Cross Bones (Temperance Brennan)

I usually love Kathy Reichs books. This one I found incredibly boring, pedantic and uninteresting. The dialogue between Tempe and Ryan peculiar to say the least, staccato, juvenile and ridiculous. The storyline could have been told in 100 pages. Tempe came across as a know it all and lectured at every oportunity, half of which was incomprehensible to the layperson. Also some of the comments made couldn't be connected to the conversation. In actual fact had I been given the book without being told the author I would never have recognised it as being written by Kathy Reichs. Very disappointing.

In Cross Bones, a book that is a bit of a departure from her usual fare, Kathy Reichs' main character Dr. Temperance Brennan investigates a murder of a somewhat seedy Jewish businessman Avram Terris, who is found dead in Montreal. Through various plot twists, Tempe and her main squeeze Andrew Ryan end up in Israel overtly investigating Ferris' murder. However, through their investigation, they end up involved in a mystery involving what appear to be first century bones that may be from the family of Christ.

Written in pure Reich's style, Cross Bones, is, as pointed out by another reviewer, similar in tone and pace to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. However, unlike Brown's suspenseful novel, Cross Bones fails to carry the reader to the same level of mystery and intrigue that fills The Da Vinci Code. Don't misunderstand my point. Cross Bones is a worthwhile read, but try as she might, Reichs' can't duplicate Browns success.

The characters in Cross Bones are believeable but not always interesting. The plot is a bit convoluted and in places stretches the reader a little too far.

Cross Bones is an interesting read but not typical Reichs.

In CROSS BONES, forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs' eighth novel featuring Dr. Temperance Brennan, our heroine is called in to determine if the death of Avram Ferris, an Orthodox Jewish man in Quebec, was murder or suicide. Her examination seems to indicate that Ferris was murdered. Her conclusion is confirmed when an acquaintance of Ferris's hands Tempe a black and white photograph of a skeleton, taken in Jerusalem in 1963, and tells her its subject is the reason Ferris was murdered.

Tempe discovers that the photo was taken during an archaeological dig of Masada, the long-ago site of the Jews' last stand against the Romans. Along with her lover Detective Andrew Ryan, who is investigating Ferris's murder, and biblical archaeologist Jake Drum, Tempe travels to Israel to investigate the origins of the photographed skeleton (which they crudely nickname "Masada Max"), and to explore ancient burial caves in and around Jerusalem. While in the city, she makes a startling discovery that could raise radical questions about the beliefs of millions of people around the world. Is it possible that Jesus survived his crucifixion on the cross and, rather than being resurrected as Christians believe, lived to the ripe old age of 80, and was buried with the rest of his family in a tomb deep in the Hinnon Valley? In CROSS BONES, Tempe takes on the most controversial and dangerous case of her career--and the stakes have never been higher.

Kudos to Reichs for being brave enough to write such a controversial book. But that's about all she gets kudos for with this one. Shame on you, Kathy, for feeling like you needed to buy into the "DAVINCI CODE knockoff" trend. And yes, I'm going to compare the two: If Reichs is going to mention that novel in CROSS BONES (which she does, more than once), you can be sure I'm going to make the comparison. The premise of CROSS BONES is the same: The main character discovers a secret that could have earth-shattering results for Christianity. You're better than that, Dr. Reichs, as your previous seven books have proven.

And while I can put up with the fact that the plot is similar to THE DAVINCI CODE, what I can't accept is that the writing is so similar. I mean, I love Dan Brown as much as the next person, but c'mon, folks, he's not the best writer, is he? Sadly, Reichs' writing also suffers greatly in this book. Her sentences are short and choppy, her dialogue is stilted, her prose is juvenile, her humor falls flat. And I've had just about enough of those heavy-handed cliffhangers at the end of every chapter. And don't you think she's told us enough that Ryan's eyes are blue? Sapphire blue, Viking blue, ocean blue, baby blue...it's all blue, Kathy, we get it.

I have read all of the Tempe Brennan novels, and I've loved them all--that is, until I read CROSS BONES. I found absolutely nothing redeeming in this novel. All of the forensic science I've always found so interesting in Reichs' novels is dry and textbook-boring in this offering. Her character development is nonexistent in CROSS BONES; she focuses totally on the plot rather than on the characters involved. While her descriptions of Montreal and North Carolina in previous novels have been vivid, her portrait of Israel is dry and detached. Although she mentions in her Epilogue that she flew to Jerusalem to do research for this novel, her depiction of the city is lifeless, and it reads as though she picked her descriptions of Israel straight from a travelogue.

Perhaps one of the reasons I had such a strong negative reaction to this novel is that its subject made me very uncomfortable. I am a Christian myself, and even reading this novel made me feel sacreligious. I think what bothered me was Reichs' flippant writing; Tempe, Jake, and Ryan, are constantly making some snide, sarcastic comment about the life of Jesus. I think Reichs could have taken more care not to be offensive. Yes, THE DAVINCI CODE tackled similar subject matter, but at least Dan Brown wrote with a little more respect. Aside from that, it is clear Reichs has disdain for organized religion of all kinds. In CROSS BONES, Christians are fanatics, Jews are radicals, Muslims are fundamentalists. You'll never hear any of them referred to in the pages of this novel without those tags.

But despite all this, I stuck with the novel, hoping for one of those trademark cleverly-crafted Reichs endings. Sadly, even in this I was disappointed. The ending is totally anticlimactic. Reichs takes the easy way out and gives her readers no answers, no explanations, not even some hypotheses to chew on. Just a rehashing of all the historical facts and some more not-so-witty-banter between Tempe and Ryan.

As a Reichs fan, I just can't tell you how disappointed I was with CROSS BONES. In fact, I'm not sure I'll be reading Tempe's ninth adventure--not unless Reichs steps back into the formula that's been working so well for her so far.

So I guess there's one major difference between THE DAVINCI CODE and CROSS BONES, after all: Brown, at least, tackled his biblical enigma with successful results.

It's so hard to believe that "Cross Bones" was written by the same person who wrote the fantastic series debut of Temperance Brennan, "Deja Dead," that I wonder if this latest one was ghostwritten. The writing was so amateurish as to be painful to read -- there was a heavy reliance on exclamation points and question marks, but the worst was that half the book seemed to consist of one-sentence paragraphs, and those sentences were mostly three to five words long.

As for the plot, well, let's just say that the bandwagon of "DaVinci Code" wannabes is way overcrowded already, although perhaps Reichs realizes this and was gently making fun of herself. However, the murder at the beginning of the book and the mystery of the various sets of bones seemed to play second fiddle to the repetitive smug scenes of great whoopee between Brennan and Ryan, as well as to their constant "look how witty I am" banter. They seem incapable of having a normal conversation. Some of the forensic details were interesting, such as the bits about mitochondrial DNA and how bullets can create skull fracture patterns.

Finally, it's quite annoying that Reichs seems to feel the need to remind us over and over that Ryan's eyes are blue. Really blue. Viking blue. You know what? If they were blue yesterday and blue today, then I'd bet money that they'll be blue tomorrow, so don't bother gushing over the fact. Perhaps if Reichs takes her time with the next book and isn't hung up on having cliffhanger "hooks" at the end of every chapter, she can get back to writing meaty mysteries again.

I've been a fan of Reichs's work from her first novel. I've found her Brennan character engaging, and her story lines well thought out and interesting.

I found this particular book to be very disappointing. As Reichs writes in her Afterword, she wrote this novel to, in essence, indulge her interest in archeology. The problem is, she wrote a very confusing (to me) book with a story line that was very hard to follow. I had a hard time keeping straight the various antique skeletons that are driving the plot, the various dig sites, why various political groups were so intent on hiding/destroying/acquiring/whatever these assorted ancient remains.

In all honesty, while reading this book I was kind of busy shrugging my shoulders when I wasn't scratching my head. Figuratively, of course. I found myself thinking "who cares?"

Every author is entitled to blow one from time to time. Hopefully Reichs has this out of her system now. My advice: pass on this one. Read her earlier books, and wait for the next one.

By far the worst entry in Reichs's Brennan series. She sets up a mystery central to the plot of the book - to whom did the bones discovered in Israel belong? The murders Brennan solves along the way are incidential to this overarching mystery. But at the end of the book (read no further if you don't want to get an idea of the ending!) the bones in question are totally destroyed, making it impossible to solve the question of whose they were. What a rip-off! And what a cheat on the reader!! It seems to me that Reichs just wasn't smart enough to think of a good ending. So she cheated and destroyed all the evidence. The only thing worse would have been for Brennen to awake back in Montreal and realize it was "all a dream."

I have read all Reich's books and own most of them. What a disappointment this one was. I nearly drowned in forensic science, paperdoll characters, impossible situations, and though I kept thinking the book would get better and somehow the plot would finally jell, it didn't. This book has no ending. It just stops, as if Reich's ran out of paper so she called it a day. My personal opinion is that she is trying to write her own, but improbable version, of something like the DiVinci Code and just doesn't come close to making the grade.

I have been an avid fan of Kathy Reichs and pre-ordered this book when I saw it on Amazon.com.

I was VERY disappointed. It was confusing and confounding. Too many characters, too many theories, WAY too much religion and , Kathy, please don't preach to me!! I am a fan of your novels - not your political or religious positions!

Possibly the worst book I have ever read. The "style" could be bested by a not-too-bright fifth grader. The plot is an imbecilic rehash of the Divinci Code. Don't bother keeping track of any details, because everything turns out to be irrelevant. If you want to entertain yourself and your friends, however, check this out of your local library and get mildly drunk. Now open the book at random and read aloud. This should cause hysterical I-can't-believe-this-got-published laughter.

This was one of the most insipid "mysteries" I ever read. Concocted only to show off the author's knowledge of forensic archeology, it starts with a most interesting premise and spins into a cotton candy piece of nonsense with a protagonist who is beyond clueless, and rapidly becomes annoyingly stupid displaying more interest in her own sexual attraction than in solving the so-called mystery. A total waste of time.