**
The first Temperance Brennan book, in which Brennan is hardly recognizable as the inspiration for Emily Deschanel's character in the television series Bones and significantly less entertaining. Here she's a recovering alcoholic who likes cats; more interestingly, she's an American serving as the Director of Forensic Anthropology for the Canadian province of Quebec investigating a series of murders that may be linked to a serial killer. And that's about as interesting as it gets, as Reichs saddles her with a sexist, proprietary cop who's smart when he wants to be, dumb and exclusionary otherwise, and a generic killer we hardly ever see and who, when we do, behaves in generically stupid ways. Still, the book is reasonably well-written, if excessively detailed (though not regarding the science, oddly enough). But it's a slow starter that is almost embarrassing when it finally picks up a bit of steam: we want to berate Brennan for her foolishness in going into the field herself (she's much too smart for that), yet it's only when she does that the book becomes mildly involving. Followed, to date, by seventeen more books in the series, all written exclusively by Reichs, a forensic anthropologist herself.
The first Temperance Brennan book, in which Brennan is hardly recognizable as the inspiration for Emily Deschanel's character in the television series Bones and significantly less entertaining. Here she's a recovering alcoholic who likes cats; more interestingly, she's an American serving as the Director of Forensic Anthropology for the Canadian province of Quebec investigating a series of murders that may be linked to a serial killer. And that's about as interesting as it gets, as Reichs saddles her with a sexist, proprietary cop who's smart when he wants to be, dumb and exclusionary otherwise, and a generic killer we hardly ever see and who, when we do, behaves in generically stupid ways. Still, the book is reasonably well-written, if excessively detailed (though not regarding the science, oddly enough). But it's a slow starter that is almost embarrassing when it finally picks up a bit of steam: we want to berate Brennan for her foolishness in going into the field herself (she's much too smart for that), yet it's only when she does that the book becomes mildly involving. Followed, to date, by seventeen more books in the series, all written exclusively by Reichs, a forensic anthropologist herself.