In a recent review, that delightful blogger Simon Savidge wrote that he turns to crime fiction "when I need something cleansing between other reads". I couldn't have put it better myself. So as I have been an admirer from the start of Kathy Reichs' Tempe Brennan novels, of which this is number 13, it seemed like just the thing to refresh the reading palate. Did it do the trick? Well, yes, it did, though I have to say it is not the best of the series. I suspect Reichs is getting a little tired and needing a break from churning these out once a year as she seems to have done up to now, as her new book, due out next month, is not about Tempe at all, but features her niece instead.
I hope, though, that this is not going to be the last we hear about Tempe. Reichs, even when not on top form, never fails to entertain me and inform me at the same time, which is always to the good. This one is set in Hawaii and managed to make me long to go there even more than I already did. The theme is interesting as it deals with an American organisation whose purpose is to recover and identify the remains of military personnel who have be killed overseas. In the novel there is a great deal of confusion about the identities of the various victims, which Tempe is called upon to sort out. Of course she does, though not without some danger to her own life and those of her nearest and dearest.
Reichs has taken to adding afterwords to the novels in which she explains how the fictional world of Tempe Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, relates to her own day job, as -- yes -- a forensic anthropologist. In this one, she apologises for using so many acronyms in the novel, and indeed she does need to as the brain does start whirling with them all after a while. Add to that the fact that many of the characters have Hawaiian and Samoan names and the reader really has to keep an eye on the ball to avoid total confusion. But on the credit side, Reichs's writing is always delightfully witty, and I'm sure many readers, like me, will keep reading if only to follow Tempe's various relationships. Here she is accompanied to Hawaii not only by her daughter Katy but also by her ex-lover Ryan and his teenage daughter Lily, and the interactions between them all are a joy. For my money Ryan is the most attractive male character in fiction past or present, and if I were Tempe I doubt if I'd still be keeping him at arms' length, but I guess this is what gives the novels an extra frisson -- will she or won't she?
This novel, by the way, has been published under a different name in the US -- Spider Bones. This has, not surprisingly, irritated a lot of people who have bought it twice. Why on earth do publishers do this?
