Death du jour

by Kathy Reichs

Crime fiction

Pocket star - 2006

451 pages - 10.99 $

En français ici

Why this book

Because Darling offered it to me for christmas... and he remembered that I love crime fiction!

Summary

Assaulted by the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, the American-born Dr. Temperance Breman, Forensic Anthropologist for the Province of Quebec, digs for a corpse where Sister Elisabeth Nicolet, dead over a century and now a candidate for sainthood, should lie in her grave. A strange, small coffin, buried in the recesses of a decaying church, holds the first clue to the cloistered nun's fate. The puzzle surrounding Sister Elisabeth's life and death provides a welcome contrast to discoveries at a burning chalet, where scorched and twisted bodies await Tempe's professional expertise. Who were these people? What brought them to this gruesome fate? Homicide Detective Andrew Ryan, with whom Tempe has a combustive history, joins her in the arson investigation. From the fire scene they are drawn into the worlds of an enigmatic and controversial professor, a mysterious commune, and a primate colony on a Carolina island.

My opinion

An easy reading. There's a lot of information and it's clear that the author is a forensic anthropologist. This is probably her strength: no smoke and mirrors, but proved forensic techniques. However, I found the text too technical at times. I read the first volume Déjà Dead in English and I struggled to understand everything, but now I know why because even in French, I found it difficult to understand due to tecnical term!

As for the plot, nothing surprising and it's similar to her first volume. I just hope that a member of the Brennan family will not almost die in each book, it would become boring ... The culprit is easily identified, the dialogues are sometimes hollow or too predictable.

Let's be brief

I had a good time reading it, but not a great time. Maybe because I've became a bit difficult after reading some very good writers lately (like Chealsy Cain). Reading Death du jour is a bit like watching a cop show on TV that is good enough to keep you awake, but too predictable to make you want to buy the DVD.