Death Du Jour by Kathy Reichs

‘Death Du Jour’ is Kathy Reich’s second novel featuring forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan who splits he time between Charlotte North Carolina and Montreal.

This novel starts out in winter in Montreal, with Tempe exhuming the coffin of a nun who has been nominated for sainthood. Tempe must verify that the remains are, in fact, those of Sister Elisabeth Nicolet hailed for her work during a smallpox epidemic in 1885.

But before Tempe can complete her analysis of the nun’s skeleton, she is called to the scene of a tragic fire where seven people have died, including a couple with twin baby boys. So, Tempe finds herself trying to complete everything in Montreal before she is due back in Charlotte. Then to add to the chaos, Tempe’s wild sister, Harry arrives in Montreal to attend a course.

Investigations of the remains in the burnt house leads to the possibility of cult involvement. Tempe is now back in Charlotte, but the cult appears to have a branch in Beaufort South Carolina. So, once again Tempe is pulled away from her regular work to continue the investigation. She is joined by the incredibly attractive police detective from Montreal – Andrew Ryan.

The bodies keep turning up and the reach of the cult gets wider. Now it seems that Harry’s course was associated with the cult and Harry has gone missing. So Tempe and Ryan head back to Montreal to search for Harry. What they encounter is a critical day for a cult, run by a psychopath. This places everyone’s lives in danger.

 

My first thoughts about this book – why would anyone want to live in Canada in winter – Brrr. Seriously, I enjoyed this novel and found it difficult to put down. The pace was fast, the characters were fascinating and the plot was excellent.

In this book we got to meet more of Tempe’s family with her sister Harry involved and also her daughter Katy. And, we get to see the relationship between Tempe and Ryan move forward (and then backward again).

I’m looking forward to the next book in the series – ‘Deadly Decisions’.

 

Date Published 1999

 

See a full list of books by Kathy Reichs

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Filed under Book Reviews, Crime, Detective, Forensic, Reichs, Kathy, Series Fiction, Thriller

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