“206 Bones” by Kathy Reichs – a good read
“206 Bones” begins with series regular Temperance Brennan handcuffed and buried in some place underground. She does not remember how she got there; she is injured, and terrified, but attempts to save herself. Then Ms. Reichs shows us the series of events that led up to the kidnapping.
In one, Brennan discovers that an unknown enemy is trying to discredit her. In the other, Quebec authorities, having discovered a disturbing number of seemingly murdered elderly women during the past year or so, fear that they are looking for a serial killer of elderly women. Brennan and her one-time lover Ryan are on the cases.
I found the story to be a pleasant, though unexciting read. The principal reason for the lack of excitement was that the solution was very obvious before page 100, causing me to have that “how could Brennan be so dumb” feeling. The other principal fault is that, when the full solution becomes evident, it’s hard to believe, because the behavior of the villains seems out of proportion to their motivation and backgrounds, as described. This latter issue could have been solved by more patient character development on the part of the author. In fact, the book as a whole seems rushed, in the sense that things are sketched that would be stronger if they had been more carefully drawn.
There is also a fair amount of what some will think is “padding” — i.e. incidents that don’t really advance the story. For me, these scenes were fun and help flesh out the lives of our characters, although I admit that some could have been better blended into the story
Reichs knows her subject well and has the ability to go into graphic detail in a way that any reasonably intelligent reader can understand. Unfortunately, after a few pages of detail, my eyes glazed over and I started skimming. All that painstaking detail doesn’t make this a very suspenseful thriller, in spite of a good beginning. The mystery is pretty well solvable way too early in the book and I suspect that most mystery/suspense readers will become very impatient with this.
All in all I’m sure I’ll pick up the next Kathy Reichs book because I do like the characters and she comes up with some very interesting plots.
