Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Monday Mourning (Temperance Brennan, Bk 7)

Monday Mourning (Temperance Brennan, Bk 7)
reviewed on + 211 more book reviews


Grisly handiwork
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 Tempe Brenner â Forensic Anthropologist. 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.

The secrets of the dead are in her hands. The bones of three young women are unearthed in the basement of a Montreal pizza parlor, and forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan has unsolved murder on her mind as she examines the shallowly buried remains. Coming up against a homicide cop who is convinced the dead have been entombed on the site for centuries, Tempe perseveres, even with her own relationship with Detective Andrew Ryan at a delicate turning point. In the lab, the clean, well-preserved bones offer few clues. But when Carbon 14 confirms her hunch that these were recent deaths despite the antique buttons found near the bodies, Tempe's probing must produce answers quickly to stop a killer whose grisly handiwork has seen the light of day.