Deadly Decisions (Paperback)

Temperance Brennan is called away from Quantico when a young girl named Emily Anne becomes an innocent victim in an escalating war of biker gangs such as the Hell’s Angels over turf in Canada. This has prompted the formation of a special operations unit called Caracajou Temperance is asked to join. Once she does, she learns in heartbreaking fashion how the sophisticated network of this new mafia uses some very old and horrifying methods to keep control.

Reichs writes Brennan as a classy professional who has overcome a drinking problem in her past, and though widely respected in her field, has at best a respectful relationship with the stuffy French detective named Claudel she often works with. But Reichs weaves these details in to fit the crime story instead of the other way around, as Cornwell often does, making this an involving read.

The story itself is full of atmosphere and as the body of a second girl is discovered, buried years before, Reichs is at her best. There is a tense excitement colored with sadness at the careful excavation of a body so badly decomposed only her bones and the mystery of who killed her are left for Temperance to uncover.

There are touching real life moments such as the releasing of balloons at Emily Anne’s funeral and an understanding by the author of how violence often occurs suddenly and without time to mourn that separates this book from others, giving it the depth missing in others of its ilk.

This is a classy read in a genre that has gone astray. Author Kathy Reichs imbues Temperance Brennan with professionalism and humanity, all the while staying focused on the crimes and the victims. She fleshes out Temperance into a real person we would want on our side in such circumstances. This is a series that seems to have found solid ground and is well worth checking out.

As for Ryan mysteriously disappearing into the bowels of the biker fraternity - why? Obviously Dissapointing Sequel No 2 is in the pipeline.

Tempe's anthropological background appears lost among the dull discussion of the many Harley riding, gun toting, drug dealing groups - all of which made the book increasing complicated to follow for the non-biker initiated among us.

Generally I am a fan of the crime/thriller genre, however I found Deadly Decisions had too many (sub) plots, all of which were never really developed, leaving the reader wanting an extra chapter or two to fill in the blanks.

Although I won't give up hope that Dissapointing Sequl No 2 never materialises!

The thing that makes Deadly Decisions my favorite though is that I couldn't put it down (doing damage to by sleep patterns). The other two, whilst being great books, took a little time to get into and were hard going in places. This one I just read start to end in about 4 midnight sittings.

The only thing that let the book down though was the ending - it was predictable and hence only 4 stars. But over all still a great book. I shal be reading it over and over like her other books and can't wait for another.