Her police call is to Detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. He is splitting his time between the Department and being a private investigator. The caustic Slidell is nonplussed by the eyeball.
As they wait for the authorities Brennan’s daughter, Katy, with her 20/15 vision notices etching on the eyeball. There are numbers and letters inscribed. They form GPS co-ordinates that take Brennan and Slidell to an outhouse at the nearby Belmont Abbey College campus. A badly decomposed woman’s head in a shopping bag awaits them.
Katy has just been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, after 8 years of service as an infantryman in a field artillery unit. She has had tours of duty in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Her psyche is fragile. Her mother is worried.
The gruff, often crude Slidell, is working with her as her Montreal love, Andrew Ryan, is pursuing a Caribbean case as a private investigator.
A mummified man is found hanging from a tree at a nearby state park. Years have passed before he is found.
Reichs provides details of Brennan’s examination of bodies. The particulars are not for the squeamish.
Everyone is absorbed by the head. There is a knife sticking out of one eye and the other eye is missing.
Life is forced to pause in Charlotte by a February blizzard that dumps 14 inches (35 cm) of snow on the city. In Charlotte the primary response to snow is to stay inside and wait for it to melt.
Brennan and Slidell search out the identities of the head and the mummy there is unease. Why was the eyeball delivered to Brennan?
The investigation leads them into the world of “preppers”, survivalists readying themselves to deal with great catastrophes they are sure are coming.
As more bodies are found a brilliant, totally unexpected twist, leads the plot deep into Brennan’s life.
I was frustrated by illogical gaps in the investigation. When a skilled homicide detective and a very experienced forensic anthropologist lead the investigation I expect more precision and less individuals searching for connections.
There is always a touch of unexpected science. Brennan is educated on the precise language of knots and which knots are more likely in a suicide versus a homicide.
I found the characterizations lacking in subtlety. They reminded me of television characters who are rarely nuanced.
Reichs is talented at driving the narrative and the tension as the investigation closes in. It seemed inevitable there would be a Hollywood ending. It pepped up the drama quotient but diminished the role of Brennan’s great intelligence.
I wish the book would have been set in Canada.
It takes a skilled writer to come up with an interesting bizarre scenario. Cold Cold Bones is the 21st book in the Temperance Brennan series. It has been 16 years since I read a Brennan mystery. It is hard to explain why. I enjoyed the 6 books I read between 2000 and 2006. Overall I liked Cold Cold Bones. I know Reichs can write a good mystery with less violence.
I know exactly what you mean about what it would realistically be like for people as experienced and skilled as these people are to do some of the things they do, Bill. Reichs does, as you say, build up tension effectively, and although I have my limits, I do find forensics information interesting. But I agree with you about the detail in some forensics-based novels. You've reminded me, though, that I've not yet put a Reichs novel in the spotlight. I may do that at some point.
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. Reichs has interesting plots. I hope you spotlight her work.
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