| Product: |
Monday Mourning - Kathy Reichs |
| Date: |
20.01.06 (129 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Good story line, good writing style, good characters
Disadvantages: too much detail on forensic anthropology for the novice
Temperance Brennan, lovingly known as Tempe, is a Forensic Anthropologist who splits her time between cold Montreal and warm Charlotte, North Carolina. In early December, she is called to Montreal to testify as an expert in a trial. When she is casually asked to a freezing pizza parlour basement to have a quick look at some human remains, she has little idea that this assignment will take over her life and mind for quite some time. As she discovers that the remains belong to three young girls, she is faced with the mystery of whom they belong to.
But life is not made easy for Tempe. Working in a male world, she has to face up to detective Claudel's difficult personality who simply dismisses the bones as ancient remains and finds more important cases to deal with. Can Tempe win his attention and succeed for Claudel to take her more seriously when she suggest that the remains may only be a decade or two old?
And life is even made harder for Tempe, as her on-and-off relationship with detective Andrew Ryan seems to be nearing the end. Why is he receiving calls that make him leave the room and smile? And why is he suddenly making himself so scarce? As Tempe suspects another woman in the picture, she slowly attempts to withdraw from him and find comfort with her cat Birdie.
There is indeed a lot going on in this storyline, and that is exactly what makes it so realistic. It is life, it is complex, it is confusing - not some fairytale of knights in shining armour and a glamourous life style. But in the detail of the plot lies the only flaw of this enjoyable read - it goes one step to far. Whilst in the beginning I thoroughly enjoyed the detail on bone analysis and composition, after a while it simply wore me out and made me skim across the pages. The author, Kathy Reichs, is a Forensic Anthropologist herself - and with her expertise in the area comes the downfall of her writing. Sorry, dear. Most of your readers are probably not interested in the details of bone composition - or else they would have bought a text book.
I suppose another minor downfall of the realistic storyline is the subplot involving Tempe's best friend Anne, who suddenly is thinking about leaving her husband of the years and arrives in Montreal to stay with Tempe for a little while. Most of the time her presence is simply unnecessary - and perhaps only serves to demonstrate the importance of friendship and loyalty in life.
The writing style is superb - although perhaps annoying to some readers. Set in French-speaking Montreal, naturally some of the characters are francophones. Reich's simply loves introducing "le francais" in her novels. The French language. Aware of her mostly English-speaking audience, however, she does instantly translate the French words as they are spoken. It almost reads like a little language lesson - and I quite liked the aspect of her writing.
Another aspect of her writing that I really enjoyed is Reich's clever use of punctuation. The story is written in first person - and as such she uses a lot of abrupt punctuation to mimic the character's thoughts and feelings. Just like that. The thought just ends.
I really like the way she uses the first person throughout, because it allows for a certain kind of voyeurism and identification with the character. The reader is able to feel every emotion, even feel every sensation that Tempe goes through. The other characters are viewed through her eyes only - and their true personalities are consequently only discovered as Tempe gets to know them better and better with every passing moment.
A word of warning must be imparted. The storyline is a bit gruesome in parts - as the mystery of the identity of the girls whose skeletons were found in the basement is gradually becoming clearer, there are some unexpected twists and turns that will lead to some vivid descriptions of brutality and sexuality that may not be suitable for readers with a visual imagination and a weak stomach. As much as I was intrigued by everything that was happening, I was a little spooked at how someone could write such a horrid tale of human misery.
Apparently this is the seventh novel featuring Tempe Brennan as a main character - and I am very much looking forward to reading the other novels featuring this superb character who I have grown to love over the last week. I am slightly concerned about the enjoyability factor of the other novels - now that I know that there are six preceding the one I have read. However, from reading "Monday mourning", where previous knowledge of the Tempe's life was not a prerequisite set by the author, I strongly suspect that I will easily be able to follow the story line and piece her life together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
***Further information***
Publisher: Arrow
Pages: 400
Price: £6.99 for paperback, but available new from Amazon at £3.99 and used from £0.30.
Summary: A good story which suffers from too much details on forensic science.
|
|
