Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs

Hello Beautiful People! Welcome to another Baddie Book Review! I hope you enjoyed the last and I would love to hear any recommendations or comments!

Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs is the first of a long-time bestselling series Temperance Brennan. Bones has been a binge-able favourite for me for a long time so when I learned that it was based on a book series I instantly was interested it just took me several years to actually get to it.

I will say that I didn’t love the book but I didn’t hate it. I am the type of person who generally never enjoys the TV show adaptation of a book series I’ve read, but this time around I watched the show before reading the book. I think I originally really struggled to get into the book because the Temperance in the book series and the Temperance on the TV show are two very different people other than their job. The Temperance in the book series is quite a bit older than the Temperance on Bones, and in the book series, she is divorced (not from Booth) and has a grown child. It can sometimes be hard to tell personalities in books but I would say that the two personalities are very different maybe despite the tendency to be butting into things they shouldn’t be.

I will also say as well that I made the grave mistake of listening to the audiobook. I work full time so I don’t always have the time to sit and read so I often pick up where I am in the book on the audiobook and then listen when I do chores and whatnot. I honestly had to stop listening to the audiobook because it was making me a bit frustrated. The woman reading (while I am sure lovely) is clearly a much older woman and it’s hard to not envision Temperance as this frail old lady when she’s telling the story. Along with this, you could hear every time she swallowed or smacked her lips and it just drove me insane. All in all, I just don’t recommend the audiobook. At least not the first one as the second has a different reader so maybe she’s better, I’ll let you know.

My rating is 6/10. I know the series gets stronger from here so I am not giving up on it and I also can recognize that this was Kathy’s first book of the series. She’s in the process of building Temperance and her writing style so I believe it really only gets better from here.

***Some disclaimers/warnings for future readers***

• Contains murders
• Contains sex work and the abuse of sex workers
• Descriptive autopsy procedures

Band of Characters:

• Temperance Brennan: Forensic Anthropologist
• Claudel, Ryan and Charbonneau: Homicide Detectives who works on Temperance’s case
• Gabby: Temperance’s best friend, does outreach with sex works
• Katy: Temperance’s daughter

The book starts off in 1994 Montreal as Temperance Brennan is rebuilding a skull. Temperance works as a forensic anthropologist at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Something to warn is that there’s a lot of French in this book (not to the point where things don’t make sense). As a Canadian student who grew up with French shoved down my throat it was a bit triggering. Temperance’s boss lets her know that there is a case for her to go look at. They need to know if it’s an anthropology case or a coroner. When she gets to the site she’s informed that they have a decomposed body in a plastic bag. Only the torso is there and it also has a plunger stuck into the pelvis. Not far from where the torso is Temperance finds a head in another bag. I will say that something that Kathy does well is describe. When I tell you I could totally envision what this head looked like in this bag I mean it. Temperance calls Claudel from homicide.  The next day Temperance works on the remains, and she discovers that the victim is a white female, in her early 20’s.

We get a look at Temperance in her non-work life. We learn that Temperance is a recovering alcoholic. She thinks about another case she had worked on some time ago in which a teenage girl had been dismembered and placed into garbage bags. This homicide haunts her and she can’t help but feel there may be a connection between the two. We are introduced to Temperance’s best friend Gabby. The two seem to be opposites in most regards but it seems that Temperance cares deeply for their friendship. With the age of the body determined Claudel and Temperance break down possible identities by lining up missing person cases to the possible age. They narrowed it down to a 23-year-old woman and got her dental records. They end up being a match and the body is that of Isabel Gagnon. Temperance shares her theory with Claudel that this murder may be connected to others over the past few years with similar aspects. Claudel and Temperance get into a fight over this as he believes she should stick to what he knows. I’ll say that I definitely thought Claudel was an ass. It’s clear he is very egotistical and can’t control his emotions very well.

Temperance and Gabby meet up for dinner that night and Temperance can tell something is up with Gabby. She’s acting out of character. Gabby shares with Temperance that she’s been recently doing fieldwork in the red light area. Gabby starts asking weird questions about Temperance’s recent case with the garbage bags. She’s very emotional about the questions but won’t really get honest with Temperance as to why she’s asking. Instantly I thought that since Gabby is interviewing and talking to people in the red light district and she may be noticing girls going missing hence her questions. The next day however Temperance learns that Isabel isn’t in that lifestyle so I wasn’t sure what to think. Temperance is called to another case where a young woman is brutally murdered in her home. Along with this, she is violated with a statue of a religious figure

It’s been a few weeks since Gabby and Temperance had supper and despite trying to get a hold of Gabby Temperance hadn’t heard from her since then. When Gabby calls she’s in a panic and says she needs Temperance’s help and sounds panicked. When Temperance gets her she’s quite confrontational with Gabby. Gabby isn’t sharing what happened to make her scared and call Temperance to pick her up, this really upsets Temperance. I will say I didn’t love Temperance in this portion of the book. Her attitude was gross and I am not sure why she so desperately needs to know what’s wrong. If my best friend called me in a panic asking me to pick her up I would do it with no expectation or questions asked. Gabby tells her that a John has been bothering her while she works with the girls and it’s been making her uncomfortable. She says she thinks he’s been following her but then switches up and tells Temperance that she’s being over the top and apologizes. I felt bad for Gabby because often times as women we are told that we are being delusional or over the top on things that are dangerous or scare us.

Temperance can’t stop thinking of the case over the weekend and goes to look at the file of the woman who died in similar circumstances a few years ago. When she goes Claudel and Charbonneau are going to arrest the man believed of killing the woman and violating her with the religious statue. Temperance asks to come along and they agree as long as she keeps out. However, Temperance can’t help herself once there and interjects herself into the investigation. I do feel like this is typical of the TV version as well and Temperance is constantly putting herself into situations she shouldn’t be in. There’s this one point where the three of them go to this man they suspects apartment and he bursts out and of course, Claudel and Charbonneau take off after him and so does Temperance despite them telling her not to and I was like ‘come on girl no don’t do it’. There is this weird part where Temperance is chasing him in a crowd and then someone random in the crowd grabs her violently and puts her on the ground and then she gets trampled. I was just like damn this wasn’t even the guy she was after. I don’t know why this part just felt weird to me and I kind of felt bad/embarrassed for Temperance. Temperance gets really confrontational with Claudel because he is upset with her. I mean can you blame them? She went after the suspect when she shouldn’t have, got hurt, and had to be saved by Claudel and Charbonneau who should have been going after him. I was a bit frustrated with her here because I felt her reason for being upset (the suspect getting away) was more her fault than anyone else’s.

They go back to St-Jacques’s (the suspects) apartment and find he has many articles on other serial killers. Along with this, he has a list of names including Isabelle and Margret (the victim with the religious statue). This makes the three worry about the other names on the list and if he could be after them next. Temperance also finds a photo of herself from the newspaper and it has a big X through it. The next day Temperance goes into work looking like she was in a bad fight. One of the detectives calls her to let her know that the file on the woman Chantelle from the case a few years ago is available for her to see. Temperance keeps pushing the serial killer theory but no one else yet believes that St-Jacques is a killer to anyone else other than Margret. Temperance gets both sets of remains Chantel and Isabelle and examines them both. She determines the saw and knife cuts to be similar. She shares her findings with Detective Ryan who is more willing to talk this serial killer theory out with her but still doesn’t believe it. Temperance comes up with a theory based on where the other bodies were, where another could be. Since no one believes her she decides to go check the spot out herself. At this point, I definitely gave an eye roll because this was clearly just going to be trouble, and was another thing that she should not be doing but definitely not by herself. She finds another garbage bag with a body but of course, gets herself hurt in the process. She realizes she can’t get the remains out herself and gets into a panic. And like girl what did you think was going to happen? She worries if she leaves the killer may see she disturbed the spot and take the remains or stop following the pattern.

Temperance leaves the remains and goes back home. She tries to call Gabby who has been impossible to get a hold of again. Temperance calls the boys and only Ryan picks up. Of course, he is pissed off at her because she disturbed a crime scene and left it. Temperance convinces Ryan to pick her up in the morning to go back to the body. In the morning everyone’s a little ticked at Temperance but just wants to find the body. They find the body and it’s a torso missing its limbs in a garbage bag. The only struggle though is they don’t find a bag with a head. While I am definitely happy that Temperance was right in her theory and this person’s body was finally found, I do always get a little ticked when there’s a clear disrespect for procedures from professionals. I mean Temperance of all people should have known the trouble she could have caused by going out there herself. After this Temperance goes to the red light district looking for Gabby since she hasn’t heard from her. Temperance talks to a few of the girls working and asks them about the strange John who was following Gabby. Temperance finds out that the guy is a bit odd and asks weird things of the girls, but they aren’t always as very sexual in nature.

When Temperance is at work the next day she gets an angry call from Gabby. Gabby told her that she saw her in the red light district and told her not to come looking for her there again. Temperance is openly upset and Gabby dismisses her. Temperance gets very angry with her and doesn’t handle it in a very appropriate way. Her concern for Gabby comes off as anger which means the two can’t ever really talk things out so the conversation ends at that. Temperance looks into some other cases that she feels may have been perpetrated by the same killer. Charbonneau finds her and tells her Claude is frustrated with her overstepping and is making a complaint which seems kind of fair to me, to be honest. Temperance shows Charbonneau some more connections she has made and he starts to believe that all these crimes were committed by the same person as well.

One of the cases was a monkey who was being used for a lab thesis by a student at the university who was killed and decapitated. Temperance goes to the university to talk to the professor of the student and finds out she had an overbearing boyfriend. Her interaction with the professor is weird and he seems to insinuate that both the monkey and the student deserved better. It makes me think he thinks the boyfriend did it.

***DON’T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS***

That night back home Temperance suspects someone is in her yard. When she goes out she finds a dismembered body in garbage bags there. This means that the killer knows where she lives and has been stalking her. I wondered if he started stalking her before she got involved in the case or after. In the night Gabby shows up at Temperance’s home. Temperance is emotionally exhausted and upset and isn’t in the mood to deal with Gabby. Gabby asks to stay over and Temperance lets her saying they would talk in the morning. In the morning Gabby tells her that she is being stalked by this John. She thinks he’s been in her apartment. Along with this, he would call her many times throughout the day, not say anything and hang up. The body that Temperance found earlier (not the one at her house) was a young woman named Grace. Temperance does the fucked up thing of going to talk to the family of the victims. Look her getting into other things was annoying but I hated that she did this. I felt like it showed her lack of consideration not only for herself and her job but for these families. However, she does find the connection. All of the women had either their home, a neighbour’s, or a family member’s home up for sale before they diapered, along with that they all took public transportation.

Finally, they believe Temperance and begin a task force to track down the killer. That night Gabby still isn’t at the apartment. At this point, it’s been a few days which is a bit concerning. There were some weird notes in the garbage but overall no signs of where she would be. Also, there’s a very scary drawing of a cut-up woman. Of course, she goes out looking for Gabby by herself. I think she’s honestly looking for the stalker more, I had a feeling that Temperance feels like the stalker and the killer are one and the same. The reason that I felt this way is that Temperance runs into a prostitute she ran into before when looking for Gabby. She ends up getting her to take her to another prostitute who is a regular of the John that’s stalking Gabby. I mean if she was looking for Gabby she would look for her not look for the guy no? I mean if she believed he had her maybe that would make sense but at this point dudes in the wind so who knows where he’s at.

Jewel brings Temperance to Julie and the girl is just very shy and scared. I mean she really gets nothing from the girl and it was kind of a waste of time. Well, I thought. I mean she goes back the next day to follow Julie! Like, come on Temperance! Inane. She follows a guy but can’t really tell if it’s him or not. Okay, there was this weird thing where she kept putting buzz in and I didn’t get it. Like it would be a sentence then buzzzzz. I thought it was a phone or something but I have no clue. Temperance finally tells Ryan about Gabby. Omg took you long enough. Like sheesh, I would have been telling them way earlier. I mean I get that they weren’t believing her on things and so she wasn’t trusting them but still. Next, Temperance finds her body. This made me sad. I don’t think Temperance really ever could have saved her. I mean it was clear the guy had his sights set on her but still, I was just sad for Temperance and the guilt she would probably feel since Gabby was staying with her.

If I am being honest I think it was the ending that kind of did it for me and my not loving the book. I feel like I would have been more satisfied with the police just catching him but we get into this whole thing of Temperance thinking that he has Katy and he doesn’t and then he attacks her and she fights him off and gets away. Her daughter was totally fine the whole time. The killer’s real name was Fortier and he was a freak who was stalking lots of people and killing them. He saw Julie regularly and dressed her in his mom’s nighty. I think it was maybe just the feeling of such huge plotlines being shoved into the last 100 pages of the book that I didn’t love. I wish (as bad as this sounds) that if they were going to bring Katy into this part of the book they did it in a more exciting way instead of her just being at a friend’s. I also didn’t think it was fair for Temperance to get hurt for the third time in the book like damn let the girl heal a little.

I really have to stress that I didn’t dislike the book but it wasn’t a favourite. I am really looking forward to the other books in the series because I know they are way better and just showcase Kathy getting more comfortable with her writing and the creation of Temperance. I would say that I feel like you could skip the first one to get into the series. I honestly didn’t learn much about Temperance and her life other than she really needs a vacation. I am just stubborn and cant not read the first in a series.

I really hope you guys enjoyed this review! I would love to hear comments below. Also, feel free to reach out on Instagram @baddiebookreviews

See you in the next review!