Grave Secrets (Paperback)

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.

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.

The pages turn because you want answers to the well presented mysteries. However the resolution is somewhat disappointing. Perhaps this is why I am always left feeling that there is something missing in Kathy Reichs's books. On this occasion note:
the plot carries the possibility of many surprises to make it stun - unfortunately there are no surprises;
the "will she won't she" get into bed with Ryan, or anyone else come to that matter, has the passion, longing and sex drive of a squashed rabbit.

I will no doubt buy the next book as soon as it's out. I have expectations. Reichs's writing improves no end. It is an extremely smooth and gripping transition from one scene to the next. However, it suffered (although did not detract) in just too many one/two/three word lines of the internal ponderings of Tempe. If Tempe keeps on pondering in ths way, she'll turn into the satirical Jennifer Saunders version of Amanda Burton's character in "Silent Witness" on the BBC.

The plotting would benefit from some unexpected twists taking us to places we couldn't possibly have imagined we'd go.

This sounds hard, I know. I enjoyed the book and couldn't put it down. But the ending was a disappointment. And the "crackles" of excellent north American thriller writing were not quite there enough!