Death du Jour - Death of the Day (Death du Jour - Kathy Reichs)

Member Name: wolfey59

Product:	Death du Jour - Kathy Reichs
Date:	08/08/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast paced and keeps the suspense

Disadvantages: Some technical jargon makes it confusing

Death du Jour is the second book in the series starring Dr Brennan, and is just as good, if not better. This book starts with a bit more excitement that the last book, with Brennan exhuming (digging up) a body from the 1800's. Shortly after this there is a fire in a house where five bodies are found, including two small children who were only eighteen months old.

These two stories run along side each other for a while, which does get a bit confusing at times. This book also details Brennan's life as a tutor of a class in a small town called Charlotte in America and again, she goes back and forth between here and Quebec, in Canada throughout the book, making it slightly confusing.

Whilst in Charlotte, Brennans daughter comes to visit and they go to a small island which is owned by one of Brennan's friends. He is breeding monkeys on the island and there is a long section in the book which explains all about the monkeys actions and how they develop, which seems a bit irrelevant. After all this though it eventually leads to another two bodies being found buried on the island.

The book then works its way through investigating the deaths and ends up being involved in a cult and you find out that all the deaths are linked together, even though they have been found miles apart from each other.

The book is believable to an extent. We can understand that lots of bodies are found in the course of a few days, as that is Brennans job, although she does make reference to not ever having found this many bodies in such a short space of time. This is where the title comes from - Death du Jour means 'Death of the Day' and there is reference to this towards the end if no one had worked it out by then. There is a lot of technical jargon again, about the monkeys and a bit about how bugs can determine the cause of death. But again, Brennan is meddling in things that should be left to the police and even gets attacked at one point. But if she didn't meddle then there wouldn't be a story, so it can be forgiven.

Because there are so many bodies in different places and themes running through the book there are sections which I liked where Brennan goes through a series of questions in her head. This reminds the reader where they are and what still needs to be uncovered and found out. There are about three of these sections and it helps keep the story together and keep the focus, for Brennan as well.

There is then a dream which Brennan has at the end, which doesn't make too much sense to start with but when they go out to make the final search, what she has seen in the dream comes back to her and points her in the right direction. I think maybe Reichs was wondering how to bring it all together at the end and a nonsensical dream seemed to have worked, linking all the deaths to this one cult.

I liked this book much better than the last one because it was faster paced and Reichs builds up the suspense, making the reader go right to the end to find out answers to the questions. The only bits I don't enjoy as much is the technical bits because these tend to go over my head and can seem a little long, but it doesn't take away the enjoyment from the rest of the book.

Reichs also includes a love theme in this book which distracts the reader, for a short while, from all the death and destruction that is going on around them.

I would definitely read this again and it is highly recommended

Summary: Brilliant, highly recommended