death Du Jour.
It would have been nice to catch up with some characters from the previous novels (Tempe somehow has close friends we've never heard of in every book, while she rarely associates with any from the ones that came before), but as the the love interest, Detective Ryan, seems to be getting more annoying each time I see him, maybe that's actually a good thing.
Overall, a good book, and an enjoyable read, but not quite in the same league as Deja Dead or Death Du Jour.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Grave Secrets
As usual Kathy Riechs has written a brilliant story interspersed with real life information. I have read so many of this brilliant novelist's books that I feel part of her forensic... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Barbara
First one in the series read and loved it
This is the first booking in the series i bought and i really enjoyed it, I couldnt put it down!!! It read quickly and you really got lost, I am now reading Spider Bones which... Read more
Published 2 months ago by L. J. Benham
Boring!
I have enjoyed the previous books but this one is a severe disappointment. Reading it is like wading through treacle. Read more
Published 3 months ago by L. Parkinson
a real page-turner
Grave Secrets
Another great Tempe book from Kathy Reichs. She herself is a forensic anthropologist so the detail is therefore very accurate. Read more
Another great Tempe book from Kathy Reichs. She herself is a forensic anthropologist so the detail is therefore very accurate. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mrs. E. A. Satchell
Kathy Reichs - Grave Secrets
We're back again with Tempe Brennan in this, the 5th book in the series. This time Tempe is called to Guatamala to help with the remains of a mass grave but soon enough she's being... Read more
Published 13 months ago by molko
Not for the squeamish
NOT to be read by the squeamish, perhaps, but Grave Secrets is a fascinating insight into the world of forensic anthropology, as well as a well plotted story. Read more
Published 14 months ago by M. Cantrell
Kathy Reichs Novel
It's truly amazing how Kathy Reichs manages to develope so many adventures involving Tempe Brennan and a lot of bones! Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ms. Elise Hey
Better than Cornwell!
With the realistic thread and her characters 'home life' Kathy Reichs delivers someone for whom you will have begun to care, several books ago. Read more
Published 18 months ago by D. J. Ferguson
Didn't enjoy at all
Having read Fatal Voyage and enjoying it, I bought this as my 2nd offering from the author and have to say that it's a struggle to finish it. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2010 by Clarey R
Spelling binding
Kathy Riechs gets better and better. Her experience in the field just jumps out at you. Page after page of real technical accuracy with a wonderful story woven around them. Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2009 by L. Steele
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