Customer Reviews

Death du Jour

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Meet Tempe Brennan--she is a forensic anthropologist who divides her time professionally between Quebec, Canada and Charlotte, NC. In this tale, Tempe is drawn into the mystery behind several heinous deaths in the small Canadian town of St-Jovite; at the same time, a young college girl has mysteriously disappeared, Tempe's own sister is demonstrating bizarre behavior--even for her--and bodies are discovered on the elite Carolina primate island of a close friend. What, if any connection, do any of these things have--to each other, or to a mysterious cult?

With plenty of mystery, drama, suspense and forensic detail, fans of Kay Scarpetta will readily embrace this writer. I've found yet another new favorite!

DYB

For the first 25 pages I was enthralled by the writing and the forensics. Then the coincidences piled up: 1. In Quebec, Tempe investigates the fiery death of a family (later found to be killed by a quasi-religious cult.) 2. In a totally separate storyline, Tempe is asked by a nun acquaintance to find the nun's missing niece ... who JUST HAPPENS to have links to the first murder. 3. Weeks later, Tempe's relaxing on an island off the Carolina coast when she JUST HAPPENS to discover the buried bodies of two murdered women. Guess what? This new crime JUST HAPPENS to be related to those murders way up north in Quebec. 4. Tempe's troubled sister, living in ANOTHER state, JUST HAPPENS to have recently joined the same murderous cult responsible for all these murders! Tempe doesn't have to pursue the investigation -- the clues just come flying to her from points all over North America. I am amazed that so many self-described mystery buffs do not even comment on these faults in their reviews. Did they not notice them? Or are they so dazzled by the forensic details (which are indeed excellent)that they forgot the basics of a believable plot?

Kathy Reichs uses too much narrative for my taste. The main character, Tempe Brennan, is not particularly likeable and it is not clear why she chooses to do some of the things she does. For instance, what was the point of the "mugging"? Why didn't she at least tell Ryan about it? Maybe I would understand had I finished the book. I feel betrayed by her weaving me into her life and then killing her cat. I am not an activist but I don't understand a writer who feels he/she needs to kill an animal for what? Shock effect? I understood the reason for the other deaths - even the babies - which were remote and had some purpose to the plot. But to make the reader feel warmth and love for Birdie, through her writing in both books, and then kill him? I didn't feel it worth my time to finish the book. Nor will I read another of hers.

Temperance Brenna, book 2

This talented author offers a great plot and a rich cast of characters. Her entertaining and fascinating writing is peppered with enough clinical expertise to pique ones interest without overstocking the imagination. The kind of forensic detail that only Kathy Reichs can provide...

Once again, we are taken into intriguing murder investigations by Tempe, a guru, in anthropological forensics

"Death du Jour", involves multiple cases weaving from Montreal to North Carolina. It opens as Tempe Brennan is trying to locate the remains of a long-deceased nun, a challenge on its own. Sister Elizabeth Nicolet is up for sainthood and her bones are needed, the body is not where records show it.

Simultaneously, Tempe is called to assist Homicide Detective Andrew Ryan in an arson investigation North of Montreal. Leads bring them to the nucleus of a strange commune in the Carolinas. Unclear at first, a connection is uncovered between the cases. Tempe and Ryan find themselves in a struggle to save more lives...

This is a multi-faceted plot, written in a thrilling manner, enjoyable and easy to follow.

I found this book to be a real page turner. The story centers around some murders in both Quebec and Charlotte and it isn't long until our heorine, Tempe, finds a connection.

As always the forensic information was most interesting and full of detail.

I thought I had the plot all figured out and was disappointed thinking it was too obvious, but it wasn't that way at all.

I would like to see our heroine learn how to throw a few good punches and I thought it would have been more feasible if she had self defense training considering her past experiences, i.e., Deja Dead. There were also a couple spots where some info was given and she didn't follow through. I thought an obsessed investigator would not let something like that go by without looking into it more. Hence the 4 star rating.

Cults and Canada... I should've loved this. But it was hard to get into (though reading with the cricket on TV or with music on probably wasn't a good idea). I also didn't quite understand the business of exhuming a dead nun in relation to the cults. Still, Dr Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist, is a character to follow. But I'm hoping that she stays in Canada, and doesn't duck out to the US again. I'm bored with American settings. (B+)

Reichs does a nice job of weaving this story together. It was a little slow in the beginning, but came on strong late in the book. If you like stories about forensics, you will enjoy this book.

The story dragged on and didn't get going until late in the game, loved Deja dead, Death Du Jour, but this one didn't work for me.

In her debut novel "Déjà Dead" Kathy Reichs introduced the character of Temperance (Tempe) Brennan, a forensic anthropologist who spends half her time practicing in her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina and the other half in Montreal, Quebec. A series of murders and bizarre findings led Tempe to go undercover and explore Montreal's seedy underworld of drugs and prostitution. In "Death du Jour", Tempe seeks to uncover the mystery behind a devastating house fire in St-Jovite that killed 4, including 2 infant babies. It is soon discovered that the cause of the fire is arson and all signs point to a dangerous cult as being the culprit.

As ususal the main strength of a Reichs novel is the believability of its protagonist Tempe Brennan. Tempe is a truly complex character of many emotions that are felt thoughout the novel's engaging first-person narrative. The synergy between herself and detective Ryan is irresistible and reminiscent of Mulder and Scully from the X-files except this time the female is the believer and the male the pessimist. This is a very technical and academic work of fiction with in-depth descriptions of forensic procedures, fossil descriptions and coroner reports. In technical terms the author certainly knows what she writes about since she practices forensic anthropology herself, lending the novel a high sense of genuineness. I found to be most fascinating the in-depth knowledge of cults that we learn throughout, both fictional and historical such as the Solar Temple cult. I was also impressed with Reich's ability to describe the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, having lived there myself I thought she was bang on with some of her descriptions. The climactic final pages take place during the throes of Quebec's devastating ice storm of 1998 and the descriptions are done extremely well, amid a breakneck pace.

As much as I enjoyed "Death du Jour" in my opinion this novel is not quite as good as Déjà Dead. I was disappointed that the French Canadian flavour of the first novel was not as omnipresent and found that the book lost a bit of its steam once the action shifted away from Quebec and into North Carolina. My major beef is that there were way too many wild coincidences; Tempe's sister Harry, who lives in Texas has just registered for a new course that happens to have a field work assignment in...you guessed it Montreal! The house fire in Quebec has links to a cult in the U.S. Where in the U.S.? Why in the Carolinas, right by Tempe's hometown! There were many other improbable links that felt somewhat insulting to a seasoned mystery reader like myself but did not ruin my enjoyment of the novel too much. I found Death du Jour to be very entertaining. It fell short of the accomplishment of her debut novel but with "Déjà Dead" Reichs had set herself a very high pedestal to keep up with. Death du Jour was certainly good enough to make me want to keep reading more Tempe adventures.

This mystery, featuring forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan, settles nicely in tone between Aaron Elkins sunny Gideon Oliver series and Patricia Cornwell's gory and dark Kay Scarpetta mysteries. The crimes are recent, the perpetrators frightening, and the suspense gripping. But the main characters are likeable and much less tortured than Cornwell's protagonists. Kathy Reichs, herself a forensic anthropologist with a boatload of credentials, offers up plenty of technical detail about the nitty gritty of forensic work, interesting settings in Montreal and North Carolina, a dose of religious fanaticism, and a character who is easy to identify with and root for. This isn't great literature, but it's a pretty good way to spend an afternoon.