From Library Journal
A superb new writer introduces her intrepid heroine to crime fiction. Dr. Tempe Brennan, a trowel-packing forensic anthropologist from North Carolina, works in Montreal's Laboratoire de Medecine Legale examining recovered bodies to help police solve missing-persons cases and murders. It's clear to Tempe that the remains of several women killed and savagely mutilated point to a sadistic serial killer, but she can't convince the police. Determined to prevent more brutal deaths, she sleuths solo, tracking her quarry through Montreal's seedy underworld of hookers, where her anthropologist friend Gabby, doing her own scary research, is being stalked by a creep. Despite her ability to work among fetid, putrefying smells that "leap out and grab" and her "go-to-hell attitude" with seasoned cops, Tempe is as vulnerable as a soft Carolina morning. When a grinning skull is planted in her garden, her investigation turns personal and escalates to an intense and satisfying conclusion. Except for imparting an excess of lab information, Reichs, also a forensic anthropologist, drives the pace at a heady clip. A first-class writer, she dazzles readers with sensory imagery that is apt, fresh, and funny (e.g., "fingers felt cold and limp, like carrots kept too long in a cooler bin"). Recommended for all fiction collections, this read is sure to be in demand.
-?Molly Gorman, San Marino, Cal.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
Kathy Reichs's real-life experience in forensic science fleshes out her riveting mystery about Tempe, an American woman working in Montreal for the police's forensic department. Tempe fights a one-woman battle to expose a link around similar brutal rapes and murders that have occurred in the city over the last few years. As she herself becomes the target, Tempe must rely on her wits and will to save her life. Amy Irving is an excellent Tempe; we hear her fatigue after hours of autopsies, her intelligence as she pieces together the mystery, her angst over her best friend's sudden strange behavior. Deja Dead is believable and exciting--a real thrill ride with Reichs and Irving at the controls. R.A.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.