| Those bookworms who also watch TV may already be familiar Kathy Reichs’ character, Dr. Temperance (Tempe) Brennan from the television series “Bones”. For me as a reader, too many books, too little time and I am truly sorry to say that this is the first of Reichs’ books that I’ve read, for Tempe Brennan is truly a wonderful character and I love how I can relate to her and her experiences. Tempe is intelligent and strong-willed, yet warmhearted and funny, and shares the same basic human struggles that the rest of us do. Additionally, she has the capacity to recognize her own faults and work to do better, a characteristic often not seen in many lead characters in this genre. The story begins with the murder of nine year old Emily Anne who was shot in the head on Montreal Street, an innocent victim caught in the crossfire of outlaw motorcycle gang wars. Brennan’s initial involvement was to identify the exploded remains of the motorcycle members who were killed and run the autopsies, but her heart compels her to join the case as a detective to find justice for Emily and hopefully to stop other potential innocent loss of life. While unravelling a web of crime operations and navigating the sometimes complicated political structures of The Hell’s Angels, The Heathens, and The Bandidos, Brennan uncovers parts of a teenage skeleton that she believed to be linked to motorcycle gang activities. More justice for the innocent to be found, but the task and the decisions necessary to complete them become more dangerous and more deadly! To complicate matters, her nephew, Kit, winds up involved in the gangs and she is forced to risk her life in order to save his. More questions arise when Detective Andrew Ryan, Tempes’s love-interest, is implicated in drug charges and she discovers him working within one of the motorcycle clubs itself. Is he the crooked cop that he is pegged to be? Or is Brennan’s hope-against-hope correct, that he is working undercover? Deadly Decisions is a wonderful book and I encourage you to give it a try. I, for one, look forward to reading the rest of the series and learning more about Temperance Brennan and forensics in Montreal! Kathy Reichs has a gift for drawing the reader in with a chain of surprising twists and unexpected events and keeps you on the edge and guessing until the very end. She’s certainly left me begging for more. |