Mortal Remains by Kathy Reichs {Book Review}

If you’ve watched the series Bones and enjoyed it, you might want to keep reading.

The series was inspired by the Temperance Brennan series from author Kathy Reichs. The TV series is loosely based on the books, and from what I’ve watched, I think I’ll just stick to the books. I do prefer watching shows based on books and having at least 70% similarities, and this isn’t one of those cases.

This is the first Kathy Reichs book that I’ve read and it’s the 13th in the series. It wasn’t all too bad and it did leave me with the feeling of wanting to read more.

I do have a few more of her books on the shelf, but none in the order of the series so I’ll have to wing it.

In some countries, this book was published under a different name, Spider Bones.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

Book Review: Mortal Remains by Kathy Reichs #bookreview
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Plot:

Forensic anthropologist, Temperance Brennan, is called to examine a body discovered in Quebec. The person is identified as John ‘Spider’ Lowery, an ex-soldier from America believed to have been killed in Vietnam in 1968.

When the remains buried under Lowery’s name are exhumed, Temperance travels to Hawaii to investigate the US military records. As things start looking more out of place, she needs to dig deeper into the buried secrets and find the truth.

Her persistence attracts the attention of some dangerous people, and her life might not be the only one in danger.

Positive Thoughts:

I actually thought I had the plot figured out a couple of times as the story progressed but with all the twists, I was wrong each time.

There’s a love story that wasn’t all too bad to read, and it will be interesting to read more about it, and get a better background from the older books.

I must add though, that Ryan’s dry one liners had me chuckling along the way.

At some point of the book, I was worried that a new theme was being introduced to the storyline, but luckily it was just part of the conversations and not a permanent fixture to the book.

Tempe is an interesting character, and to be summed up in one word: stubborn. I still need to get a proper personality feel for her but this was the trait that stood out the most.

The medical explanations in the book were interesting to read, but had me lost multiple times with the details and I did eventually start skipping certain paragraphs to just be able to keep my head in the story.

Negative Thoughts:

Tempe is a smart woman but it came across to me that she’s only really smart in her field, but the many times she put herself in dangerous situations make me shake my head.

You had to sit through some detailed personal life scenes and explanations that were boring at some places but didn’t overshadow the plot too much, it came close though.

The book has a lot of descriptive travel routes that played well in describing to the reader what and where it was taking place but wasn’t entirely necessary for the story to keep moving forward. There were also many instances of places and history written out in detail that could’ve simplified.

Overview:

The plot was a little complicate at times and it took me a while to get my head wrapped around it, but it was great to read about how it all came together in the end.