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Violence is the stepchild of desperation.
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Book Review: Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs
Posted on Saturday 07 September @ 14:02:34
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Every week (or thereabout) HGLEE.COM will review a book or film. Each work will have a brief review and a quick link to Amazon, should you decide to pick up a copy for yourself. This week's selection: Kathy Reichs' Death du Jour.
A brilliant plot in search of a capable writer...To the avid reader, there are few things more disappointing than a good tale poorly told. Regrettably, this is precisely what we have in Death du Jour: a potentially gripping plot replete with clumsy writing and more distractions than direction.
Reichs has borrowed so heavily from the Patricia Cornwell formula that it is tempting to say that the two authors are indistinguishable. However, that would be to sell both authors a bit short. While it is true Reichs' character, Temperance Brennan, is indistinguishable from Cornwell's Scarpetta in all material aspects, Reichs' prose contains none of the easy, flowing grace that propels readers to the climax of a Cornwell story. This is really a shame, for Reichs has an immense talent (superior to that of Cornwell, by the way) for conceiving of a tale worth telling.
The tale told here initially takes the reader down a path that reads like that of the rather dry journal of a forensic anthropologist unearthing the bones of a long-dead religious figure. This introduction, interesting only for its subject matter, reveals the art and science behind forensic recovery efforts. While this is interesting, it is hardly enough to sustain the interest of even the marginally demanding mystery reader. Thankfully, this (as it turns out, irrelevant) introductory jaunt is ended rather quickly as the real plot gets underway.
With the help of Andrew Ryan, a similarly dogged and clever Canadian detective, Brennan works the Canadian crime scene of a deadly house fire that leads to a charge of arson and a need to follow clues leading back to a strange commune in the Carolinas. Brennan's seemingly odd dual citizenship becomes instrumental in the unraveling of an intricate mystery involving numerous disappearances and murders. For in the travels between the Laboratoire de Médicine Légale in Montreal and her home in the Carolinas, Temperance Brennan begins to piece together the clues surrounding the disappearance of several University students and a possible connection with a mysterious cult. Along the way, the duo uncovers colorful characters and interesting plot twists, but the mediocre writing is simply too much of a consistent and genuine distraction in the telling of this otherwise captivating tale.
As the story concludes, we learn of all the details behind the murders, as if motivation and critical particulars were an afterthought for the author. This anticlimactic recitation of crucial facts is indicative of the stylistic and structural problems throughout the book. In the end, Reichs simply demands too much of a leap of faith from her readers. There is far too little pay-out for the investment that readers make in taking this ride with her at the helm. It's an investment I'm not likely to make again with this author, and that's a real shame because she does spin a good yarn.
Purchase:
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