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Deja Dead

by Kathy Reichs

Deja Dead won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada for first crime novel. It must have been the story itself, because I doubt if it was the writing, unless their judges are blind. Make no mistake – the book is very good for a first novel, with a well-told tale of a serial killer and his gruesome attacks. But especially in the first half of the book, when Kathy Reichs is just getting warmed up, so to speak, she makes the identical obvious error some other new writers do – an error usually corrected by a competent editor. Instead of description presented in various written format, Ms. Reichs uses the same word – 'like' over and over again until it becomes obnoxious in the extreme. Examples (and only three among a multitude littering the pages) are: “He looked like a sandpiper waiting out a wave” and “Like a lens on automatic, her eyes readjusted…” or “like a canary inspecting a face outside its cage –“ etc. etc. etc. How much better it would have read as “He was a sandpiper…” A lens on automatic, her eyes…” In other words (literally!) the descriptions are apt and good. It's simply the way they're suddenly forced on you. Whatever.

The only other item not in favor of this writer are some rather lengthy descriptions of forensic procedures. Sure, this is Kathy Reichs area of expertise, but it's also a mistake to assume everyone else is as interested. Since I haven't read Ms. Reich's other novels, let's hope she's developed on her own as a writer (Kathy Reichs decidedly has much to say, and it's assuredly interesting), or at least gotten a better editor!

Deja Dead begins in Montreal with discovery of bones in a plastic sack. Bones of a human – not an archeological find, which was the first thought (and hope) since the initial bones found near the same site were of that genre. What the protagonist finds is the torso of a young woman with the handle of a toilet plunger still inside her rib cage. The skeleton lacks the head and limbs, but the woman evidently had the plunger shoved up her vagina. Whether or not she was dead at the time is something nobody knows. Missing parts of the body are then found nearby.

Dr. Temperance (Tempe) Brennan is the primary character, telling the story in first person as the local forensic anthropologist. What she eventually remembers is a similar case from a year before, when sixteen-year-old Chantale Trottier was also found in pieces distributed among garbage bags. Although the ages of the two females are vastly different, the method, the meticulous dismemberment, and the disposal are the same. However, Tempe is hard put to convince the police that there's a connection.

Still another body comes to Dr. Brennan's morgue, murdered in identical fashion. Yet the police remain in doubt about the idea of a serial killer. The murders are too different in age range, type of person, and location. Tempe herself is hard put to find the link, even when she puts all her expertise into intensive examination of each set of desiccated bones and flesh.

By the time authority has realized the cases actually are connected and that a real maniac killer is free to hunt down, maim and murder his female victims, Tempe's best friend Gabby has disappeared, her teen-age daughter Katy is vulnerable, and Tempe finds a news photo of herself marked with the murderer's 'X' as the next possible victim.

In a frantic race against time which involves the subway, the number six, religion, and the partiality blindness of his immediate family members, the murderer is finally caught. However, he's caught only after a harrowing confrontation where Tempe herself is tortured and almost killed. The novel ends with a surprising twist of acceptance from the detective most resistant to Tempe Brennan's suggestions.

Deja Dead is an exciting read once you get past the first three-quarters of the book with its intrusive 'likes'. The pace picks up and
occurrences then are so rapid that there isn't any more room for poetic description. Kathy Reichs is a born story-teller, and if you're a fan of forensic murder mysteries, Ms. Reich's work will be a feast for you. I believe Bare Bones is her latest effort to date, and I look forward to reading it.

Alan Paul Curtis

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