A review by laurapk
A Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs

1.0

The opening chapter made me hope this novel was a return to form for the Temperance Brennan series. There was more introspection and beautiful writing in the opening chapter (e.g. "The tiny pond was a dark void, woolly where the water met the bank."

Unfortunately, the rest of the novel went downhill fast. And the writing quality dropped ("Before this is done, the case will be wrapped tighter than a mummy's dick.") There were three major stories that didn't glue well together--and the second half of the novel started to exasperate me as a reader. Approaching conspiracy theories in writing is difficult. Two-dimensional portrayals of the people who fall for them doesn't serve much and frankly I'm tired of those diatribes. I abhor Alex Jones and others like him as well, but fiction involving them often feels unsatisfying and ...well as off-centered as those conspiracy theories we're mocking.
SpoilerConspiracy theorists are the ones actually kidnapping children and selling child-pornography? Sure, why not.


Except no, it didn't make sense. Tempe had NO LOGICAL REASON for linking Nick Body to child abductions, it was just a jump, the same ilogical jump that conspiracy theorists do themselves. Also, Tempe broke every rule under the sun. And then we're supposed to be mad at the judges for not signing on a warrant where evidence was obtained by illegal entry on private property? After evidence was stored on a private phone, never backed up? A rookie PI would do better.

There were other major gaps in logic in the story as well. Tempe's computer is infected with a malware after she visits a conspiracy theory site. So the result is that...the virus allows her to download exactly the code she needs to view the illicit child pornography? So were the bad guys trying to kick her out and damage her computer, or thought she was a potential customer? Nothing made sense. Let's not even mention the way HIIPA is seen as just an inconvenience, and a treating physician decides to reveal some, but not all, confidential information. Seriously, are we supposed to cheer as laws designed to protect citizen's privacy are being broken, because the investigators suspect someone did something wrong? Is Tempe actually a villain? Because that makes more sense.

There was an acute lack of likable characters in this novel, and the mystery was thin and one gigantic conspiracy theory itself. While I appreciated that Tempe wasn't knocked in the head unconscious (because of course someone did knock her in the head, again) and the ending wasn't a classical "Tempe is now a prisoner", the ending was very lackluster. Her relationship with Andrew Ryan is so toxic I want to reach out to the male character and tell him to RUN. She promises to herself she'll try better (again), but this story is getting old. Also, I'm sorry, Slidel is in my opinion a disgusting character. I don't care how good he's supposed to be at his job, the way he talks is so old and rotten that I feel like taking a shower every time I read his lines.

I don't know what to say. I bought the other two remaining novels in the series and now I'm worried I won't be able to even finish them.

PS: Oh, did I mention the question Tempe asks herself? There were so many of them I wondered if those were needed to pad the word count. I skipped over them at one point and missed nothing