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A review by paulabrandon
Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs
2.0
Dr. Temperance Brennan is brought into an investigation in which the deaths of several pre-teen and teen girls have been linked to Anique Pomerlau, a killer that Tempe encountered ten years previously (in Monday Mourning), but who got away. After another girl is killed, Tempe tracks down Andrew Ryan, who was on the original case, and they try to track Anique, who might be hunting Tempe.
It's funny that Tempe refers to Anique as "the one who got away". I may have only sporadically read these books over the intervening years, but I'm fairly certain this character has never been mentioned in any of the books since Monday Mourning. I'm also fairly certain Tempe's mother has barely been mentioned in any of the books, but she pops up here, and it turns out she's some sort of computer and internet guru!
I have a four star rating for Monday Mourning on Goodreads because I have a very vague memory of quite enjoying it....fifteen years ago. Considering that I can barely remember books I read last month, it's a bit of a big call for me to remember Tempe's "nemesis" from back in 2005! And even if I had read this book when it first came out, that's still 10 years after said "nemesis" was first introduced! The supposed dramatic impact of a past killer returning to stalk the protagonist doesn't work when this past killer has barely been a blip on the radar in several subsequent books!
Mostly, this was boring. Nothing seemed to happen for the longest time. Bones Never Lie lacks the complex plots of Reichs' other works, and for the most part, involves little more than Tempe and others skipping from place to place, interviewing people connected to each of the girls that have died or gone missing. As usual, there are long, detailed descriptions of routes taken to get places, or of other things that have zero bearing on the plot.
None of the plot twists are particularly surprising, other than a late in the game revelation of. The forensic detail that can often make this series so interesting and exciting is almost completely absent, and Tempe at times often just seems to be a sideline player, waiting for phone calls from those doing the actual investigating. After several chapters of Tempe tracking Andrew Ryan down, he then disappears for the second half of the book.
This feels like a real slapdash effort of an author perhaps tiring of their creation (after the next book, Speaking In Bones, Reichs wrote a standalone novel.) This series has always varied in quality, and it's certainly not as bad as Cross Bones, but it's a very uncharacteristically humdrum affair with a simple, slow-moving, predictable plot.
It's funny that Tempe refers to Anique as "the one who got away". I may have only sporadically read these books over the intervening years, but I'm fairly certain this character has never been mentioned in any of the books since Monday Mourning. I'm also fairly certain Tempe's mother has barely been mentioned in any of the books, but she pops up here, and it turns out she's some sort of computer and internet guru!
I have a four star rating for Monday Mourning on Goodreads because I have a very vague memory of quite enjoying it....fifteen years ago. Considering that I can barely remember books I read last month, it's a bit of a big call for me to remember Tempe's "nemesis" from back in 2005! And even if I had read this book when it first came out, that's still 10 years after said "nemesis" was first introduced! The supposed dramatic impact of a past killer returning to stalk the protagonist doesn't work when this past killer has barely been a blip on the radar in several subsequent books!
Mostly, this was boring. Nothing seemed to happen for the longest time. Bones Never Lie lacks the complex plots of Reichs' other works, and for the most part, involves little more than Tempe and others skipping from place to place, interviewing people connected to each of the girls that have died or gone missing. As usual, there are long, detailed descriptions of routes taken to get places, or of other things that have zero bearing on the plot.
None of the plot twists are particularly surprising, other than a late in the game revelation of
Spoiler
the killer having a female body but male cellsThis feels like a real slapdash effort of an author perhaps tiring of their creation (after the next book, Speaking In Bones, Reichs wrote a standalone novel.) This series has always varied in quality, and it's certainly not as bad as Cross Bones, but it's a very uncharacteristically humdrum affair with a simple, slow-moving, predictable plot.