Deja Dead (Temperance Brennan, #1)

by Kathy Reichs

The raves are in -- from Edgar-winning authors and internationally acclaimed forensic experts: Kathy Reichs and D&éja Dead are something special.
Rarely has a debut crime novel inspired such widespread excitement. A born storyteller, Dr. Kathy Reichs walks in the steps of her heroine, Dr. Temperance Brennan. She spends her days in the autopsy suite, the courtroom, the crime lab, with cops, and at exhumation sites. Often her long days turn into harrowing nights.
It's June in Montreal, and Tempe, who has left a shaky marriage back home in North Carolina to take on the challenging assignment of director of forensic anthropology for the province of Quebec, looks forward to a relaxing weekend.
First, though, she must stop at a newly uncovered burial site in the heart of the city. One look at the decomposed and decapitated corpse, stored neatly in plastic bags, tells her she'll spend the weekend in the crime lab. This is homicide of the worst kind. To begin to find some answers, Tempe must first identify the victim. Who is this person with the reddish hair and a small bone structure?

• ISBN10: 0684841177
• ISBN13: 9780684841175
• Publish Date: 29 September 1997 (first published 17 July 1997)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 1 December 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 411
• Language: English

Reviews

[Mystereity Reviews]

This was my second attempt at reading this book, the first time I only made it a few chapters. I'm glad I stuck with it this time, it turned into a darn good story. I think it could benefit from a little bit of editing; the book felt like it was way too long and there were some parts that didn't add to the story. But overall, I liked the characters (for some reason, I kept picturing Claudel as Clouseau) and although I'm not familiar with Montreal, the descriptions were vivid.

I picked this book up because I really like the Bones TV show and I was expecting something different than what I got. Even though it was different, I still enjoyed this book. If you take it away from the Bones series and think of it as a different entity the book is pretty good.

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I was surprised by how much this booked sucked me in. After reading the reviews on Good Reads, I was prepared to be disappointed since I love the show Bones. The story was well written with just the right amount of information and reveal for a solid mystery. I didn't feel duped or disappointed at the end. I'm not sure if I'll read the other novels in the series as the character growth was a little weak, but perhaps has the series goes on, there will be more of that.

[ibeforem]

I’m a fan of the tv show Bones, and have had this series recommended to me numerous times, so I was looking forward to this book! I already knew that the tv show was only loosely based on the books, so I wasn’t surprised when I found out the book Tempe was older than the tv one, and that there is no Booth. Still, my knowledge of the show created a sort of disconnect for me, and I found myself reading this as though the book Tempe was an older version of the tv Tempe.

All of that aside, I did enjoy this, though I didn’t fall in love with it. It took me a while to warm up to Tempe, though I enjoyed the emotion she showed that the tv Tempe is often missing. There’s a lot of detail in this book so it’s not for the squeamish, but the plot is solid and keeps you guessing right up to the very end. It’s definitely a series I will read more of.