Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs {Book Review}

I decided to give Kathy Reichs another chance and took on another one of her books.

I actually have a few more of her books on the shelf waiting to be read, but this book was the deciding factor for continuing or donating.

I’m happy to say that I’ll be carrying on with the series.

I don’t have all the books from the Temperance Brennan series so I’m reading them completely out of order, but it hasn’t complicated understanding the books or following along on the story as there is usually some background information provided to create clarity.

Devil Bones is the 11th book in the series.

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

Book Review: Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs #bookreview #readingcommunity
Tweet

Plot:

When an underground chamber is found in an old run down house, a ritualistic display is discovered. There in the dark cellar, a human skull sits in a cauldron, along with slaughtered chickens and strange figurines.

Forensic anthropologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan is called to investigate the scene and finds that the skull could belong to a young female, but who is she and how did she die?

Another corpse is discovered: headless and carved with Satanic symbols.
This information brings the town on a path of vigilantism, a start of a witch-hunt and out for revenge.

As the truth comes to light, it’s more shocking than could’ve been imagined.

Thoughts:

The mystery and the suspense in the book was well written and kept me interested in getting to the bottom of it.

A very business-like writing approach when it came to the forensic parts of the book, which is a lot, and it was slightly overbearing with information that I didn’t really bother focusing on.

Tempe is a complex and intelligent character, and clearly fighting some of her own demons as shown through her private thoughts throughout the book. This type of writing style had me confused in the beginning to differentiate between the thoughts and actions but I got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Some of the other characters in the book were shallow and even though they were leading up to being main characters too, I didn’t feel any connections to them.

There are a lot of characters in the book and it was a struggle to keep up with all of them and remember who is who and from where, and why they were significant to the plot.

Especially when the suspect was revealed, I couldn’t place him in the book and had to think real hard where they appeared in the book and for what reasons they were important back then. With all the twists and turns, the significance of the character was lost and the reveal wasn’t as shocking or great as it could’ve been.

There wasn’t romance in the book, but we are invited to some physical scenes that weren’t all too graphic.

Overview:

Much of the book gave me a screenplay kind of feel. I did find it a little hard to read with the dump of information throughout and too many characters to keep track of.

With everything going on in the book, the ending was rushed and it did end up being a buzz kill.

My rating was bumped up by the plot and the twists it gave me.