It's been ages since a Kathy Reichs book! I have however been "treated" to the pointlessness that is Bones on a fairly regular basis since the eldest offspring likes it. She likes crime series of the detective variety, coping with any amount of gore, but cannot bear anything with proper realism, anything departing from the crime-solving formula for shows (or books I suppose). It's sweet. Bones, however, is boring.
Having read a lot of good fiction since I last read Kathy Reichs I am more sensitive to the not-so-great bits of her authorship. Staccato writing, a weakness for ending chapters with cliffhangers that in the next chapter don't lead anywhere (invented example "I asked him if there was a problem. And the day got worse." - next chapter: it doesn't actually get worse. It's just not better.)
This one starts of with Temperance being buried alive in a small space, and under the guise of her trying to remember why she's been put there we get the whole background story. It's not great, really. But entertaining enough. I'd say that the plotline of academic fraud and ambition is farfetched, but since Reichs does work in that area she might just be tweaking the truth a little, not a lot. So it can pass. And on the whole she does tie up the plotlines. Fair play.
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