Kathy Reichs

Investigating a massacre that took place in Guatemala in 1982, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan discovers that those events are linked to the disappearance of four girls from Guatemala City and the murder of a human rights investigator.

Grave Secrets

Briar's Reviews

Grave Secrets was yet another novel by Kathy Reichs that not only left me addicted to her work but let me learn a few new pieces of knowledge! This novel occurs in Guatemala where Dr. Brennan is searching through graves. In the process, she learns many "grave secrets" about her project and another project she is pulled into. 

The entire novel follows the typical Kathy Reichs plot line: each piece of information is slowly brought forward, and the dots eventually connect perfectly! Lots of bones and bodies are found, and many secrets are revealed. Many facts about anthropology are revealed, as well as facts about Guatemala and past events in history.

Temperance and her relationship with Agent Andrew Ryan are also brought up again, which made me very happy. And a new possible love interest also makes and appearance that makes Tempe question her relationship with the Montreal Agent she often works alongside.

Overall, I loved this book! A typical Kathy Reichs with a lot of punch!

Five out of five stars!

From New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs, Grave Secrets is a bone-chilling Tempe Brennan novel of international black marketeering, decades-old mass murder, and contemporary homicide, now repackaged in a new trade paperback edition. They are “the disappeared,” twenty-three massacre victims buried in a well in the Guatemalan village of Chupan Ya two decades ago. Leading a team of experts on a meticulous, heartbreaking dig, Tempe Brennan pieces together the violence of the past. But a fresh wave of terror begins when the horrific sounds of a fatal attack on two colleagues come in on a blood-chilling satellite call. Teaming up with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolomé Galiano and Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, Tempe quickly becomes enmeshed in the cases of four privileged young women who have vanished from Guatemala City—and finds herself caught in deadly territory where power, money, greed, and science converge.

Liv Strefford

Honestly this book did just not grip me, or even vaguely interest me, from the start I felt bored and was tempted to give up multiple times. The different storylines were even more disconnected than usual in a Reichs novel and even more wooden, clones of characters were thrown at you until you didn’t know which murdered girl or corrupt cop was who. Losing faith in these books but we will give Kathy one last chance to redeem herself with Devil Bones….

Katie Bell

Okay I’m learning Kathy Reichs’ favorite things. Brennan acting so dumb when it comes to her personal relationships. Like, unnecessarily dumb. A moment where, looking back, everything from then on out felt like it happened super fast. Her little pings that tell her she should be remembering something important and obvious but (maddeningly) doesn’t until the very last second. 

She uses a lot of the same plot devices to move her stories along, but I cannot stop reading. Especially after that cliffhanger ending of this one. On to the next!