Book Review: Grave Secrets

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Grave Secrets     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Kathy Reichs
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Forensics   Woman Main Character
Series: Dr. Temperance Brennan # 5
Scribner, July 2002, $25.00, 336 pp.

Between the years of 1962-1996, Guatemala was involved in a bloody civil war and many of the peasants who were thought to be rebels were killed or disappeared. In the present, the government is now sending in forensic teams to find and identify the victims so they can be given a proper burial. Dr. Temperance Brennan, a famous forensic anthropologist, is one of the members who are trying to sort out the body parts on the site of a massacre.

While doing her work, she is asked by an honest policeman to examine the body of a woman who was found in a septic tank. It seems that in the past few months, four young women have gone missing and the authorities fear they have a serial killer on their hands. While working the case, Temperance finds herself in danger from an unexpected source and only a miracle will save her life.

Kathy Reichs is a fantastic writer of crime thrillers and her latest work GRAVE SECRETS is even better than usual because of its locations. Based on facts and true events, readers get an inside look at a Central American country where genocide on the local people occurred for more than three decades. Temperance is the kind of heroine most women aspires to be.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner