Grave Secrets: A Novel (Temperance Brennan Book 5)

This is my favorite of the Tempe Brennan novels thus far, beginning at the beginning of the series. In this book, it is clearly evident that Tempe Brennan is not Kate Scarpetta. Tempe has a sense of humor that Patricia Cornwell's character lacks. Tempe swears like a sailor and makes dark jokes. She has romantic flings. She just doesn't take herself so darned seriously. I love Kate Scarpetta, don't get me wrong, but Tempe is just more fun. The plot of Grave Secrets was interesting and fast paced. I read it in a weekend.

Kathy Reich's digs up another amazing adventure for Tempe Brennan, the forensic anthropologist who splits her time between Charlotte and Montreal. This adventure is set in Guatamala, searching for remains in mass graves. Tempe's adventures see her ruffle more than a feather or two. A great read, too good to put down.

Kathy Reichs showed in this fifth book a continuing development of the Temp Brennan character and her own development as an author. If you've enjoyed other Temperance Brennan stories you'll enjoy this one too.

I really enjoy the Kathy Reichs/Temperance Brennan series, but I have to say this one is my least favorite so far. I had a difficult time getting into the story overall, but it may be a good read depending on your preference...

Riechs book is an excellent continuation of her efforts into forensic anthropology. She brings the "human" aspect into the field while still exploring and deomonstrating the science of the field. I find her writing excellent, light and not ponderous.

I very much enjoy reading the stories by K. Reichs. She puts T. Brennan in real plausible, complex situations and resolves them realistically. As a biologist I appreciate the accuracy and knowledge Reichs shows in her stories, without the Marvel comic characters developed by P.C. and others with some CSI type background.

What the author does with this series: Kathy Reichs started off slow but gets better and better. This is part of the series called the <i>Tempe Brenner – Forensic Anthropologist</i>. This paragraph applies to all books in this series. Tempe is a anthropologist who works for medical examiners in Montreal, Quebec and Charlotte North Caroline

Even though the books are often very detailed in both location and the examination of the remains, the story often moves faster than you expect.

Do you need to read this series in order: YES or you miss out on too much of the back stories.

Triggers: This is a book about medical examiners at its core, so lots of references to dead bodies, some are described in strong detail (in a forensic way).Our anthropologist ends up in some life threatening situations and on a couple of occasions in the series, animals are killed, sometimes gratuitously. Relatives of Tempe often in up wounded as the bad persons try to get to her through her family.

This book had a very different setting, which made it great.

.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.

PLOT OR PREMISE:
Tempe finds herself in Guatemala investigating a mass grave, and while she's there, the local police decide to avail themselves of her forensics expertise to investigate four missing girls and one dead body in a sewer.
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WHAT I LIKED:
The cast of characters is large and there's some historical elements included related to Guatemalan history.
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WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
Tempe bounces around Guatemala too much, helping the only honest detective in a sea of corruption, and figures out missing girls, links to stem cell research, and takes her sweet time doing it. She even finds time to link it to her friends in Montreal, who just so happen to have gone to school with her detective partner in Guatemala. Beyond far-fetched, and casting aspersions on everyone she describes and the way they work, this one should have been a secret Reichs took to the grave. And finally, a bit of a spoiler, she rips off Janet Evanovich's technique of not finishing the romance part of the book -- you know she's chosen someone but not whom. Stay tuned to the next in the series to find out which one, I suppose.
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DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow her on social media.

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.

Tempe is in Guatemala, helping to unearth the bodies of 28 villagers disappeared (killed by the govt.) during the civil war there. Two of her colleagues are attacked, one dies. Tempe has to be careful, as there could still be people in the government that were involved in the massacre.

Then she gets involved with the disappearance of four girls, one of them the daughter of the Canadian ambassador and all of a sudden the authorities that were so eager for her help with the decomposing bodies of the villagers want her out of Dodge.

To add to the plot there is a Latin love interest who just happened to go to school with old flame Ryan who comes to Guatemala because one of the four missing girls is the daughter of the Canadian Ambassador.

This book seemed somehow different than Reichs' previous four. That's not bad, an author should change and grow. Tempe seems to have a little more punch. Also this book starts off on a dark note that lasts throughout, but with Reich's detailed description of the death pit, how could it not be dark.

A word of caution, don't read this five star thriller before dinner, especially the secptic tank part, because it'll definitely throw you off your feed. Don't read it before bed either, because if you do, nightmares are guaranteed. Read it on a rainy day, then watch an episode of the Honeymooners to get it out of your system.

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.

Grave Secrets finds our heroine Tempe Brennan in Guatemala, where she is part of a team that excavates a mass grave, which holds the remains of victims of the military junta.

As usual, she becomes involved in an active case when she is called in to exhume a body from a septic tank. The person to involve her in the case is detective Guliano, who - surprise! surprise! - turns out to be an old schoolmate and buddy of - you guessed it! - Andrew Ryan, the Canadian detective who, for some mysterious reason, has a romantic interest in Brennan.

Also as usual, Ryan becomes involved in the case after Brennan has returned to Canada. They get into a shoot-out (another surprise) and return to Guatemala together because Guliano (who, too - for even more mysterious reasons - has developed a crush on Brennan) has requested Ryan's expertise.

In typical Brennan fashion, she almost gets herself killed. If this book contains one surprise it is the fact that she doesn't get rescued by Ryan this time.

The above are some examples of things that irritate me about this book, but the most annoying thing is probably the fact that the Guatemalan characters all speak English as if they've grown up with US television, enabling them to engage fluently in one of the author's three favorite variations of dialogue: 1. a lecture of sorts, 2. an exchange of one-liners and quips, or 3. Character B (typically Ryan) "translating" Character A's (typically Brennan's) scientific lectures into English - mostly in the form of one-liners or quips.

Fortunately I didn't waste any money on this book. Thank public for libraries!

I am so happy to have discovered Kathy Reichs and her Temperance Brennan mystery series. Both Reichs and her fictional alter ego are forensic anthropologists, and provide a different angle on criminal investigations. I just finished Grave Secrets, which is not only an entertaining mystery, but also provides a bit of history about the horrible crimes that occurred in Guatemala during their civil war.

Dr. Tempe Brennan donates a month of her time to assist the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation. This group, FAFG, is trying to "locate and identify the remains of those who vanished during the 1962 to 1996 civil war, one of the bloodiest conflicts in Latin American history." No one is sure how many were murdered, but the estimates range from 100,000 to 200,000. While Brennan is working with 23 remains buried in a well in a small rural town, Sgt. Bat Galiano of the Special Crimes Investigative Unit of the National Civil Police seeks her out to help in the identification of a body found in a septic tank. Four young girls have gone missing, and it is believed that this body may be one of them. Brennan is an expert on septic tank burials. She reluctantly agrees, but there is someone high in government office that tries to keep her off the case. Also, the closer she comes to a solution, the more her life becomes endangered.

Because Reichs works in the same job as Brennan, her writing and descriptions of what she does are very believable and she speaks the appropriate jargon. She writes about a morgue "I proceeded to suite four, a room specifically outfitted for extra ventilation. The room for floaters and bloaters. The room for crispers. The room in which I usually worked." Some people may find what she does to be gruesome. I find it fascinating, and have already started another one of her mysteries, Fatal Voyage.

Kathy Reichs's latest novel, "Grave Secrets," has Tempe Brennan visiting Guatemala to help the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation. Tempe is a highly skilled forensic anthropologist (like the author herself) who is helping to uncover the remains from a massacre that occurred twenty years ago in a village called Chupan Ya. At that time, Guatemalan soldiers raped and murdered the defenseless women and children who lived there. No records of the massacre were kept and the perpetrators were never brought to justice. Tempe and the rest of the team want to prove that the massacre occurred and they are also attempting to identify any remains that they find.
This is by far the strongest and most poignant part of "Grave Secrets." Tempe's work in Guatemala is heartbreaking, and in light of the massacres that have occurred in so many places, all too realistic.
Suddenly, two members of Tempe's team are ambushed and shot, for unknown reasons. In addition, Tempe is asked to help investigators on another case in Guatemala. It seems that four privileged young women have mysteriously vanished. One set of remains is found in a septic tank, and Tempe's expertise is called upon to dig out the remains and identify them. She runs into hostility and anger from a Guatemalan District Attorney, who is angry at her "interference."
Reichs writes with tremendous authority about every aspect of forensic anthropology and the first half of the book is fascinating and gripping. The second half of the book is weaker for several reasons. Reichs cooks up a budding romance between Tempe and a Guatemalan Special Investigator named Galiano. Galiano happens to know Andrew Ryan, Tempe's love interest in Montreal, where she works part time. Which man will win Tempe's heart? This aspect of the book is cutesy and unsatisfying. Tempe acts more like a schoolgirl than a grown woman when she is around these two men.
Worse, however, is the ending of the book. After a series of red herrings, the truth is revealed about the missing girls and the present day violence in Guatemala. The solution to the mystery is completely out of left field and extremely far-fetched. This is a shame, since Tempe is a great character, compassionate as well as strong and self-confident (except when she is around attractive men). I cannot wholeheartedly recommend "Grave Secrets," since the beginning of the novel is so much stronger than its conclusion.

I am completely new to the Temperance Brennan series of novels. Intrigued by the idea of the forensic anthropology "angle" I tried this book. Perhaps it isn't the best representation of Miss Reich's books, but I found this book to be a bit slow going and scattered. The plot (or plots) were all over the place, making it a somewhat confusing and quite unbelievable novel.

First, Tempe Brennan is hired to examine and identify bodies from the Guatamalan Civil War. Next, the Guatamalan government wants her to look at another case they've decided may be a serial killer (with little to go on other than that four bodies were found in a similar geographic region). AFter a while, she gets called to do some work there, etc. Needless to say, all of these seperate things are coincidentally tied into one case bigger than anyone (Brennan or otherwise) suspected. Quite unbelievable actually.

The story was alright but it felt to me that Reichs didn't really know where she was going until the very end. She takes Tempe Brennan in many different directions in this book and the whole thing felt a little herky-jerky because of that. While the writing is decent and the anthropological info is fascinating, the story line was just too scattered and unbelievable for my tastes.

I've heard good things about Reich's books, so perhaps I will try another. Grave Secrets didn't do the trick.

Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs is a novel involving Tempe Brennen, the multi talented forensic anthropologist, who works both in the United States and Canada, and in this novel, Guatemala. Brennen is helping colleagues unearth remains of massacred villagers when she is summoned to Guatemala city. Skelatal remains have been found in a septic tank and police believe it could be the work of a serial killer, since 4 girls of the same age have gone missing...and one of them is the Canadian ambassador's daughter.

When two of her colleagues are attacked and murdered, Brennen realizes she maybe looking at more than just a serial killer murder. Brennen must work with and around the Guatamalen authorities, and Andrew Ryan appears later in the novel when the Canadian ambassador becomes a suspect. Reichs throws in a nosy reporter who may have figured everything out, some interesting forensics, a short out of place rant about stem cell funding, and a lot of twists and turns.

The plot of the novel, as with Monday Mourning, isn't always at the forefront. Instead, Reichs builds suspense by focusing on Brennen's investigation and what her discoveries may lead to.

In the end, I found this globetrotting novel to be a bit disappointing. The revelation of the bad guy made me realize the plot could have taken place anywhere and setting of Guatemala really only added an Hispanic flavor to the plot, nothing more. Still, Reichs has proven that she can write a good novel and I plan to read her again.

Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan and a team of forensic experts head to Guatemala to excavate an old well where twenty-three women and children are said to have been shot, butchered, burned and buried. But some secrets are meant to be buried and sometimes the past is meant to stay dead.

When Tempe hears the horrific attack of two associates, she is spurred into action and her investigation takes her across borders and into unknown territory.

Partnered with Montreal detective Andrew Ryan and Special Crimes Investigator Bartolomé Galiano, Tempe investigates the disappearances of missing women. And two handsome men leads to a spicy but complicated subplot. And ultimately Tempe must make a choice.

Grave Secrets is a story of the "desaparecidos"--the disappeared, the missing. It's a story of black market greed and scientific advances that may prove to be to our detriment. Reichs doesn't just write a gripping, suspenseful tale, she also strives to administer a message that is far more powerful. Yet she entertains while doing so. I found this Tempe Brennan novel to have more 'heart' than the previous novels in the series.

I'll admit, I'm a `Bones' junkie--and I love the actors' portrayal of the characters in the TV version, but in Reichs' novels, you'll find far more depth than in a one-hour show. Kathy Reichs is the `Queen of the Past' and a writer extraordinaire.

~ Cheryl Kaye Tardif
Author of Divine Intervention

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 skipped to the end of the book to figure out how it ended, so I wouldn't be up all night reading.

Reichs provided a wonderful mystery that kept you guessing throughout the entire book. There were a couple of plot twists that I didn't anticipate even after reading the last chapter halfway through. The only reason the book did not rate five starts, in my mind, are the character flaws, at times, of Brennan. First, I feel this strong, intelligent woman occasionally becomes the equivalent of "the woman in the horror movie checking out the basement with only a candle after half of her friends have turned up missing or dead." It similaraly makes you want to scream "what the heck are you doing." Second, her borderline paranoid distrust and reaction to potential male companionship. While these character traits are both part and parcel of Brennan, I felt as though they were written to such an extreme in this installment of the series that it detracted from the story. I was hit over the head with "Brennan is a strong woman, who does whatever she wants because she can take care of herself, and she has been hurt by men before, so she has a hard time trusting them." A little more subtlety in the writing, and it could have been a five star novel.

Kathy Reichs' Dr. Temperance Brennan (Tempe) is one of the more complicated main mystery characters being written today. She is a combination of strength (in this book she must spend a day digging around in a septic tank) and emotional caring that makes for an interesting person that is not cookie-cutter like so many of today's 'sleuths.'
The mystery begins with Tempe working in a remote Guatemalan village uncovering long buried victims of a junta's attack. She is then dragged, somewhat unwillingly, into investigating the disappearance of four young women in Guatemala City, leading to complications in which the government is involved. The action moves from Guatemala to Canada and back again. There is romance involved, as well, as she begins to be attracted to the Guatemalan detective with whom she is working (he is also an old friend of Tempe's sometime boyfriend Andrew Ryan which provides further drama).
I enjoyed this book as I have all of Reichs mysteries. One thing did stick out in my mind though as I was reading: several times Tempe is complaining (which she has toned down since her first book appearance) about being constantly surronded by death. I could not help but think, "Well, that is your chosen profession. Sure it must be disheartening at times but if it is creating that much travail, change jobs." I guess my feeling was a throwback to that first book in which Tempe came across as somewhat whiny.
That aside, I will definitely be reading the next books in the series.

Kathy Reich's alter ego 'Temperance Brennan PhD' is a forensic anthropologis who is helping her Guatemalan colleagues identify the remains of villagers. They were 'disappeared' 20 years ago in the middle of the Guatamalan civil war. These were peasants who were caught between the right wing reactionary government and the communist revolutionaries.

She's called in to consult on the recent disappearance of four young women. Is there a serial killer loose in Guatemala City, or is the fate of the young women who've gone missing--including the daughter of the Canadian ambassador--connected to the murder of a human-rights investigator looking into the decades-old massacre?

Brennan becomes involved in a government cover-up, between the well in Chupan Ya where she unearths the bones of women and children slain in Guatemala's bloody civil war and the septic tank in the capital where the remains of one of the missing girls turn up. Temperance (Tempe) Brennan is a complex woman dealing with cases that often cross national borders and delve into the darkest parts of the human psyche.

Her personal life us almost as complicated as the twists and turns of the story. Two men are infatuated with her, a detective in Quebec and another in Guatemala City. She's just trying to sort out her libido, in between sorting out the bones. Good stuff.

Kathy Reichs is fast becoming one of my very favorite authors and this book is no exception. Usually her main character, Tempe Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, stays in the USA or in Canada within each book, but this time she is in Guatemala in a village called Chupan Ya, where a terrible incident happened in 1982. Soldiers invaded the village, raping the women, then killing them and the children there.
Although this was a well-known incident, no records were kept and Tempe joins up with the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation to uncover the graves and recover the bones of the dead.
Things get off to a bang when the team is packing up for the day and get a satellite phone call from two of their colleagues, who are driving towards the city. While talking, Tempe hears other voices, screams, shots, then nothing. The man is dead, but the woman is rushed to the hospital and goes into a coma.
Dealing with this is bad enough, then Tempe is asked by the Guatemalan police to help with a case they've been working on - four well-to-do young women have mysteriously vanished from Guatemala City in recent months and none of their bodies have been found, nor have any of them turned up alive. One of the woman is the daughter of the Canadian ambassador, which is why Tempe thinks she's been asked to help. But it's the discovery of a body in a septic tank that is the real reason - Tempe had worked on a case before involving a body found in a septic tank.
She reluctantly agrees to assist and finds some cat hairs and fetal bones in the tank among a young woman's remains. For whatever reason, she tucks some of the cat hair and fetal bones in her pocket and it's a good thing she did, because the remains are suddenly whisked away from further investigation
Frustrated, but not about to give up, Tempe sends the hair off to a colleague who knows cat hairs, asks questions of the families of the missing young women and begins to realize there just might be a connection to the Chupan Ya massacre and these current disappearances. Plus, the ambush of her colleagues in the car may not have been meant for them, but for her instead.
There are plenty of twists and turns in this book, and Katherine Borowitz, who has read almost all of Kathy Reich's other books, does an outstanding job of putting you right in the middle of this must-read (or must-hear) thriller.

Dr. Tempe Brennan helps identify remains of villagers in Guatemala that "have been disappeared" in the early 1980's. Friends of hers get shot on the very first pages and she is called to consult on the deaths of recently missing young women. The massacre and the deaths of the young woman seem to lead to a serial killer and even the Canadian ambassador to Gustemala seems to be involved. Brass first makes Tempe consult, then obstructs investigations (bodies get confiscated or are being cremated after a very short period of time). As usual forensics is gruesomely, nail-bitingly wrapped up but I couldn't have cared less about the lenghty explanations regarding the Guatemaltecan judiciary system. As Ryan put it: "Give me the five minutes version", which she unfortunately did not. Relations and connections between several people in this book seem a bit far-fetched to me, political enmeshment a tad too piled on for the sake of the story (okay, okay...one wouldn't have been possible without the other).The Guatemaltecan cop investigating the deaths of the young women happens to be a college buddy of Andrew Ryan, now isn't that a convenient thread to get Ryan involved in the story (apart from having amorous interests in him)? Naturally she encounters dangerous situations in this book, but I still wonder how that Diet Coke could have been tampered with (and while we are at it: where did she get Victoria's Secret lingerie from all of a sudden? Does she wear that when excavating victims of a massacre? Or does G-City happen to have a Victoria's Secret Store???). She even seems to keep her short temper under control, more or less. Why is that? Different climate? Due to being sick? Go ahead and read this book, if you have read the previous novels, but don't start with this book as the first one in the series, because you won't read the others then. I hope that Keithy Reichs brings back the real Dr. Temperance Brennan in her next book and that she won't digress into lengthy unnerving explanations on political systems again. This book is definitely not a competition for one of the Dr. Kay Scarpetta books by Patrcia Cornwell Daniels.