Amazon.co.uk Review
Tempe Brennan, Kathy Reichs' forensic anthropologist heroine, often finds herself in physical jeopardy. In
Fatal Voyage, her fourth outing, someone is trying to kill her and also to destroy her professional reputation with trumped-up charges of unethical behaviour.
Tempe is called in when a plane full of college athletes goes down in the remoter parts of the forests of North Carolina. She finds herself investigating a spare foot she rescued from coyotes, a foot which is significantly more decomposed than the crash victims and which has symptoms of gout, a disease most of the dead young people had no time to contract. There is a locked house and walled courtyard out in the woods that do not appear on any maps and it seems almost as if her simple knowledge of their being there has offended the powerful of the world.
As always, Kathy Reichs manages to combine a detailed knowledge of who the dead were and how they died with a profound sense of the sadness of things. This is a book that never lets us forget amid the dissections and tests for genetic markers that each human death is that of a tragic and irreplaceable human being. Tempe is one of the more attractive of the current crop of women detectives simply because she is flawed and vulnerable as well as smart, righteous and brave. Reichs never lets you forget that crime novels should acquaint us with good people as well as human evil. --Roz Kaveney
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
Once again forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is thrust into the centre of the action. This time set in America rather than Canada, the story focuses on a catastrophic plane crash. Caught travelling to a lecture, Tempe has to divert to the crash scene and report for business. Treading her way through the fragments of the crash site and what were once human beings, she strives to bring names to the remains to ease the victims families pain. During a respite from the traumatic findings she comes across a severed foot which she initially assumes comes from the crash. However, tests back at the morgue reveal the foot pre-dates the crash and opens up a whole can of worms for both Tempe and the people who want the matter hidden.. And so begins a story of secret societies, missing persons and forest hideaways, political intrigue and personal vendettas. Intermingled with the enquiry into the plane crash, the two stories twist and turn till the climactic ending in true Reich style. Tempe's complicated personal life simmers in the background, giving a human side to this gently self-mocking, professional woman. Reich's spine-tingling tension eventually emerges, with a tight, expert finish that will keep the reader both enthralled and in suspense till the final page. Written with Reich's personal experience of forensic pathology, the story is given the ring of veracity which makes this an even more compelling read. - Lucy Watson
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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