I only picked up this book after seeing the trailer for the movie... which I have not seen yet. It sounded like a book I would enjoy and a series that I might get into.
Synopsis: Stephanie Plum lost her job as a lingerie buyer and in a desperate attempt to make money to prevent her apartment and car being taken away she gets a job with her cousin as a bounty hunter.
Review: I overall enjoyed this book. It's not the best crime novel I've read, but it was decent. It was fast paced and had enough excitement. What I like most about this book is that it probably made a lot of women like me wondering if they too could be a bounty hunter or a police officer.
What I think this book that made me not completely fall in love with it and not sure if I will read the rest of the series is that Stephanie is too much like me and when I read a crime novel with a female lead that is not what I really want. So it's more of a person thing and not so much that the book wasn't good.
I gave it four stars because while it was a good book it wasn't the best.
Add another log to the fire I have finished another book. With mystery/crime books I never know how quickly I will get through them. Sometimes I get so into the book I read it as fast as I can, others I read for a few hours a day and it takes me a week or more to finish. This one only took me a few days.
This will be my first review on the blog of the Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs. So I will give you a little synopsis of the series so you understand what's going on. This may contain spoilers if you have not read the series. Temperance Brennan is a 40 something forensic anthropologist. She teaches as a North Caroline University and works for the ME's office in Charlotte. She also works in Montreal for their ME's office as well. She is divorced, recovering alcoholic and always getting into trouble. She has an on again off again relationship with detective in Montreal name Andrew Ryan. I think that sums the series up.
Synopsis: This book is the 11th book in the series. The previous books mostly take place in Montreal, with a few exceptions. This is one of them. This book takes place in Charlotte, where Dr. Brennan spends half her time. Dr. Brennan is called to a house, where there is a skeleton found is a sub-basement. Further inspection shows that's not only is there bones, but two cauldrons and signs of some kind of ritual had taken place here.
As the story gone on there is a politician who is preaching about satan worshiping and how police cannot do their job and so on. Typical bible thumping speeches that gets Temperance in trouble. Then there's another body that is found without it's head that gives Temperance trouble in figuring out what happened to him.
There seems to be multiple stories in this book, but only one seems to flow. Also, her love interest comes to pay respects to a fallen officer, but had no real significance to the story.
Review: This book was alright. Not the best of the series. I had read a few reviews before reading this one, where people complained about how much description she did about who she was and the city of Charlotte and it's history. She does this in all the books, but I don't know if because the read some reviews that I noticed how long winded they were or if they they really were a bit over done. I like when she does this to a point. Once you got past that the book was good.
There was two cases that they kept trying to tie together, that ended up having nothing to do with each other. The first one took a backstory and really just ended. They did explain it all, but it was just done rushed I think.
I also wasn't sure what Ryan was suppose to be doing in this book. He shows up magically towards the last fourth of the book and nothing is resolved between him and Temperance. He does save her life and another detective's life, but other than that he seems kind of thrown in here. I was wondering in this book how Reichs was going to continue the break-up/romance between these two, but it was done poorly. I get that she wasn't sure how she felt, but they didn't even discussion what happened and how it made them feel. Nothing was done about it.
I gave this book 3 stars on goodreads. I think I have given the other books 4 or 5 stars, but with the lack of a strong case that was compelling, the long winded descriptions of Charlotte, her job and the history of the town, plus the lack of a need for Ryan, it wasn't her best work. Even with those bad points I still want to read the next book to see if Ryan and Temperance figure their relationship out, or if that keeps getting thrown back to get people to keep buying the books.
