Dem bones
I’ve never really been much of a mystery buff but I’ve been curious about the Temperance Brennan novels since I became familiar with the television show Bones. Despite my enjoyment of the program, I was glad to find that any similarity to the show ends with the character’s name and profession. This first of Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan novels stands on its own in a way that the TV show cannot.
Fans of the show will find no Agent Booth or Jeffersonian Institute, and will find a fortyish Temperance Brennan, still a forensic anthropologist, but without the judo skills and blunt contempt for psychology the TV version has. On television, Dr Brennan is a less-bitter version of Dr House who unintentionally rather than purposefully insults everyone in her path. Déjà Dead’s Temperance Brennan cares about people, is sensitive to the judgment of others, and has to negotiate her lack of authority as a forensic anthropologist seen as an outsider by the police. This Dr Brennan doesn’t run around beating up professional killers and bossing around subordinates. Instead, she is a much more likable protagonist fighting resistance to her theories and findings.
Reichs’ experience brings a sense of authenticity to her storytelling. It’s a good thing, because Déjà Dead has freshman flaws. Many of the characters are flat and lifeless, and even the protagonist undergoes very little character development. Some of the plot twists are predictable, implausible, or both. However, mysteries aren’t generally character-driven books. They are about the crime and the process of uncovering the crime and getting at the truth. If Reichs’ first try at novel writing lacks in the character department, it shines in showing us the investigation in a way that was technically rich while avoiding a clinical feel.
This authentic foundation makes the novel very likable despiteor possibly because ofits flaws. I allow that the flaws may add to the book because in a way, it tells a story about the story. This isn’t a novel by someone who knows so much about writing that she can wrap us around her finger with hypnotic prose. It’s a novel by someone who had a strong enough story to tell and a unique approach to unraveling the story that she developed the skills to get it out on paper. I find it refreshing to see someone developing craft driven by vision rather than one of the thousands of writers who have studied the craft but are still grasping for inspiration.
It’s not to say that I won’t be pleased if I find that Reichs’ second novel (Death Du Jour) delves deeper into character. I’ve started it already and I hope to see improvement. It’s also not to say that even with this book that Reich is not a good writer. Her descriptions are clear, vivid and detailed, and though she occasionally lapses into overwrought similes («protruding like appendages to a space station»…huh?) she has an excellent command of language and has produced a compelling, very readable novel.
A word of caution, however: the focus on forensic science brings Reichs’ descriptive talents to bear on some very graphic material. The story itself is not gratuitously graphic, but her descriptions are sometimes explicit enough that they would disturb more sensitive readers.
