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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."
Reichs mulled over those experiences for about seven years before deciding to apply her ideas to fiction. Out came Déjà Dead in 1997, introducing mystery fans to a new but, more likely than not, recognizable heroine: forensics expert Temperance Brennan, a fortyish, recovering alcoholic on the run from a wobbling marriage. Brennan—a sort of mix between Nancy Drew and Quincy—is also something of a hothead, prone to marching off on her own when she runs afoul of a sexist male cop. This is the kind of woman who would sit down to brunch with Vic Warshawski, Kay Scarpetta, or Jane Tennison, if any of them did brunch.
As a forensic anthropologist for the state of North Carolina, as well as the province of Québec, Reichs draws heavily from her own experiences standing over the autopsy table. Her novels—Death du Jour, Deadly Decisions, Grave Secrets and the like—are packed with the kind of well informed clinical details that make critics take notice. "The doctor clearly knows a hawk from a handsaw," wrote The New York Times about one of her books.
She also built some parallels to her own biography when creating Tempe Brennan. Both women are forensic anthropologists with the unlikely dual addresses of North Carolina and Canada. But Reichs rolls her eyes when asked about the comparisons. "Personally, she's completely her own person," Reichs told USA Today in 1997. "She gets physically involved. She takes risks I've never been tempted to take."
Reichs was editing forensics textbooks when she began toying with writing a novel. The initial result, she said, was a dud: slow, boring, and in the third person. But it picked up steam when she came up with the Brennan character. Inspired by friend and medical examiner Bill Maples, author of Dead Men Do Tell Tales, she sat down to write, meticulously drafting an outline of her story and getting up early to write before teaching classes at the University of North Carolina. It took her two years.
The effort paid off when her manuscript made the rounds of the Frankfurt Book Fair. A heated auction won Reichs a million-dollar, two-book deal.
Critics and readers alike loved Tempe. Wrote the Library Journal, "Despite her ability to work among fetid, putrefying smells that 'leap out and grab' and her 'go-to-hell attitude' with seasoned cops, Tempe is as vulnerable as a soft Carolina morning." And People magazine said, "Reichs not only serves up a delicious plot, she also brings a new recipe to hard-boiled cop talk."
Over chicken salad lunches with newspaper reporters, Reichs will casually talk about dismembered bodies, maggots, and concerns for her children's security in light of some of the unsavory characters she'd testified against. But then she'll confess her true idea of a waking nightmare. "[My] idea of horror would be to sit in a little gray office all day and add up columns of numbers," she told USA Today. "I say to people, 'How do you do that?"'
One of the reasons she is Québec's forensics anthropologist is because she is one of the few in the profession who is fluent in French.
Among her favorite books are the science fiction series the Hitchhiker's Guide Douglas Adams. "It's one of the few things I re-read because it's just nothing to do with anything I do," she has said.
She avoided college literature courses to concentrate on science.
In 2005, Fox TV launched Bones, a forensics/police procedural inspired by Reichs's life and writing. In a neat twist, the main character, Temperance Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist who, as a sideline, writes thrillers about a fictional anthropologist named Kathy Reichs!
Kathy's daughter, Kerry Reichs, made her literary debut in 2008 with the romantic comedy The Best Day of Someone Else's Life.
Can't trust that day...
As the tune played inside my head, gunfire exploded in the cramped underground space around me.
My eyes flew up as muscle, bone, and guts splattered against rock just three feet from me.
The mangled body seemed glued for a moment, then slid downward, leaving a smear of blood and hair.
I felt warm droplets on my cheek, backhanded them with a gloved hand.
Still squatting, I swiveled.
"Assez!" Enough!
Sergeant-détective Luc Claudel's brows plunged into a V. He lowered but did not holster his nine-millimeter.
"Rats. They are the devil's spawn." Claudel's French was clipped and nasal, reflecting his upriver roots.
"Throw rocks," I snapped.
"That bastard was big enough to throw them back."
Hours of squatting in the cold and damp on a December Monday in Montreal had taken a toll. My knees protested as I rose to a standing position.
"Where is Charbonneau?" I asked, rotating one booted foot, then the other.
"Questioning the owner. I wish him luck. Moron has the IQ of pea soup."
"The owner discovered this?" I flapped a hand at the ground behind me.
"Non. Le plombier."
"What was a plumber doing in the cellar?"
"Genius spotted a trapdoor beside the commode, decided to do some underground exploration to acquaint himself with the sewage pipes."
Remembering my own descent down the rickety staircase, I wondered why anyone would take the risk.
"The bones were lying on the surface?"
"Says he tripped on something sticking out of the ground. There." Claudel cocked his chin at a shallow pit where the south wall met the dirt floor. "Pulled it loose. Showed the owner. Together they checked out the local library's anatomy collection to see if the bone was human. Picked a book with nice color pictures since they probably can't read."
I was about to ask a follow-up question when something clicked above us. Claudel and I looked up, expecting his partner.
Instead of Charbonneau, we saw a scarecrow man in a knee-length sweater, baggy jeans, and dirty blue Nikes. Pigtails wormed from the lower edge of a red bandanna wrapped his head.
The man was crouched in the doorway, pointing a throwaway Kodak in my direction.
Claudel's V narrowed and his parrot nose went a deeper red. "Tabernac!"
Two more clicks, then bandanna man scrabbled sideways.
Holstering his weapon, Claudel grabbed the wooden railing. "Until SIJ returns, throw rocks."
SIJ -- Section d'Identité Judiciaire. The Quebec equivalent of Crime Scene Recovery.
I watched Claudel's perfectly fitted buttocks disappear through the small rectangular opening. Though tempted, I pegged not a single rock.
Upstairs, muted voices, the clump of boots. Downstairs, just the hum of the generator for the portable lights.
Breath suspended, I listened to the shadows around me.
No squeaking. No scratching. No scurrying feet.
Quick scan.
No beady eyes. No naked, scaly tails.
The little buggers were probably regrouping for another offensive.
Though I disagreed with Claudel's approach to the problem, I was with him on one thing: I could do without the rodents.
Satisfied that I was alone for the moment, I refocused on the moldy crate at my feet. Dr. Energy's Power Tonic. Dead tired? Dr. Energy's makes your bones want to get up and dance.
Not these bones, Doc.
I gazed at the crate's grisly contents.
Though most of the skeleton remained caked, dirt had been brushed from some bones. Their outer surfaces looked chestnut under the harsh illumination of the portable lights. A clavicle. Ribs. A pelvis.
A human skull.
Damn.
Though I'd said it a half dozen times, reiteration couldn't hurt. I'd come from Charlotte to Montreal a day early to prepare for court on Tuesday. A man had been accused of killing and dismembering his wife. I'd be testifying on the saw mark analysis I'd done on her skeleton. It was complicated material and I'd wanted to review my case file. Instead, I was freezing my ass digging up the basement of a pizza parlor.
Pierre LaManche had visited my office early this morning. I'd recognized the look, correctly guessed what was coming as soon as I saw him.
Bones had been found in the cellar of a pizza-by-the-slice joint, my boss had told me. The owner had called the police. The police had called the coroner. The coroner had called the medicolegal lab.
LaManche wanted me to check it out.
"Today?"
"S'il vous plaît."
"I'm on the stand tomorrow."
"The Pétit trial?"
I nodded.
"The remains are probably those of animals," LaManche said in his precise, Parisian French. "It should not take you long."
"Where?" I reached for a tablet.
LaManche read the address from a paper in his hand. Rue Ste-Catherine, a few blocks east of Centre-ville.
CUM turf.
Claudel.
The thought of working with Claudel had triggered the morning's first "damn."
There are some small-town departments around the island city of Montreal, but the two main players in law enforcement are the SQ and the CUM. La Sûreté du Québec is the provincial force. The SQ rules in the boonies, and in towns lacking municipal departments. The Police de la Communauté Urbaine de Montréal, or CUM, are the city cops. The island belongs to the CUM.
Luc Claudel and Michel Charbonneau are detectives with the Major Crimes Division of the CUM. As forensic anthropologist for the province of Quebec, I've worked with both over the years. With Charbonneau, the experience is always a pleasure. With his partner, the experience is always an experience. Though a good cop, Luc Claudel has the patience of a firecracker, the sensitivity of Vlad the Impaler, and a persistent skepticism as to the value of forensic anthropology.
Snappy dresser, though.
Dr. Energy's crate had already been loaded with loose bones when I'd arrived in the basement two hours earlier. Though Claudel had yet to provide many details, I assumed the bone collecting had been done by the owner, perhaps with the assistance of the hapless plumber. My job had been to determine if the remains were human.
They were.
That finding had generated the morning's second "damn."
My next task had been to determine whether anyone else lay in repose beneath the surface of the cellar. I'd started with three exploratory techniques.
Side lighting the floor with a flashlight beam had shown depressions in the dirt. Probing had located resistance below each depression, suggesting the presence of subsurface objects. Test trenching had produced human bones.
Bad news for a leisurely review of the Pétit file.
When I'd rendered my opinion, Claudel and Charbonneau had contributed to "damn"s three through five. A few quebecois expletives had been added for emphasis.
SIJ had been called. The crime scene unit routine had begun. Lights had been set up. Pictures had been taken. While Claudel and Charbonneau questioned the owner and his assistant, a ground penetrating radar unit had been dragged around the cellar. The GPR showed subsurface disturbances beginning four inches down in each depression. Otherwise, the basement was clean.
Claudel and his semiautomatic manned rat patrol while the SIJ techs took a break and I laid out two simple four-square grids. I was attaching the last string to the last stake when Claudel enjoyed his Rambo moment with the rats.
Now what? Wait for the SIJ techs to return?
Right.
Using SIJ equipment, I shot prints and video. Then I rubbed circulation into my hands, replaced my gloves, folded into a squat, and began troweling soil from square 1-A.
As I dug, I felt the usual crime scene rush. The quickened senses. The intense curiosity. What if it's nothing? What if it's something?
The anxiety.
What if I smash a critically important section to hell?
I thought of other excavations. Other deaths. A wannabe saint in a burned-out church. A decapitated teen at a biker crib. Bullet-riddled dopers in a streamside grave.
I don't know how long I'd been digging when the SIJ team returned, the taller of the two carrying a Styrofoam cup. I searched my memory for his name.
Root. Racine. Tall and thin like a root. The mnemonic worked.
René Racine. New guy. We'd processed a handful of scenes. His shorter counterpart was Pierre Gilbert. I'd known him a decade.
Sipping tepid coffee, I explained what I'd done in their absence. Then I asked Gilbert to film and haul dirt, Racine to screen.
Back to the grid.
When I'd taken square 1-A down three inches, I moved on to 1-B. Then 1-C and 1-D.
Nothing but dirt.
OK. The GPR showed a discrepancy beginning four inches below the surface.
I kept digging.
My fingers and toes numbed. My bone marrow chilled. I lost track of time.
Gilbert carried buckets of dirt from my grid to the screen. Racine sifted. Now and then Gilbert shot a pic. When all of grid one was down a level three inches, I went back to square 1-A. At a depth of six inches I shifted squares as I had before.
I'd taken two swipes at square 1-B when I noticed a change in soil color. I asked Gilbert to reposition a light.
One glance and my diastolic ratcheted up.
"Bingo."
Gilbert squatted by my side. Racine joined him.
"Quoi?" Gilbert asked. What?
I ran the tip of my trowel around the outer edge of the blob seeping into 1-B.
"The dirt's darker," Racine observed.
"Staining indicates decomposition," I explained.
Both techs looked at me.
I pointed to squares 1-C and 1-D. "Someone or something's going south under there."
"Alert Claudel?" Gilbert asked.
"Make his day."
Four hours later all my digits were ice. Though I'd tuqued my head and scarved my neck, I was shivering inside my one-hundred-percent-microporous-polyurethane-polymerized-coated-nylon-guaranteed-to-forty-below-Celsius Kanuk parka.
Gilbert was moving around the cellar, snapping and filming from various angles. Racine was watching, gloved hands thrust into his armpits for warmth. Both looked comfy in their arctic jumpsuits.
The two homicide cops, Claudel and Charbonneau, stood side by side, feet spread, hands clasped in front of their genitals. Each wore a black woolen overcoat and black leather gloves. Neither wore a happy face.
Eight dead rats adorned the base of the walls.
The plumber's pit and the two depressions were open to a depth of two feet. The former had yielded a few scattered bones left behind by the plumber and owner. The depression trenches were a different story.
The skeleton under grid one lay in a fetal curl. It was unclothed, and not a single artifact had turned up in the screen.
The individual under grid two had been bundled before burial. The parts we could see looked fully skeletal.
Flicking the last particles of dirt from the second burial, I set aside my paintbrush, stood, and stomped my feet to warm them.
"That a blanket?" Charbonneau's voice sounded husky from the cold.
"Looks more like leather," I said.
He jabbed a thumb at Dr. Energy's crate.
"This the rest of the dude in the box?"
Sergeant-détective Michel Charbonneau was born in Chicoutimi, six hours up the St. Lawrence from Montreal, in a region known as the Saguenay. Before entering the CUM, he'd spent several years working in the West Texas oil fields. Proud of his cowboy youth, Charbonneau always addressed me in my mother tongue. His English was good, though "de"s replaced "the"s, syllables were often inappropriately accented, and his phrasing used enough slang to fill a ten-gallon hat.
"Let's hope so."
"You hope so?" A small vapor cloud puffed from Claudel's mouth.
"Yes, Monsieur Claudel. I hope so."
Claudel's lips tucked in, but he said nothing.
When Gilbert finished shooting the bundled burial, I dropped to my knees and tugged at a corner of the leather. It tore.
Changing from my warm woolies to surgical gloves, I leaned in and began teasing free an edge, gingerly separating, lifting, then rolling the leather backward onto itself.
With the outer layer fully peeled to the left, I began on the inner. At places, fibers adhered to the skeleton. Hands shaking from cold and nervousness, I scalpeled rotten leather from underlying bone.
"What's that white stuff?" Racine asked.
"Adipocere."
"Adipocere," he repeated.
"Grave wax," I said, not in the mood for a chemistry lesson. "Fatty acids and calcium soaps from muscle or fat undergoing chemical changes, usually after long burial or immersion in water."
"Why's it not on the other skeleton?"
"I don't know."
I heard Claudel puff air through his lips. I ignored him.
Fifteen minutes later I'd detached the inner layer and laid back the shroud, fully exposing the skeleton.
Though damaged, the skull was clearly present.
"Three heads, three people." Charbonneau stated the obvious.
"Tabernouche," Claudel said.
"Damn," I said.
Gilbert and Racine remained mute.
"Any idea what we've got here, Doc?" Charbonneau asked.
I creaked to my feet. Eight eyes followed me to Dr. Energy's crate.
One by one I removed and observed the two pelvic halves, then the skull.
Crossing to the first trench, I knelt, extricated, and inspected the same skeletal elements.
Dear God.
Replacing those bones, I crawled to the second trench, leaned in, and studied the skull fragments.
No. Not again. The universal victims.
I teased free the right demi-pelvis.
Breath billowed in front of five faces.
Sitting back on my heels, I cleaned dirt from the pubic symphysis.
And felt something go cold in my chest.
Three women. Barely past girl.
Copyright © 2004 by Temperance Brennan, L.P.
Anonymous
Posted November 14, 2011
Great plot with a compelling story arch. Tthere were well placed hints that kept you hooked but the ending has a great twist. Enjoy this one
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Posted August 21, 2011
I recommend starting with Deja DeAd and reading right on through! You won't regret ot!
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Posted August 15, 2011
Very good and easy read that keeps yiur attention. At one point I was more interested in the Tempe / Ryan storyline that I almost read the end.
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Posted December 29, 2010
it is an interesting story, but what the heck! it is so cruel what people do to each other! power to the people ! peace , Love!
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 11, 2010
I REALLY wanted to love this series. I am a huge fan of Bones and I was hoping that the books would have the same feel. NOPE. The author is way too formulaic- every book has the same pattern. Each time a friend or family member shows up and manages to get entangled in the case. Come on! It was fine the first and second time but, by the third book, it grows tiresome. Yet, I continued to purchase the books, hoping that the author would mature and develop better plots. It didn't happen. Additionally, her relationship with Ryan is unrealistic, childish and almost insulting to adult women. My last gripe is that I am not familiar with French so, it grows tiresome to stumble over all of the French in her books. Heed my advice, you are better off watching reruns of Bones.
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Posted February 20, 2010
I Also Recommend:
This book was very good from the very beginning. It was exciting but it had a sense of realism in there since this book was actually based on a real case that Kathy Reichs had but never solved. It was a good read and I will probably read it again. I recommend this book to someone who likes murder and mystery or even just the CSI TV show!
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Posted October 27, 2009
This book was so amazing! It really sickened me to think that people actually do this kind of thing. I think this is the main reason why I want to become a forensic anthropologist.
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Posted April 26, 2006
This is a GREAT book. Reichs has an amusing sadistic way of messing with your head at the last minute and bringing the whole book together with a grand conclusion. Since I teach science, all of the forensic stuff is cool.
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Posted February 24, 2005
I have thoroughly enjoyed the writings of Kathy Reichs and her character, Tempe Brennan. Until I read ¿Monday Mourning¿ I didn¿t know why I thought the writing was superb. Ms. Reichs does an afterword and from this I learned that she is a forensic anthropologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina, and for the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Quebec. When you write about what you know, you write the best. Monday Mourning continues with the characters of Tempe, her cat, Birdie, Detective Andrew Ryan and Detective Claudel. ¿Monday Mourning¿ finds Tempe in the basement of a pizza parlor in Montreal with bones and¿RATS! Detective Claudel believes the bones are from a long ago burial but Tempe doesn¿t believe this at all. In the midst of delving into the forensics of the bones with Carbon 14 dating, Tempe¿s friend, Ann, shows up on her doorstep. She is in crisis and leans on Tempe for an ear to bend about her troubles. When Tempe brings Ann to her apartment, they find it has been burglarized. Detective Andrew Ryan arrives just as the girls are trying to decide whether or not to enter the apartment. After the police have been called, he helps the girls clean up enough to be able to sleep safely in the apartment. Between the bones, Claudel giving Tempe a hard time about why she is so concerned with them, Ryan being secretive about the girl living with him and Ann¿s problems with her husband, Tempe is about to lose her mind. Investigation discovers a connection between runaways and Stephen Manard from Vermont. The Carbon 14 shows where the victims had lived but searching police files leads no where. The police locate a home owned by Manard in Montreal and from this point, the story takes a twist I didn¿t see coming. Does Ryan love Tempe? Is the man the police talked to really Manard? Is the girl living with Manard his wife or captive? Who are the victims found in the basement? Grab a copy of ¿Monday Mourning¿ and don¿t stop listening until the very end.
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Posted August 29, 2004
This book was good...but not on 'my' Best Seller List. A little too much detail for my taste.
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Posted October 8, 2004
This was Kathy's best book yet. Loved them all and a bit sad now that I have to sit and wait while she writes another one. I HOPE!!! Kathy's books take on the CSI shows to a higher level and I can't get enough of the science. Smart Lady writes smart books.
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Posted October 5, 2004
I just finished this book and enjoyed the story and learning more about Tempe. I have read all of Tempe Brennen series and really enjoy her character with her determination. The technical details are sometimes overwhelming in this novel. However certainly relevant to the story and to Tempe's once again determination to help.
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Posted September 16, 2004
I finished this book with a struggle. The last third of the book was good but I found there was too much detail and was confused by all the forensic/coroner/scientific talk. I just found it hard to follow. The ending was better but still just an ok read.
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Posted July 2, 2004
I couldn't even finish this book. It seems as if most of the people here enjoyed it, which I don't understand at all. I knew what was going to happen early on, and I found myself not caring at all about the characters. This is my first novel by this author and definitely my last.
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Posted June 30, 2004
I've never liked Kathy Reichs, but I decided to give this book a try. She's not a particularly talented writer, which is the problem with lots of these people who are in law enforcement/medicine/forensics and attempt a writing career: the expertise and accuracy is there, but the talent isn't. This book was an improvement over Déja Dead, but not by much. It seems as if Reichs tries too hard to model herself after Patricia Cornwell, and falls flat. Tempe Brennan is no Kay Scarpetta, that's for sure.
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Posted July 30, 2004
The word ``mourning'' in the title implies quiet reflection, silence. In fact the book starts with a rat-a-tat pace that never lets up. One sentence paragraphs. Snap snap snap. And the general narrative quite impressionistic, so the readers gets a sense of things instead of loaded down with contextual passages. This is a great book for the airplane.
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Posted June 21, 2004
Once you read the first few pages, you are quickly taken into the streets of Quebec. Tempe is back investing the deaths of lost children that the police are convinced are from a past century. New technology helps her prove to the police that the deaths are more recent. The book holds two new twists: Ryan has a daughter and things are heating up between Tempe and Ryan. Can't wait to see what happens in the next book.
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Posted June 22, 2004
I have just finished Monday Mourning and enjoyed this book very much.When you have the same people from previous books you more or less knw how they will react.I recommend this book highly.
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Posted July 3, 2004
I gave this book two stars because I feel bad giving any book a one star rating, that's just too mean. But I really can't recommend this book. Some people might like it, but the writing was choppy, as was the dialogue. The plot was contrived and kind of ridiculous, and the main character annoyed the hell out of me. I let my mom read it after I did, and she's halfway through and doesn't like it either. Bottom line: Skip this if you actually value good books.
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Posted July 10, 2004
The newest Kathy Reichs book is a huge disappointment. I fear this series is now going downhill. Skip this one, it's boring, illogical and the writing is choppy.
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Overview
A riveting new Temperance Brennan forensic thriller from Kathy Reichs, the internationally acclaimed forensic anthropologist and New York Times bestselling author...
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...