Every time I read one of Kathy Reichs’ books I wonder why the Temperance Brennan on the television show Bones was not modeled after the Temperance Brenna in the book series. The differences are great enough that one wonders how the TV character was even developed from the books. I just completed another, Deadly Decisions, and was once again struck by how the book’s Temperance Brennan is a much richer character than the one on the television series. Now both, like the author Riechs, are forensic anthropologists but the similarity ends there. Where the Temperance Brennan in the TV series is based at the mythical Jeffersonian Institute in Washington DC the character in the books moves between the North Carolina and Montreal Canada. This alone probably adds to the range of character development.  Further, even apart from Brennan the other characters in the books seem more alive and sometimes eclectic.

Deadly Decisions deals with the vicious nature of the motorcycle gangs and their considerable influence in the drug trade. While the book spends most of the time in Canada one of the mysteries is how bones from one individual end up in both Canada and North Carolina. As with all of the books in the series the reader gets an indoctrination into the nuts and bolts of forensic anthropology but not to the extent that it ruins the experience.  As a matter of fact, I find that one of the more interesting and enjoyable features of the series.

I have read a number of books in this series and enjoyed every one. If you like well constructed mysteries and have not given the series a try I suggest that you either download or pick one up.

Currently reading the latest offering from Daniel Silva, The English Girl, and the further adventures of Gabriel Allon, sometimes art restorer and assassin. It might well be the other way around but in any event I will post my thoughts on that one shortly.