Fatal Voyage - Hardcover

Reichs, Kathy

4.05

50,989 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434008303 ISBN 13: 9780434008308

Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd, 2001

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

When a plane crashes high in the mountains of North Carolina, Tempe Brennan is one of the first on the scene. As a forensic anthropologist for the state, she serves on the region's disaster response team. The task that confronts her is a sad and sickening one. Putting normal life on hold, she and her colleagues must painstakingly identify the victims. A chance discovery concerns her: a severed foot, well away from the main crash site. A deserted house close by is buried so deep in the woods that locals claim to know nothing of its existence. And her examination of the foot throws up more questions than it answers. Before she can make any progress, an anonymous accusation is levelled against her. Tempe must fight to save her professional standing. But she fears that, air tragedy aside, another corpse lies somewhere in the woods. Pitting herself against a conspiracy of silence, Tempe is determined to bring justice for her mystery victim...

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Tempe Brennan, Kathy Reichs' forensic anthropologist heroine, often finds herself in physical jeopardy. In Fatal Voyage, her fourth outing, someone is trying to kill her and also to destroy her professional reputation with trumped-up charges of unethical behaviour.

Tempe is called in when a plane full of college athletes goes down in the remoter parts of the forests of North Carolina. She finds herself investigating a spare foot she rescued from coyotes, a foot which is significantly more decomposed than the crash victims and which has symptoms of gout, a disease most of the dead young people had no time to contract. There is a locked house and walled courtyard out in the woods that do not appear on any maps and it seems almost as if her simple knowledge of their being there has offended the powerful of the world.

As always, Kathy Reichs manages to combine a detailed knowledge of who the dead were and how they died with a profound sense of the sadness of things. This is a book that never lets us forget amid the dissections and tests for genetic markers that each human death is that of a tragic and irreplaceable human being. Tempe is one of the more attractive of the current crop of women detectives simply because she is flawed and vulnerable as well as smart, righteous and brave. Reichs never lets you forget that crime novels should acquaint us with good people as well as human evil. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

'Inevitably compared with Patricia Cornwell, Reichs is actually in a different league' -- Sunday Times, July 15 2001

'Kathy Reichs is some kind of writer! Deep in Patricia Cornwell territory, she outdoes the queen ... Terrific' -- Independent on Sunday, July 15 2001

'Read this and you’ll know why the word ‘chiller’ was invented’ -- Frances Fyfield

'Reichs gets better with every book...Gritty detail, chilling atmosphere, engrossing plot - move over Patricia Cornwell' -- Woman and Home, July 2001

‘Genuinely thrilling’ -- Literary Review

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.