Reading in Reykjavík

No. in series: 2 Year of publication: 1999 Availability: In print Pages: 379 (hardcover) Settings and time: Montreal, Canada, Carolina, USA, winter of 1998. Type of mystery: Murder, thriller Type of investigator: Forensic anthropologist/amateur detective, police Some themes: Murder, religion, cults OK, I know said in a comment that I was going to wait a month, but I couldn’t resist this when I spotted it at the library. It’s the middle of winter and Tempe Brennan is called in to help identify the burnt remains of people found on the site of an arson. Soon, more bodies begin stacking up. Tempe returns to her hometown in Carolina where she is teaching physical anthropology at a university. While visiting an island nature “reserve” with her daughter she finds more bodies. Clues suggest that the deaths in both Canada and the USA may be connected to the same cult, and Tempe’s sister may be in danger. Review: I had been told that the Tempe Brennan books get better as the series conti...

Title: Déjà Dead No. in series: 1 Year of publication: 1997 Availability: In print Pages: 544 Setting and time: Montreal, Canada, summer of 1996 or 1997 Type of mystery: Murder, thriller Type of investigator: Forensic anthropologist/amateur detective Some themes: Serial murder, friendship, stalking. Dr. Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist for the Laboratoire de Medecine Legale in Montreal, handles mostly cases where bodies need to be identified by means of forensic examination or the cause of death needs to be established for remains that are too decomposed or otherwise messed up for a regular autopsy. When she notices suspicious similarities between the dismembered remains of women found in various places around the city, she begins to suspect that there is a serial killer on the loose. Working on that suspicion, Tempe (as she is called) begins an amateur investigation of her own, and unearths yet another body, thus catching the attention of the killer. She has diffic...