Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs

Series: #2 in Temeperance Brennan Series
Genre: Mystery
Publication Date: 1999
Pages: 451
Challenges: Medical Mystery 2008 Challenge #4, 2nds Challenge #2


This is the second book in the Temperance Brennan series. I don’t watch the show Bones, but from what I understand from those who do, the tv series is quite different from the book series. Since I only read the books, it doesn’t bother me in the least.

Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist who works in both Montreal, Quebec and Charlotte, N.C. (coincidentally, so does Kathy Reichs). In Charlotte, she’s a university professor and in Montreal she works with the Laboratoire de Médicine Légale. Although the first book in the series took place primarily in Montreal, this one moves back and forth between there and North Carolina.

There are multiple cases involved. At the beginning of the book Tempe is looking for the casket containing the 100 year old bones of a nun who may be named a saint. Soon she’s helping the police investigate the grisly deaths at a suspicious house fire. Back home in Charlotte, she soon finds herself looking into both the potential local connections to the Montreal case and bodies found in a wildlife preserve.

It’s complicated, probably overstocked with coincidences, a bit heavy on the scientific and academic detail, but a series that I’m really enjoying and planning to continue. I like Tempe and the supporting cast. I don’t mind the detail (except for the part about the bugs and decaying bodies – eewww) and the mysteries in both of the first books have kept me guessing at least a little bit.