You may remember my dislike of Katherine Reich’s first novel Deja Dead but as I said in that review, sometimes it can take an author some time to hit their stride in a series so I was willing to give her second book, Death Du Jour, a chance. Three plus years later, with the encouragement of a friend and the book happily showing up in Kindle format for free from my local library, I did just that.
That said, I did like this book a bit more than the first one but re-reading my review of Deja Dead, I find that my objections to that one hang true with this one with some new ones thrown in.
Spoiler Alert
As in her first book, though the main character, Temperance Brennan, has experience working with criminal investigations, and had even been targeted by a serial killer in the first book, she still does way too many stupid things! Seriously, I’m in my house and I smell smoke, I don’t go investigating, I call 911 and I hightail it out of there! I see a guy get shot, I don’t go investigate, I call the police! And if someone leaves a dead cat, burning in my kitchen, I’m getting out of dodge!
So okay, she’s not really the brightest bulb in the box.
The other thing that irked me, is all of the coincidences. Really? Let’s forget that I figured much of this story out early on (hello – how could she not see the warning signs with her sister Harry – I mean really!), but how coincidental that her sister, in Texas, happens to get involved with the same cult involved with the ritualistic murders she’s investigating in Quebec, and that her friend, in South Carolina, just happens to run the island monkey sanctuary, where the same cult happens to dispose of two dead bodies because they happen to have a branch compound nearby? Oh and let’s not forget that the nun she’s working with on a non-criminal investigation happens to have a niece tied into the criminal investigation?
Really?
Again though – all that said, I found the writing in this one better and the price tag (free) wasn’t bad either, so I may actually go back for a third option … we’ll see.