I'm a Doctor, Jim. Not a Police Officer (or am I?) (Bare Bones - Kathy Reichs)

Member Name: samueltyler

Product:	Bare Bones - Kathy Reichs
Date:	07/04/08 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good characters, well weaved story

Disadvantages: Silly cliff hangers, why risk your life?

Imagine that you are a forensic anthropologist. Your job is to investigate bones and discover what they are - are they human, is it a man or a woman? Essentially your job begins in the field looking at bones and ends in the lab looking at the same bones. Therefore, what would you do if someone sent you a threatening email telling you to back off one of your cases? You tell the police and stop investigating! You are only a civil servant and not a copper! If I was a Bin Man and someone threatened to kill me if I did a certain round - I would stop doing the bloomin' round! However, if everyone in fiction was a cowardly as me (or sensible) then books would be pretty dull. Thankfully then Dr Temperance Brennan, well paid civvie, decides to go were she is not exactly needed - rather her than me.

Dr Brennan returns once more in 'Bare Bones'. This time she is about to go on holiday; that is until three new cases come across her desk. One is to identify the two bodies found in a crashed plane, another is investigating a bag of bones found buried and the final case is that of a small child found burned. With all this workload Temp has no time to herself and her love life. If that was not bad enough it seems that one of her cases has ruffled a few feathers and she is getting threatening emails, can Dr Brennan solve all the cases?

As hinted in my opening paragraph the major issue I had with this book was the very fact that Brennan continues to investigate a case that threatens her family. If you can get over the fact that most rational people would say stuff this, the actual book is quite good. Firstly, Reichs has created in Brennan a character that is intelligent, but also vulnerable. The Brennan here is very different from the one on TV 'Bones' has she is older and has a grown child and an estranged husband. These elements in her personal life help to flesh out her character and unlike some author Reichs is able to balance the personal with the crime elements well.

It's this sense of balance that Reichs is able to continue in the structure of the three part story. I often read crime fiction with two strands that work, but any more and the book often suffers from being overly complicated. It is testament to Reichs' skills that the three stories remain separate and intertwine so well. It is important that this happens as it allows the reader to second guess which of the cases is bringing the threats. The sense of tension, especially towards the end, is good and I was unable to easily work out the criminal.

There is one more issue that I had with Reichs' writing style and it is one that clashes quite badly with her otherwise emotionally intelligent style; the use of cliff hanger sentences at the end of many chapters. This technique is used in fiction as a way of enhancing the drama and trying to get the reader to finish just one more chapter. However, it is a very pulpy thing to do and it was did not work in this book.

Despite its flaws 'Bare Bones' is a good read. I am willing to forgive the basic premise of a Doctor endangering her life, and the poor cliff hanger moments, because you can not deny that Brennan is an interesting character. Being able to read a book and not guess the culprit till the end is a surprisingly rare thing, so I was impressed that Reichs was able to do just this. With the ability to make her characters personal life as interesting as her cases it is clear to see why Reichs is as successful as she is. I just hope that in future novels that Brennan becomes involved in solving a crime in a more realistic way.

Author: Kathy Reichs
Price: amazon uk - £5.49
play.com - £5.49

Summary: A crime book that suffers a little