I picked up this book because I'm minorly* obsessed with the TV show Bones, which is loosely based on the life of the author Kathy Reichs. I was worried that reading the books would just be a rehashing of the plots I've seen on the show, but I was relieved to discover that the TV show so far has nothing to do with the books.
Dr. Temperance Brennan is a forensic anthropologist working for the Quebec coroner's office. Based on her bone examinations, she believes there is a serial killer on the loose, butchering women. The police don't believe her until after they discover the bodies of more women: the plot of perhaps half of all police thrillers. (I don't mean this as a criticism, merely a qualifier.) Lots of suspense, as the killer of course comes after Tempe.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has all of the necessary ingredients for a good mystery, and is genuinely scary at times. Tempe is an interesting and believable character. Quebec is not a popular novel setting, so the cultural observations are interesting side notes. The writing is better than average, and I look forward to the next book, wherein (one hopes) begins a romance.
Category-specific** grade: A
*I just discovered that "minorly" is not a word. Discovering that a word I use regularly does not exist is shocking to me. I almost deleted it, but I still like it and find it useful. I don't think "majorly" should get all the adverbial glory.
**I plan on giving books grades, and since I am reading a wide variety of books, I don't want to rate all of my entertainment books C- or anything because I'm comparing them to Mrs. Dalloway (A++). Therefore, from here on out, all grades are to be taken in the context of their genre or category. Déjà Dead, for instance, was an excellent mystery book, but I wouldn't call it Literature. To paraphrase Mr. Hemingway, my world was not rocked.
Your first endnote is a shocking revelation.
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