Product Description

Another day. Another death. Death du Jour. My God, how many such days would there be?' On a bitterly cold march night in Montreal, forensic anthropologiest Dr Temperance Brennan is exhuming the remains of a nun proposed for sainthood in the grounds of an old church. Just hours later, Tempe is called to the scene of an horrific arson. A young family has perished, and there seems to be no witness, no motive, no explanation. From the charred remains of the inferno, to a trail of sinister cult activity and a terrifying showdown during an ice storm, Tempe faces a nerve-shattering test of both her forensic expertise and her instinct for survival.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5684 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
After one of the more startling crime debuts of recent years, Déjà Dead, Kathy Reichs has found herself, at a stroke, regarded as a possible contender for Patricia Cornwell's crown as queen of forensic detection novels. As the new book opens, her forensic anthropologist heroine Temperance Brennan is doing what she usually does--helping to identify remains about which there is almost nothing suspicious. In this case she is dealing with a 19th-century nun of vast sanctity, for whose beatification her relics and burial site need authenticating. What could be simpler or less menacing? Almost immediately, Tempe is called in on a bad case: arson, which has left remains so damaged that a normal pathologist cannot cope--and the victims that pathologists normally cope with include infants stabbed to death.

Something sinister is going on, and whether in Quebec, where she has her practice, or the sleepy South, where she teaches, Tempe is not safe. Reichs' first book was good on the domesticity and friendship to which Tempe retreats--and this time we meet her younger sister, Harriet, who has just got rid of her balloonist lover and is looking for a new interest. --Roz Kaveney

Express on Sunday
‘Better than Patricia Cornwell’

Literary Review
‘A guaranteed sleep-deterrent. Genuinely thrilling’

Customer Reviews

Death Du Jour
As a huge fan of Patricia Cornwall I thought Death Du Jour would be an interesting read for me.
I found the beginning very hard to get into and had to stop myself a few times from not bothering to carry on, but I'm glad I did.
I found the parts on the cults very interesting, especially Temperance's conversations with Red but some chapters, for example on Sam's island, so very boring. Everything is described in such great detail and i was left to wonder what the point was. Personally, I think the book could have been half the size if you cut out all the mundane scenery descriptions.
I loved the character of Andrew Ryan, that was another theme that kept me reading on.
If your beginning to read this book and feel like putting it down, its worth carrying on. Half way through its starts to get good and you wont be able to put it down!
Death Du Jour is a good read, but dont go out of your way or expect anything too much like Patricia Cornwell. I admit I'm biased as im addicted to the characters in the Scarpetta novels and you dont get anything like that in Death Du Jour. You just get a strange sister, Harry, who has no relevence at all to anything, it just made the story more unbelievable and strange!
It kept me occupied for a few days and I've read much worse!

Promised to give you withdrawal symptoms!
I hate feeling like this! After reading my fourth book by Kathy Reichs- "Fatal Voyage"- I'm eagerly awaiting the next. Since I've read all four within a week, I'm now at a complete loss as to what to do with my time both day and night.

Death Du Jour was the first of the four books that I read and after finding it a thrilling, and intelligent read I was totally hooked.
The characters are fantastic and I found them incredibly easy to relate to. Reichs takes Tempe Brennan, the physical anthropologist on a tough journey causing her to struggle to separate professional ritual, from the stong urge to bring these people justice.

The language Reichs uses cannot help but emotionally involve the reader, and I always felt I was in Tempe's head as the story moved swiftly through the emotional rollercoaster to the shattering, unpredictable climax.
Personally, although I lack biological knowledge, I found the forensic explanations and crime scene procedure a fascinating insight into Tempe's profession that is well integrated into the story.

In addition to the professional experience,Reichs introduces Tempe to the prospect of a long awaited romance in Death Du Jour. Throughout the series, Tempe works with Detective Andrew Ryan and as they exchange very sarcastic, slightly flirtatious banter, the romance build-up for the reader runs parallel to the crime adventure.

All in all, Death Du Jour is the best of the four absolutely UNPUTDOWNABLE journeys.(No need to have read the others).
With all that makes a fantastic read, including suspense, romance, intelligence, speed, and fantastic characters, I FULLY RECOMMEND THIS, and all Reichs' books as I highly enjoyed them all and cannot wait for the next!

Another Day. Another Death. Death Du Jour.
Death Du Jour is the second book from Reichs after Deja Dead (sorry I don't have accents etc.). Each book has the same herione and her story continues through each of the novels. Although the story continues, each is a novel in it's own right. I read the 2003 novel then went back to the 1999 novel. I can see disadvantages of this - e.g. the herione Tempe Brennan forms a relationship in the later novels but in this novel she is just getting together with him.

Plot: Tempe is a forensic anthropologist who spends the South Caronlina summer in Quebec/Montreal where she has to withstand harsh winter weather. She is exhuming the remains of an old nun who is now proposed for sainthood. However, she finds that the remains are no longer there. This makes her job a lot harder as the ground freezes. She takes her daughter Katy on a trip to meet a guy who would be able to help her with a project for her course but things go wrong and Tempe ends up discovering a half burried body on an island. Things go from bad to worse when more and more people are found missing and maulled. There is a horriffic arson attack on a house with children in it, the bodies are not discovered until a little later but imagining two 4 month old babies that have had their hearts removed while they are still alive can be a little too much to imagine. The body count rises and rises and Tempe seems to always be the one to try and solve it as though she is a police detective.

This was probably completly coincidental but as I was reading the book, I thought to myself that this seems a little like 'Murder, She Wrote'. No matter where Jessica Fletcher goes to stay there is always a murder and she just happens to be in the right place at the right time to solve it. Then I flicked the TV channel and it was actually on!! The same thing happens with Tempe - no matter where she goes, Death just seems to follow her.

The novel is based on work Kathy Reichs has actually done herself as she is a forensic anthropologist in North Carolina too. This is not a biography though but she does add notes in the back of the novel to the places she got the inspiration for in Bare Bones. Real life cases though are what she isn't allowed to discuss but she does say she has found a lot of the things she mentions. Because Kathy has this first hand experience, she is able to give clear descriptions which mean you are able to get a very vivid picture in your head - not always good!

I'm not going to lie to you and say this is a perfect book for night time reading to your child as it certainly isn't! The descriptions are very vivid and are really pretty disgusting at times. Even just the word 'putrified' sends shivers down my back!

The novel is in the first person giving Tempe's character full control of feelings and thoughts. Unlike Bare Bones, this novel contains very little humour from the Quebec detective Andrew Ryan - Tempe's future flame. One thing I did find better than her 2003 novel was there were a lot less abbreviated terms and those that are mentioned all have their proper names included so even if the reader has no knowledge of Forensic Anthropology, I was certainly still able to understand what they were talking about.

The novel contains a lot of French phrases, most of which have their English meaning beside them but at the beginning of the novel, Tempe says she thinks accents and graves were created for her to make mistakes so most of the French is very simple... e.g. 'Bonjour', 'Comment ca va?' .... etc. = Hello, How are you?

One of the greatest quotes from the book is one that features twice and is also printed on the back blurb:
"Another Day. Another Death. Death Du Jour. My God, how many such days would there be?"

Death Du Jour translates as Death of the Day - quite rightly so as there is a Death a day!

The novel also contains two chapters from her next book 'Deady Decisions'. I haven't started reading them yet as that will mean I'll want to buy that one too!

After having bought Kathy Reich's 2003 book 'Bare Bones', I knew I had to buy another in her collection. In my honest opinion, I loved this one even more than the first I read!

I did note some comparisons between this book and Bare Bones - although each is the same length (over 400 pages) and both have 35 chapters, Death Du Jour has a smaller font and packs a lot more into it. Bare Bones seemed a much easier read but I preferred this one as it has a better plot and more to cover.