Book Review: Deja Dead (Temperance Brennan) by Kathy Reichs

I'm embarrassed to say that Kathy Reichs has written 17 books so far, and I've just discovered her. But, I'm so happy I did! I am completely hooked. I've read two so far and have just started a third. I'm so obsessed that I've tried reading books by other authors, but I just keep going back to Dr. Reich's Temperance Brennan books. I must know what happens next.......

Kathy Reichs is the inspiration for the television drama Bones. Like her fictional creation, Temperance Brennan, Dr. Reichs is forensic anthropologist for the province of Quebec. She is Vice President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, serves on the Canadian National Police Services Advisory Council, and is one of only fifty-six forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. A professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dr. Reichs now divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal. Deja Dead is her debut novel (1997).

This Temperance Brennan is not the Dr. Brennan of the TV series. The books are entirely different. Dr. Brennan is an American forensic anthropologist from North Carolina, who is working in French-speaking Montreal as the Director of Forensic Anthropology. A recovering alcoholic, she is divorced and the mother of a college-age daughter. 

Dr. Brennan must perform an autopsy on a young, unidentified female corpse discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in plastic trash bags. Dr. Brennan is convinced this is the work of a vicious serial killer, but she cannot convince the police. She must investigate on her own, which puts her life and some of her loved ones in danger. There are many surprising twists and turn throughout the book, and the ending is the real shocker but satisfying. 

This is one of the most gripping thrillers that I have ever read. Perhaps Deja Dead is so brilliant because - although fiction - it reflects real life because Dr. Reichs is a forensic anthropologist who has lived and worked in the South and in Montreal. It is obvious though that she is a born writer.