I’m a big fan of the Bones TV series and for years have been meaning to read the books, by Kathy Reich on which the series is based, the first of which is Deja Dead. The story told from the point of view of Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist, takes place in Montreal Canada (which threw me since the series is set in Washington DC), and does not feature a partner FBI agent (like the series either) but some stereotypical (unfortunately) police counterparts. I would like to say I loved this book and cannot wait to continue with the series but I won’t.

Here’s my problem, I’m so tired of reading about women crime-solvers who seem to lack no common sense. I mean, I could put up with that in the Stephanie Plum series because she wasn’t a trained professional but a lingerie saleswoman by trade, so you’d expect her to mess up and do stupid things as a bounty hunter. But this series starts out with her already entrenched in and experienced in her field, so she has no excuse.

*** Spoiler Alert ***

Really, if you had suspicions that a serial killer was on the loose, and your picture was found in the suspect’s apartment, would you go out in search of a possible body dump site by yourself on a stormy night? And if that suspected serial killer left a skull on a stake in your garden, would you ditch your police protection, again, to go searching for him? I’d be like take me to the police station; I’ll stay here until you catch the guy.
About 80% of the way into the book it seems Kathy Reichs even realized that her protagonist was stupid and spent a couple of paragraphs having Temperance explain to us why she was choosing to act in this erratic (really stupid – can I say that enough?) way but too little, too late. It was all too many coincidences, stupid behavior and of course some predictability to move the story along and that bothered me.

Here’s the thing though, this is the first book in the series, and it can sometimes take some time for an author to develop characters well, so I may give the second book in the series, Death du Jour a try. But if Temperance Brennan turns into another Kay Scarpetta (i.e., a woman who doesn’t learn from her mistakes), I’m outta here!