Scan barcode
A review by book_concierge
Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs
2.0
Audio book narrated by Michele Pawk
2.5***
Dr Tempe Brennan, forensic anthropologist, returns in her 8th outing. This time she stumbles upon a potentially explosive find with international implications when she’s called to consult on a putrefied corpse found in a warehouse closet. As she follows the many conflicting clues, she ultimately goes to Israel, where she travels with a bag of seemingly ancient bones, possibly stolen decades earlier from an archeological dig.
What I like about Brennan is that she is smart and feisty. What I like about Reichs’s mysteries is that she includes a fair amount of forensic detail based on her own work as a forensic anthropologist. What drives me crazy is that Tempe almost always winds up behaving in a borderline stupid / careless manner. This outing is no different. She runs into situations without being fully prepared (Who goes into a cave without a powerful flashlight with new batteries?), and without considering the potential consequences. (Would YOU enter a place that had obviously been ransacked … and in the dark, to boot?) While Brennan definitely seems to have every intention of getting herself out of the messes she gets herself into, Reichs also frequently happens to write in a convenient male to save her. Still, Reichs crafts a good story that is compelling, moves quickly, and holds my attention. And Pawk does a fine job narrating.
So why only 2.5 stars? This one seems to be blatantly riding the coattails of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code; it was published two years after Brown’s blockbuster. Without giving too much away, think of Mary Magdalene.
2.5***
Dr Tempe Brennan, forensic anthropologist, returns in her 8th outing. This time she stumbles upon a potentially explosive find with international implications when she’s called to consult on a putrefied corpse found in a warehouse closet. As she follows the many conflicting clues, she ultimately goes to Israel, where she travels with a bag of seemingly ancient bones, possibly stolen decades earlier from an archeological dig.
What I like about Brennan is that she is smart and feisty. What I like about Reichs’s mysteries is that she includes a fair amount of forensic detail based on her own work as a forensic anthropologist. What drives me crazy is that Tempe almost always winds up behaving in a borderline stupid / careless manner. This outing is no different. She runs into situations without being fully prepared (Who goes into a cave without a powerful flashlight with new batteries?), and without considering the potential consequences. (Would YOU enter a place that had obviously been ransacked … and in the dark, to boot?) While Brennan definitely seems to have every intention of getting herself out of the messes she gets herself into, Reichs also frequently happens to write in a convenient male to save her. Still, Reichs crafts a good story that is compelling, moves quickly, and holds my attention. And Pawk does a fine job narrating.
So why only 2.5 stars? This one seems to be blatantly riding the coattails of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code; it was published two years after Brown’s blockbuster. Without giving too much away, think of Mary Magdalene.