Grave Secrets (Temperance Brennan, #5)

Apr 27, 2013 Sebrina rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Feb 11, 2008 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

I had trouble with her novels before this one. I think mainly because I was comparing her to Patricia Cornwell, and she just wasn't measuring up (in my mind). Then, I was desperate for a book to read on the bus, and this one was on the bookshelf, so I grabbed it and am happy to report, enjoyed it immensely. I have read all the books following this one and have enjoyed them all as well. (It might have something to do with the TV series BONES, which isn't anything like the books (except for the ma...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Aine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Description from Dust Flap

It was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers ravaged the village of Chupan Ya, raping and killing women and children. Twenty-three victims are said to lie in the well where, twenty years later, Dr. Temperance Brennan and a team from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation now dig. No records were kept. To their families, the dead are "the disappeared."
Forensic anthropologist for the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, Tempe is in Guatemala for a

...more Description from Dust Flap

It was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers ravaged the village of Chupan Ya, raping and killing women and children. Twenty-three victims are said to lie in the well where, twenty years later, Dr. Temperance Brennan and a team from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation now dig. No records were kept. To their families, the dead are "the disappeared."
Forensic anthropologist for the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, Tempe is in Guatemala for a month's service to help some families identify and bury their dead. She digs in a cold, damp pit where she finds a hair clip, a fragment of cloth, a tiny sneaker. Her trowel touches something hard: the hip of a child no more than two years old.
It's heartbreaking work. Something savage happened here twenty yers ago. The violence continues today. The team is packing up for the day when an urgent satellite call comes in. Two colleagues are under attack. Shots ring out, and Tempe listens in horror to a woman's screams. Then there is silence. Dead silence.
With this new violence, everything changes, both for the team and for Tempe, who's asked by the Guatemalan police for her expertise on another case. Four privileged young women have vanished from Guatemala City in recent months. One is the Canadian ambassador's daughter. Some remains have turned up in a septic tank, and Tempe unfortunately knows septic tanks.
Teaming with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolome Galiano and with Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, who may have more than just professional reasons to join her on the case, Tempe soon finds herself in a dangerous web that stretches far beyond Guatemala's borders. The stakes are huge. As power, money, greed, and science converge, Tempe must make life altering choices.
From cutting-edge science in the lab, where Tempe studies fetal bones and cat hair DNA, to a chillin encounter in a lonely morgue, Grave Secrets is powerful, page-turning entertainment from a crime fiction superstar who combines riveting authenticity with witty, elegant prose.

My Comments

I just don't like mysteries. I think it's probably because I'm not a big fan of suspense. I would much prefer to just get into the character's minds, and read a character study book than read a fast-paced mystery book with twists and turns. I just can't get into them.

This book started out pretty well. I liked the stuff with the Disappeared in Guatemala, and even the parts where she started the other investigation. Actually, I thought it was actually pretty interesting until the last fifty pages, when they brought in stuff that came out of nowhere and that I thought was totally...well, silly. It was an okay book. I have to admit it was better than other mysteries I've read, anyway.

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Dec 04, 2008 Catten rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kathy Reichs's novel Grave Secrets opens with this dedication:

For the innocents:

Guatemala
1962-1996

New York, New York
Arlington, Virginia
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
September 11, 2001

I have touched their bones. I mourn for them.

For those not yet familiar with this ambitious author, Reichs, like the character in her books, Tempe Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist for the North Carolina medical examiner. She also works for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légals in Quebec, and...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Red Heaven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Five books into this series, my pet peeve is the astounding coincidences that crop up so implausibly in virtually every book. I suppose the same could be said here where, even though Tempe is in Guatemala, the case just happens to bring in the Canadian ambassador, and therefore Ryan. I am getting a little tired of Ryan and his constant smoking and forced insertion into stories where, if anything, he should be in the background. Also for my money, five books in and still Tempe's acting "will she,...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Kelly rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: beach-book, blinded-by-science, dramatic, fiction, horror, mystery, thriller

Welcome back readers to another episode of Forensic Science, I mean C.S.I., no, I mean Cold Case Files... Finding myself becoming confused, disoriented, and possibly schitzophrenic, I begin to chant "Oh, it's this kind of book."

The plot is intriguing and intelligently thought out. Oh, if it could have only stopped there, we would of had a grand ole' time. The subplots were so abrupt and interwoven so carelessly, you have to keep checking back to make sure your reading the right book. The subplo...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Matt Schiariti rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found this one to be a little confusing at times. There's many characters involved for one thing and there are several plots running at the same time. Continent skipping really didn't help.

I have noticed that theme in some of the previous Tempe Brennan novels. No matter where mystery or work takes here, somehow it always ties back to Canada. Fatal Voyage bucked that trend, but this one goes right back to it. It's not that I mind her being based primarily in Canada even though she's a Carolina...more I found this one to be a little confusing at times. There's many characters involved for one thing and there are several plots running at the same time. Continent skipping really didn't help.

I have noticed that theme in some of the previous Tempe Brennan novels. No matter where mystery or work takes here, somehow it always ties back to Canada. Fatal Voyage bucked that trend, but this one goes right back to it. It's not that I mind her being based primarily in Canada even though she's a Carolina implant. Not in the least. It's just that sometimes I find the unrelated mysteries she encounters whenever she goes BACK to Canada (or away as in some previous books) to confuse matters at times. Sometimes I also think it's just an excuse to get Ryan into the book. I think Ryan's a great character, but I think the constant and coincidental ties to Canada as a means of getting Ryan into the book is a bit of a stretch. In fact, one of the major players in this book who lives and works in Guatemala even went to college with Ryan. I liked the Galiano character, but once again..the ties back to Canada are a little too coincidental to be beleived.

What's good about this book is that (even though at times a little confusing with all the minor players and subplots) is that the main mystery is never what it seems at the beginning of the book. By the time you're two thirds of the way through a Tempe Brennan novel the greater mystery reveals itself and it's usually one you never saw coming.

Tempe's doing some work in Guatemala. Trying to identify victims of a mass military massacre from the 80s (which actually happened) so they may be put to rest. It's what she does. That on its own is a mystery in itself but it's when she's approached by the local authorities to identify bodies of a potential serial killer that she gets into real trouble and things start to get messy and interesting at the same time.

If you can keep up with the twists and turns and all the major and minor players, it's still worth a read because there's a pretty twisted and chilling mystery at the heart of this book. (less)

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Nov 14, 2012 Corrine Foulger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My Comments

I have always loved the books that have been produced by Kathy Reichs I think she is a very talented writer and her contributions to the television series 'Bones' are quite substantial. This book in particular I found really gripping, it didn't take me long to read at all. The true involvement of Brennan in the Guatemala government through her expertise is highly gripping. The idea that it isn't something that is generally done and all the red tape that she faces to get the evidence s...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another great entry in the Temperance Brennan series. The story begins with Brennan patricipating in the forensic exhumation of a mass grave in Guatemala, and soon she is consulting on the remains of a victim of a possible serial killer. I loved how Reichs seamlessly educated her readers about a real-life tragedy, the disappeared in Guatemala and other South American countries, while writing a captivating mystery. I had no idea how this was going to end, and I was so captivated that I even skipp...more

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May 10, 2012 Book Concierge rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Audio book narrated by Katherine Borowitz

Forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan is in Guatemala working to excavate a decades-old mass grave and identify the bodies buried there, when she is asked to help local police with their investigation into the disappearance of four young women. Is there a serial killer on the loose? Why is the DA hampering the investigation? What is the Canadian ambassador’s wife hiding? Is the local detective truly interested in her – in a personal way – or is she imagin...more

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May 17, 2011 Annette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, audible

This review applies to the audible version.

A harrowing excavation unearths a chilling tragedy never laid to rest.

They are “the disappeared,” twenty-three massacre victims buried in a well in the Guatemalan village of Chupan Ya two decades ago. Leading a team of experts on a meticulous, heartbreaking dig, Tempe Brennan pieces together the violence of the past. But a fresh wave of terror begins when the horrific sounds of a fatal attack on two colleagues come in on a blood-chilling satellite call.

...more This review applies to the audible version.

A harrowing excavation unearths a chilling tragedy never laid to rest.

They are “the disappeared,” twenty-three massacre victims buried in a well in the Guatemalan village of Chupan Ya two decades ago. Leading a team of experts on a meticulous, heartbreaking dig, Tempe Brennan pieces together the violence of the past. But a fresh wave of terror begins when the horrific sounds of a fatal attack on two colleagues come in on a blood-chilling satellite call. Teaming up with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolomé Galiano and Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, Tempe quickly becomes enmeshed in the cases of four privileged young women who have vanished from Guatemala City — and finds herself caught in deadly territory where power, money, greed, and science converge.

This was my first Kathy Reichs' book after having watched Bones for years. The narration often left me sleepy, but I was interested in the stories of the girls and how they all tied together. I would recommend the print version over the audible version in this case.

I am now reading her books from the beginning (mostly for the Andrew Ryan back story) and getting a feel for how Reichs' writing may have improved over the years. I started into the series knowing that the Temperance Brennan in these books is supposed to be an older and wiser version than our beloved Tempe in Bones, so I have no gripe about the character discrepancies there. The Tempe in the books is much more human and emotional, less logical and reserved.

In Grave Secrets we travel from Guatemala to Canada and back. We learn a bit about Ryan's college days, a possible new love interest for Tempe, political intrigue (ok, not so much, but politicians are trying to cover up a myriad of sins). And Tempe is almost murdered at least twice. I don't know if this is normal for the series or not, but I do enjoy a heroine who gets herself into that much trouble.

I may have to re-read the book in print, but overall I enjoyed it. (less)

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Nov 16, 2010 Cinzia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novecento, gialli-thriller-e-simili

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Questa volta la dottoressa Brennan vola in Guatemala per partecipare al progetto di identificazione delle vittime della violenza dell’esercito e dei gruppi paramilitari. Ufficialmente il suo lavoro consiste nell’identificare gli scheletri rinvenuti in un pozzo, appartenenti a donne e bambini, e nel determinare la causa della morte di questi ultimi (percosse, colpi di macete, colpi di arma da fuoco e decapitazione), ma viene coinvolta da un investigatore locale in un indagine su un presunto seria...more

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Jul 14, 2010 Annii Frazer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010books, mysteries

Description from Dust Flap

It was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers ravaged the village of Chupan Ya, raping and killing women and children. Twenty-three victims are said to lie in the well where, twenty years later, Dr. Temperance Brennan and a team from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation now dig. No records were kept. To their families, the dead are "the disappeared."
Forensic anthropologist for the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, Tempe is in Guatemala for a

...more Description from Dust Flap

It was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers ravaged the village of Chupan Ya, raping and killing women and children. Twenty-three victims are said to lie in the well where, twenty years later, Dr. Temperance Brennan and a team from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation now dig. No records were kept. To their families, the dead are "the disappeared."
Forensic anthropologist for the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, Tempe is in Guatemala for a month's service to help some families identify and bury their dead. She digs in a cold, damp pit where she finds a hair clip, a fragment of cloth, a tiny sneaker. Her trowel touches something hard: the hip of a child no more than two years old.
It's heartbreaking work. Something savage happened here twenty yers ago. The violence continues today. The team is packing up for the day when an urgent satellite call comes in. Two colleagues are under attack. Shots ring out, and Tempe listens in horror to a woman's screams. Then there is silence. Dead silence.
With this new violence, everything changes, both for the team and for Tempe, who's asked by the Guatemalan police for her expertise on another case. Four privileged young women have vanished from Guatemala City in recent months. One is the Canadian ambassador's daughter. Some remains have turned up in a septic tank, and Tempe unfortunately knows septic tanks.
Teaming with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolome Galiano and with Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, who may have more than just professional reasons to join her on the case, Tempe soon finds herself in a dangerous web that stretches far beyond Guatemala's borders. The stakes are huge. As power, money, greed, and science converge, Tempe must make life altering choices.
From cutting-edge science in the lab, where Tempe studies fetal bones and cat hair DNA, to a chillin encounter in a lonely morgue, Grave Secrets is powerful, page-turning entertainment from a crime fiction superstar who combines riveting authenticity with witty, elegant prose.

My Comments

I just don't like mysteries. I think it's probably because I'm not a big fan of suspense. I would much prefer to just get into the character's minds, and read a character study book than read a fast-paced mystery book with twists and turns. I just can't get into them.

This book started out pretty well. I liked the stuff with the Disappeared in Guatemala, and even the parts where she started the other investigation. Actually, I thought it was actually pretty interesting until the last fifty pages, when they brought in stuff that came out of nowhere and that I thought was totally...well, silly. It was an okay book. I have to admit it was better than other mysteries I've read, anyway.

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Jun 09, 2010 Jlaurenmc rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From 1990 until 1996, over 200,000 people disappeared or were killed in Guatemala. That thirty-plus years signified the Guatemalan Civil War between the government of Guatemala and insurgents in the country. Although the war was largely political, many innocent citizens were killed throughout the war, especially women and children.

In Kathy Reichs's fifth novel, Grave Secrets, forensic anthropologist Dr. Tempe Brennan has traveled to Guatemala as a worker for the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology...more From 1990 until 1996, over 200,000 people disappeared or were killed in Guatemala. That thirty-plus years signified the Guatemalan Civil War between the government of Guatemala and insurgents in the country. Although the war was largely political, many innocent citizens were killed throughout the war, especially women and children.

In Kathy Reichs's fifth novel, Grave Secrets, forensic anthropologist Dr. Tempe Brennan has traveled to Guatemala as a worker for the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation and their recovery efforts to find and identify victims of human rights violations during the war. Brennan's efforts yield results both historical and present-day when, after leaving a dig site, she is pulled into a recent murder scene in a hotel septic tank. Guatemalan Inspector Galiano asks for her assistance in solving the case. As they investigate, four young women from Guatemala are discovered missing. Galiano and Tempe rush to find out which of the young women was found in the waste water, and if the body belongs to the daughter of the Canadian ambassador to Guatemala -- one of the missing girls.

Although at first glance, the subject matter sounds interesting -- especially for someone like me, who minored in Women's Studies in college -- Reichs somehow falls flat in this attempt. I did manage to finish it; after all, it is a Tempe Brennan novel, and so it was interesting despite some pitfalls. While Tempe's private life stays out of the spotlight in this novel, Reichs does introduce Galiano as a possible new suitor, one who is in direct conflict with Tempe's long-time on-again-off-again flame Andrew Ryan. Ultimately, Reichs brings attention to the situation in Guatemala, which -- even as an educated, well-read person -- I was largely unaware of until reading this book.

But for me, history is not the only reason to read a book, and so I need a bit more plot and character interaction. Although, as I said, Reichs gives readers a new character in Galiano, his addition didn't make the novel for me. I felt it was too short, or too little action, or something. But, again, it furthers Tempe's story, and so I would have read it -- no matter how good or bad -- to continue my obsession with this series. (less)

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Nov 29, 2009 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tempe Brennan is in Guatemala working on finding and documenting graves of villagers killed by army and civilian auxiliaries when two of the team are ambushed on the way to the dig. Later as she is working in the headquarters of the discovery group she is contacted by the local police to help with the recovery and identification of a body found in a septic system. Besides opening up the septic tank it also opens up a political can of worms as certain members of the DAs office do not want her hel...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Eden rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a departure from the usual Reichs/Brennan procedural in that much of it took place in Guatemala. With the exception of the always entertaining Ryan, most of the regular cast of characters did not appear, but were replaced by Central American counterparts. Though there were ties to Canada which allowed for Tempe having a little time in her own lab, the story revolved mainly around a case that began as one thing and ended as something else entirely and had nothing to do with what ori...more

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Dec 29, 2009 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: guilty-pleasures

Kathy Reichs' Grave Secrets is the 5th book in her Temperance Brennan series though my first exposure to author and her literary character. This Tempe splits her consulting time between Montreal and Virginia, is older than TV's Bones, has a college age daughter and a not-quite-ex husband.

In Grave Secrets, Tempe is working on humanitarian dig in Guatemala to exhume, record cause of death & identify victims of Guatemala's civil war, afterward returning the remains to their families for respect...more

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Feb 01, 2012 David rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this up at the library a few weeks ago. I rather enjoy audiobooks on the way to work in the morning. This one just didn't work for me.

One of the things I liked about this book was the science. I enjoyed learning new things, and I appreciate authors who take the time to get things right. You can tell how much Reichs cares about her profession.

Sadly, I felt the plot aspect of the book was rather lacking. I don't mean to say its non-existent. There is plot here, it just isn't particularly...more

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Apr 05, 2009 Luann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, adult, mystery, tv, shelf-a-thon1

This is my second Kathy Reichs mystery. I did like this more than my first one, although not enough to rush out and read them all right now. I really liked the Guatemalan setting and Sergeant-Detective Galiano. I was immediately drawn into the story, although many of the details were very gruesome. Don't read this while you're eating! Also, the solution was a bit complicated.

And you should really try to NOT compare these books to the TV show "Bones." I still have a hard time reconciling the diff...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Debdatta Dasgupta Sahay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: review-copy

Couple of years back while flicking through the TV Channels, I stopped at one particular spot thinking that the channel had started airing the TV show ‘Angel’ again since on the screen was David Boreanaz. Pretty soon I was hooked and when the commercial break came up, I discovered that the show called Bones. Over the years I have followed the series on TV, but have somehow missed out on reading the original series so far. This was my first date with the original and bookish Temperance Brennan.

Te...more Couple of years back while flicking through the TV Channels, I stopped at one particular spot thinking that the channel had started airing the TV show ‘Angel’ again since on the screen was David Boreanaz. Pretty soon I was hooked and when the commercial break came up, I discovered that the show called Bones. Over the years I have followed the series on TV, but have somehow missed out on reading the original series so far. This was my first date with the original and bookish Temperance Brennan.

Temperance Brennan lands in Guatemala to try and excavate dead bodies dating back to the country’s civil war. While a surprise attack leaves Temperance in shock, girls start disappearing all around and a body is found in a Hotel’s septic tank… Temperance Brennan is knee deep into an investigation that might be bit too much even for her. From the missing daughter of an ambassador to the local to what may be a serial killer on the loose to the DA’s secret, will Temperance Brennan be able to solve the case on time?

I have to admit that after having watched the series for quite some time, it was difficult for me to pick up this book with a clean slate and no expectation. Once I started with the book, I kept imagining Emily Deschanel’s face as Temperance and kept expecting Seeley to jump in any and every moment. Frankly, I think watching the series before the book, and having such amazing cast play the roles, it was quite easy for me to like the bookish Temperence too.

The plot was amazing! The elaborate and complicated web of mystery really pulled me in from the beginning. The parallel storylines along with their own sets of characters kept me enchanted throughout. At times, I did feel like smacking Temperance because of the certain rigidity in her character, but I suppose that’s the best part about this series – that we love our protagonist even though she has some serious flaws and issues. It is one thing watching it on TV but another thing on the whole to read all the scientific explanations involved in this series. The author has done a brilliant job in delivering it all in a scientific language that laymen like me too can easily grasp onto. Also, the description of Guatemala and the horrors of war has been well done.

Overall it was a fast paced page turner that I certainly enjoyed reading. It is also a part of a series that I plan to continue with.
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Nov 15, 2010 Giulietta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romanzi, libri, statunitensi, antropologia, forense, giallo

E un altro suo libro è andato... ormai sono una tossica! Come farò quando finirò gli *ultimi* 5 libri che mi mancano?!
Questo libro si distingue dai precedenti per il terreno delle indagini primarie, il Guatemala (nello specifico l'identificazione delle vittime della guerra civile), ma l'azione si sposta poi fino in Canada, giusto per far entrare in buon vecchio Andrew Ryan nella storia. Come in ogni libro della Reichs, largo spazio alle analisi ossee, ma anche alle teorie investigative, e alla *...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Toni Osborne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Book #5 in the Temperance Brenna series

I have been following this series for a very long time and for one reason or another I missed “Grave Secrets” the library had it so I seized the opportunity.

This story takes us from the familiar American and Canadian locations to a village in Guatemala. Between 1962 and 1996 during the country’s civil war, a bloody massacre occurred and thousands of souls lost their lives. The story echoes Ms. Reichs’ real life experience when she was asked to be part of an...more Book #5 in the Temperance Brenna series

I have been following this series for a very long time and for one reason or another I missed “Grave Secrets” the library had it so I seized the opportunity.

This story takes us from the familiar American and Canadian locations to a village in Guatemala. Between 1962 and 1996 during the country’s civil war, a bloody massacre occurred and thousands of souls lost their lives. The story echoes Ms. Reichs’ real life experience when she was asked to be part of an international team of forensic experts to excavate a mass grave site, identify the victims and determine how they died. Temperance Brennan plays the fictional role and will soon learn first-hand what a depressing assignment it will turn out to be, politics sometimes trumps justice.

We get to the heart of the story and the action picks up momentum when Tempe is pulled from the mass burial site to investigate other remains. The gravity of the situation is amplified when it is learned that many young girls are missing and Tempe quickly suspects there could be a serial killer on the loose and may even have ties to a respected Canadian ambassador. Tempe under pressure from Canadian authorities is encouraged to treat the disappearance of the young girls from Guatemala City as her new priority.

Teaming up with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolomé Galiano and Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, the trio find themselves in the hot seat facing a deadly adversary where power, money, and greed are pitted against the best in police technology.

After reading many novels I have come to expect lots of technical details about forensics and its related fields, this time I found myself saturated to a point I needed to skim through some. Nevertheless the plotting is quite crafty and the story very interesting although I did find the narration to have a backroom style peppered with many old clichés. The main characters are well rounded, likeable and realistic and as a diversion, Ms. Reichs added a juicy and funny love triangle and a series of red herrings to entertain us.

All this said and done, this chilling mystery may not have been my favourite, however I did enjoy it(less)

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Jul 25, 2011 JoJo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not my favorite so far, though I thought it would be because of the subject material, which is very interesting. I would have liked her to examine the corruption of the government during the time of the massacres and genocides more. She left the end realistically, without all of the loose ends being tied up and without every evil-doer being proportionately punished. A bit frustrating at first, but when you think about it, a realistic ending is better than a "alls-well-that-ends-well" ending.
Her...more

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Feb 04, 2011 Frank Jude rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-novels, police-procedural

I read this entry in the Temperance Brennan series by forensic anthropologist, Kathy Reichs while on several flights taking me from Tucson to Ilheus, Brazil. It kept me engaged -- as did the other two novels. The plot itself centers around the real travesty of the 'disappeared' in Guatemala (Reichs herself has volunteered in similar forensic work). This is the fifth in the series; I've read the first and one that comes after, and I can see that her writing has gotten stronger over time. In her e...more

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Sep 07, 2009 Sherrie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: already-read

"Grave Secrets" by Kathy Reichs
(from inside flap)
It was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers ravaged the village of Chupan Ya, Raping and killing women and children. Twenty-three victims are said to lie in the well where, twenty years later, Dr. Temperance Brennan and a team from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation now dig. No records were kept. To their families, there dead are the "the disappeared." Forensic anthropologist for the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal,

...more

"Grave Secrets" by Kathy Reichs
(from inside flap)
It was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers ravaged the village of Chupan Ya, Raping and killing women and children. Twenty-three victims are said to lie in the well where, twenty years later, Dr. Temperance Brennan and a team from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation now dig. No records were kept. To their families, there dead are the "the disappeared." Forensic anthropologist for the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, Tempe is in Guatemala for a month's service to help some families identity and bury their dead. She digs in a cold, damp pit where she finds a hair clip, a fragment of cloth, a tiny sneaker, her trowel touches something hard: the hip of a child no more than two years old. It's heartbreaking work. Something savage happened here twenty years ago. The violence continues today. The team is packing up for the day when an urgent satellite call comes in. Two colleagues are under attack. Shots ring out, and Tempe listens in horror to a woman's screams. Then there is silence. Dead silence. With this new violence, everything changes, both for the team and for Tempe, who's asked by the Guatemalan police for her expertise on another case. Four privileged young women have vanished from Guatemala City in recent months. One is the Canadian ambassador's daughter. Some remains have turned up in a septic tank, and Tempe unfortunately knows septic tanks. Teaming with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolome Galiano, and with Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, who may have more than just professional reasons to join her on the case, Tempe, soon finds herself in a dangerous web that stretches far beyond Guatemala's borders. The stakes are huge. As power, money, greed, and science converge, Tempe must make life-altering choices.

MY THOUGHTS: This is the second book from Kathy Reichs that I have read. Very good book, what I really like the most about her writing is the way she leaves the end of a chapter. With the next clue so you have to go to the next chapter to find out what it is. After the shooting of a companion, Tempe is asked to help with a supposed serial killing. They get the bones out of the septic tank. Tempe isn't allowed to inspect the bones. They are whisked away by the local DA. She only gets a glimpse. As Tempe and Sgt. Galiano search for clues they start piecing together a conspiracy that will lead to Tempe being poisoned. It all revolves around Stem Cell Research and the people who are involved being the deadly conspirators that are willing to kill for the money they will make from producing Stem Cells for the black market. This conspiracy reaches to the top of the legal system.
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Jan 06, 2010 Chana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Chana by: bookcrossing

Shelves: mystery-thriller, guatemala

Pretty good fast-reading mystery/thriller as long as you don't expect too much in the way of it really making sense. Kathy Reichs writes good scenes, it is the motives of the characters, all the "or maybe's" in the extensive explanations at the end of the book that made a good book into one that bordered on mediocrity. She tries to link the story to the massacres that occurred in Guatemala between 1962 and 1996 but what happens is that the murder mystery and the true history run concurrently in...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Emma rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the fourth in the series, and I had a bit of a break before I read this one as there is a certain similarity in the tone of the books. With the break behind me I really enjoyed reading this one. Tempe is in Guatemala this time around helping to indentify victims of past autrocities committed by the army in the 1980s. I like this historical context and seeing another side to the character's skills that is not contemporary crime solving. I also knew some of the locations, which was an adde...more

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Jul 23, 2010 Jerry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interesting, but not as solid as first four Tempe stories...

We eagerly dived into this fifth book about forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, having thoroughly enjoyed the earlier four stories about her crime solving from a rather different perspective. From the study of bones, sometimes long buried skeletons, Tempe, as in real life does author Dr. Kathy Reichs, is usually able to determine age, race, and gender of the victim; often the means and manner of death; and sometimes even enough...more Interesting, but not as solid as first four Tempe stories...

We eagerly dived into this fifth book about forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, having thoroughly enjoyed the earlier four stories about her crime solving from a rather different perspective. From the study of bones, sometimes long buried skeletons, Tempe, as in real life does author Dr. Kathy Reichs, is usually able to determine age, race, and gender of the victim; often the means and manner of death; and sometimes even enough clues to pursue the perpetrator. While reminiscent of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, the Montreal, North Carolina, and sometimes other settings, coupled with supporting characters in each location, plus the somewhat unique challenges of the analysis involved, lead to entertaining stories and characters we have come to enjoy.

In Grave Secrets, Tempe is stationed on assignment in Guatemala, where much of the book is devoted to first her unearthing, then her aiding in the identifying, of two dozen remains of executions of women and children from during the long, 34-year Guatemalan civil war. The atrocities described to us during that period darkened the whole book; presuming this is mostly if not completely fact based, surely a depressing recounting of human cruelty and suffering. Meanwhile, two other stories compete for Tempe's (and our) attention: the case of a skeleton found in a septic tank, and all the interesting technical feats involved in ID'ing the victim; and the disappearance of four missing young women. Pursuing and resolving these cases involved the participation of two leading men in the story - detective Galiano, whom Tempe comes to like, of the Guatemalen PD; and long-time Canadian associate and romantic interest Andrew Ryan, who just "happens" to be old buddies with Galiano and is apparently free to run back and forth to Canada with little restraint. That one of the missing women is the Canadian ambassador's daughter opens the rationale for much of the goings-on as well as much of the suspense. The book concludes with a bedtime cliffhanger in the style of Janet Evanovich, which we weren't sure we really appreciated, but will certainly help sell Book 6!

To get to the point, we're not as enthused about this fifth book as Reich's earlier work. We felt much of the chasing around had little or nothing to do with Tempe's skills (let alone her job per se); and too many sub-plots required too many (relatively shallowly developed) characters to populate them adequately. Each successive story element only seemed to subtract from the strength of the novel; and when we were all done, we wound up with a living room dusted and vacuumed, but still cluttered beyond good taste. While Reichs credits her publishers with helping making her book compelling, to us the editors should have carved much of the detail at several points, simplified the story lines, axed some situations that did nothing for the cause, and in general tightened up the whole convoluted tale. We think her other books are better, and urge a little more caution for her next outing, which still we will no doubt anxiously await.

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Aug 06, 2009 Kris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-choice

I read this one on a Sony eBook reader. I prefer a paper book, but I've got to say that the convenience of having 25 books in a unit the size of a slim hardcover is a good thing.

I enjoyed this installment of the Temperance Brennan books. I'm reading them out of order, which for the most part is not a problem, but occasionally the author makes reference to events in previous books which I haven't read. In this book, Tempe is in Guatemala looking for remains of women and children killed over 20 ye...more

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Jul 11, 2010 Adrienne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, summer-reading, travel, woman

Yes, I took the plunge. My love for the Bones television show gave me no choice. I had to try one of Kathy Reichs’ Tempe Brennan novels. The fact that it qualified for the library’s summer reading program twas only a thin veil to disguise my already piqued interest. I was to find that the characters between the show and the books are not one and the same. However, I was really just looking for the same thrill ride, and personality differences are allowed. Only her writing style truly irked me. O...more

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Grave Secrets (Temperance Brennan #5)

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