Monday Mourning

• Author: Kathy Reichs
• Genre: Mystery
• Publication Date: June 14, 2004
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio 
• Series: Temperance Brennan #7

Internationally acclaimed forensic anthropologist and New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs explores the Stockholm syndrome—the psychology of a captive submitting to the ideology of a captor—in this mesmerizing new thriller.

Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist for both North Carolina and Quebec, has come from Charlotte to Montreal during the bleak days of December to testify as an expert witness at a murder trial.

She should be going over her notes, but instead she’s digging in the basement of a pizza parlor. Not fun. Freezing cold. Crawling rats. And now, the skeletonized remains of three young women. How did they get there? When did they die?

Homicide detective Luc Claudel, never Tempe’s greatest fan, believes the bones are historic. Not his case, not his concern. The pizza parlor owner found nineteenth-century buttons in the cellar with the skeletons. Claudel takes them as an indicator of the bones’ antiquity.

But something doesn’t make sense. Tempe examines the bones in her lab and establishes approximate age with Carbon-14. Further study of tooth enamel tells her where the women were born. If she’s right, Claudel has three recent murders on his hands. Definitely his case.

Detective Andrew Ryan, meanwhile, is acting mysteriously. What are those private phone calls he takes in the other room, and why does he suddenly disappear just when Tempe is beginning to hope he might be a permanent part of her life? Looks like more lonely nights for Tempe and Birdie, her cat.

As Tempe searches for answers in both her personal and professional lives, she finds herself drawn deep into a web of evil from which there may be no escape. Women have disappeared, never to return…Tempe may be next.

With its powerful mix of nail-biting suspense and cutting-edge forensic science, Monday Mourning is the best yet from this superbly gifted, megastar author who, as New York Newsday says, is “the real thing.”

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a Temperance Brennan novel on here, so let me fill you in on the details really quick. 

I loved the TV series Bones, and only found out that it was based on a book when I was more than halfway through the show. After I finished the show, I started reading the series, but wasn’t quite sure what to expect since someone had told me that the books were not very much like the show at all. They were right, and both the books and the show are really good, but in very different ways. IYKYK.

Tempe is in Montreal for basically all of this story, traveling there to offer expert testimony in a murder trial, and getting caught up in the discovery of three skeletons and the need to determine whether they are recent or historic, so the homicide detective knows whether it is his case or not. Unfortunately, she’s teamed up with Detective Claudel, voted least likely to ever be a fan of Tempe’s, and he has already decided that the skeletons are historic based on some evidence found near the bodies. On top of all of that, things seem to be looking up between Tempe and Detective Andrew Ryan, only for things not to go as expected.

I like the way Reichs writes. She’s a forensic anthropologist, and shares all the same education, credentials, and employment as Tempe. Reichs’ skill and talent are clear to see as she breaks down complex information into layman’s terms. The writing is a little blunt—there’s a lot of use of concise, terse sentences, rapid-fired—but it comes across a bit like the way medical personnel and law enforcement officers communicate.  

Tempe’s character is a little brusque, but she maintains relationships with a wide range of friends from her past. They seem to visit her pretty often during stories, and this one is no different. Her friend Anne is visiting as a way to get away from home during some marital difficulties, because who doesn’t want to visit Montreal in the middle of the winter? Although I was kind of put off by how poorly she handled the difficulty she had with Ryan—as a strong, independent woman who probably has a wall full of degrees and some seriously impressive employment credentials, she struggled to have an adult conversation with him about her concerns, but more importantly, her feelings. But once I thought about it, I guess we all have that one person we struggle to express ourselves to, and if I’m not mistaken, this is her first serious … something since she got divorced, even if it was on amicable terms. 

This story is faster paced, and held my attention better than the last book. I really enjoyed the mystery being uncovered, and there’s always plot twists being revealed that I never see coming, probably because they come out of nowhere. I was a little disappointed by the way there was a lot of attention devoted to one subplot, without it coming to anything. Since the main character is fluent in French and the story takes place primarily in Montreal this time, it included quite a few French phrases. I listened to this on audiobook, and Michele Pawk was the narrator. I really liked her narration of this book, for the most part. although her French didn’t feel passable as fluent (but it’s way better than I could ever hope mine to be). Overall, this was a fresh and intriguing addition to the series, and I’d recommend it if you’ve read the earlier books in the series. Otherwise, start with Déjà Dead if you like crime procedurals from the forensic side, books by Patricia Cornwell or Karin Slaughter, are fascinated by how anthropology can come into play during both current and ancient bone discoveries. 

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