Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I’ve rounded up on stars for all these books. Reichs’ writing style is just a bit over-explanatory, and sometimes leans too much toward the “cutesy.” But the stories are good and that helps me overlook the negatives. Cross Bones is the best and most intriguing yet, certainly not a plot that I’ve run across before.
It's been a long time since I have disliked a book this much. There's a lot I can say, and pinpoint my issues, but I'll try to keep it brief.
-keepijg information from the reader for no reason
-not enough emotional connection with Tempt
-bad or off-putting analogies
-rushed ending
It was weird because the plot was so good I wanted to know how it ended and thus I kept reading but everything else brought it down so much. Pretty disappointed.
-keepijg information from the reader for no reason
-not enough emotional connection with Tempt
-bad or off-putting analogies
-rushed ending
It was weird because the plot was so good I wanted to know how it ended and thus I kept reading but everything else brought it down so much. Pretty disappointed.
I'm such a sucker for the combination of archaeology and religious history. Its just so fascinating to me to conjecture about the real people behind the religions of the world, especially when it's based on archaeological finds. Obviously I was hooked on this book. Reichs deftly wove in the facts of a weird excavation from the mid-20th century. Normally I'm not a fan of the merging of fact and fiction, but this is one of the few times I thoroughly enjoyed it.
All the religious stuff in this one lost me a couple times, but I eventually made it through. It was pretty interesting. I definitely enjoyed it as I have all the others.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
'Cross Bones' is the eighth book in Kathy Reichs’ ‘Temperance Brennan’ series, but in my opinion it is not really necessary to have read the previous ones. The novel does a good job of putting the reader in the picture of Tempe’s life and work.
Before the story begins, Kathy Reichs tells us that the book is inspired by real events – in Israel, archaeologists found remains of what they presumed to be Jewish zealots on the hill called Masada. They made a last stand against the Romans in the first century. A cave was discovered underneath where it was presumed that some Jewish people were living (as they found animal bones), hiding from the Romans.
The book is based in Montreal, where Tempe works for the winter, and of course her police boyfriend Andrew Ryan is around. She has recently got a bird called Charlie.
On Tempe’s table are some new remains, those of a Jewish man called Avram Ferris who seems to have shot himself in a cupboard at his business’s warehouse and been partially eaten by some cats. On closer inspection, the angle of the bullets was such that it could not have been suicide, but that he was shot execution style in the back of the head.
The victim’s very religious family insist on being present for the autopsy, and afterwards one approaches Tempe, saying his name is Kessler, and gives her a photo explaining that it was the reason for Avram Ferris’ death. Before she can react, he has exited the building in a hurry.
It turns out that the photo is that of a skeleton found in the cave at Masada in Israel, and Ferris’ involvement is investigated, along with who might have killed him for this knowledge.
The majority of the book is focused on figuring out mysteries surrounding skeletons and remains found at Masada and in the cave. Tempe enlists the help of Jake Drum, an archaeologist used to working in Israel, and tries to find out what she can about the mystery skeleton. I have to say that some parts of this research and mystery became rather boring. There was a lot of technical information about why or why not the skeletons could be different people, including information derived from DNA that very nearly went over my head.
I would say that, although the mystery was enough to pull me through the story, I did not enjoy this novel as much as previous books in the series. I read it fairly quickly because I had trains to catch one weekend, but it did feel frustrating that it took so long to reveal the secrets behind Ferris’ death. I think the book was a good 100-150 pages too long. I liked that it was based on real-life findings, but it was not really a topic that ignited my interest (conflict between the Jewish way of life or its history, and anything that might threaten that). Overall I could not really say that I recommend this book as it is not one of Reichs’ best, but I will definitely read the next one because I have so enjoyed previous novels in the series.
Before the story begins, Kathy Reichs tells us that the book is inspired by real events – in Israel, archaeologists found remains of what they presumed to be Jewish zealots on the hill called Masada. They made a last stand against the Romans in the first century. A cave was discovered underneath where it was presumed that some Jewish people were living (as they found animal bones), hiding from the Romans.
The book is based in Montreal, where Tempe works for the winter, and of course her police boyfriend Andrew Ryan is around. She has recently got a bird called Charlie.
On Tempe’s table are some new remains, those of a Jewish man called Avram Ferris who seems to have shot himself in a cupboard at his business’s warehouse and been partially eaten by some cats. On closer inspection, the angle of the bullets was such that it could not have been suicide, but that he was shot execution style in the back of the head.
The victim’s very religious family insist on being present for the autopsy, and afterwards one approaches Tempe, saying his name is Kessler, and gives her a photo explaining that it was the reason for Avram Ferris’ death. Before she can react, he has exited the building in a hurry.
It turns out that the photo is that of a skeleton found in the cave at Masada in Israel, and Ferris’ involvement is investigated, along with who might have killed him for this knowledge.
The majority of the book is focused on figuring out mysteries surrounding skeletons and remains found at Masada and in the cave. Tempe enlists the help of Jake Drum, an archaeologist used to working in Israel, and tries to find out what she can about the mystery skeleton. I have to say that some parts of this research and mystery became rather boring. There was a lot of technical information about why or why not the skeletons could be different people, including information derived from DNA that very nearly went over my head.
I would say that, although the mystery was enough to pull me through the story, I did not enjoy this novel as much as previous books in the series. I read it fairly quickly because I had trains to catch one weekend, but it did feel frustrating that it took so long to reveal the secrets behind Ferris’ death. I think the book was a good 100-150 pages too long. I liked that it was based on real-life findings, but it was not really a topic that ignited my interest (conflict between the Jewish way of life or its history, and anything that might threaten that). Overall I could not really say that I recommend this book as it is not one of Reichs’ best, but I will definitely read the next one because I have so enjoyed previous novels in the series.
It got better. Interesting case, historical backing and a reminder that sometimes murder is for the most mundane reasons. Tempe still acts kind of stupid but not nearly as bad as in past novels.
Bones has been one of my go-to series to watch when I just need something to see, and I remember liking the first Virals books when I was 13-14ish, so when I found this book for 50p in a charity shop I figured: why not??
Now I know why not. Not only was this not fun to read, it manages to include a LOT of anti-Palestinian sentiment and to be fairly antisemitic at the same time (and I feel at times a bit misogynistic). Wooo we love discrimination (not). I didn’t like this book at all. It also made me Google wtf “tap pants” are, and I feel non the wiser.
Anyway, I always manage to read a book or two that I really don’t like each year, so hopefully this gets it out of the way and I only have good reading ahead of me
Now I know why not. Not only was this not fun to read, it manages to include a LOT of anti-Palestinian sentiment and to be fairly antisemitic at the same time (and I feel at times a bit misogynistic). Wooo we love discrimination (not). I didn’t like this book at all. It also made me Google wtf “tap pants” are, and I feel non the wiser.
Anyway, I always manage to read a book or two that I really don’t like each year, so hopefully this gets it out of the way and I only have good reading ahead of me
Absolutely fantastic, the best in the series so far. The plot had me hooked from the start.