Short & Sweet Review: Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs (audio)

Title: Grave Secrets   

Author: Kathy Reichs     

Series: Temperance Brennan, #5      

Narrator: Katherine Borowitz  

Published: July 2002, Simon & Schuster Audio   

Length: 10 hours   

Source: Library    

It
was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers ravaged the village of Chupan
Ya, raping and killing women and children. Twenty-three victims are
said to lie in the well when Dr. Temperance Brennan and the team from
the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation now dig. No records were
kept. To their families, the dead are “the disappeared.”

The team is
packing up for the day when an urgent satellite call comes in. Two
colleagues are under attack. Shots ring out, and Tempe listens in horror
to a woman’s screams. Then there is silence. Dead silence.

With
this new violence, Tempe is asked by the Guatemalan police for her
expertise on another case. Four privileged young women have vanished
from Guatemala City in recent months. One is the Canadian’s ambassador’s
daughter. Some remains have turned up in the septic tank.
Unfortunately, Tempe knows septic tanks.

Teaming with Special
Crimes Investigator Bartolome Galiano, and with Montreal detective
Andrew Ryan, Tempe soon finds herself in a dangerous web that stretches
far beyond Guatemala’s borders. As power, money, greed, and science
converge, Tempe must make life-altering choices.
 

Grave Secrets
is powerful entertainment from a crime fiction superstar who combines
riveting authenticity with witty, elegant prose.

***Short & Sweet Reviews
are short, quick reviews. These will mainly be used for series books
where I have already done full reviews on some of the earlier books or
for books that I feel will suffice with a quick review. These will not
be used for review requests or blog tours.

My thoughts: So after reading the final book in the series (book 17), I’m now back to catching up with where I left off. One good thing about being so far behind is that I can move through the books pretty quickly if I want and not have to wait around for the next book to be published!

This time around, we find Temperance working in Guatemala where she is helping to identify the bones of women and children killed during a horrific incident. While there, she gets pulled into another case that involves the Canadian Prime Minister, which of course, pulls in Detective Andrew Ryan. Added to the mix is Sergeant-Detective Galiano, which provides for a nice love triangle in it’s loosest terms and leads to some witty banter going back and forth.

The action is non-stop and having Tempe working multiple cases only adds to that. Once again, I was not able to differentiate the bad guys from the good guys – they are all written so well that it’s hard to tell them apart! But, that’s what keeps me reading – I love when I am kept guessing and thinking!

Audio thoughts: I really like Katherine Borowitz’s narration of this series. I listened to her narrate the most recent book in this series, Bones Never Lie, and thought she did a great job, and was happy to see she did this one. I only hope she continues to do the rest of the series.

Books in this series: 

1. Deja Dead                                12.  206 Bones
2. Death du Jour                       13.  Spider Bones
3. Deadly Decisions                 14.  Flash & Bones
4. Fatal Voyage                         15.  Bones are Forever
5. Grave Secrets                        15.5  Bones in Her Pocket
6. Bare Bones                              16.  Bones of the Lost
7. Monday Mourning              16.5  Swamp Bones
8. Cross Bones                            17.  Bones Never Lie
9. Break No Bones
10. Bones to Ashes
11. Devil Bones