Death du Jour [Abridged] [Audible Audio Edition]

by Kathy Reichs (Author), Katherine Borowitz (Narrator)

Product Details

• Audible Audio Edition
• Listening Length: 4 hours and 30 minutes
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Abridged
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Audible.com Release Date: July 3, 2001
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00005N5OH
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (186 customer reviews)

Editorial Reviews

Assaulted by the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, the American-born Dr. Temperance Breman, Forensic Anthropologist for the Province of Quebec, digs for a corpse where Sister Elisabeth Nicolet, dead over a century and now a candidate for sainthood, should lie in her grave. A strange, small coffin, buried in the recesses of a decaying church, holds the first clue to the cloistered nun's fate. The puzzle surrounding Sister Elisabeth's life and death provides a welcome contrast to discoveries at a burning chalet, where scorched and twisted bodies await Tempe's professional expertise. Who were these people? What brought them to this gruesome fate? Homicide Detective Andrew Ryan, with whom Tempe has a combustive history, joins her in the arson investigation. From the fire scene they are drawn into the worlds of an enigmatic and controversial professor, a mysterious commune, and a primate colony on a Carolina island. Featuring the kind of forensic detail that only Kathy Reichs can provide - from skeletal reconstruction to insect analysis - Death du Jour takes the listener on a riveting journey from the morgue to the lab to the crime scene, from the warmth of barrier island to the frigid cold of a deadly ice storm. With this poignant and powerful work, Kathy Reichs confirms her status as a brilliant new crime-writing star.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many coincidences ruined it for me., October 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Death du Jour (Hardcover)

For the first 25 pages I was enthralled by the writing and the forensics. Then the coincidences piled up: 1. In Quebec, Tempe investigates the fiery death of a family (later found to be killed by a quasi-religious cult.) 2. In a totally separate storyline, Tempe is asked by a nun acquaintance to find the nun's missing niece ... who JUST HAPPENS to have links to the first murder. 3. Weeks later, Tempe's relaxing on an island off the Carolina coast when she JUST HAPPENS to discover the buried bodies of two murdered women. Guess what? This new crime JUST HAPPENS to be related to those murders way up north in Quebec. 4. Tempe's troubled sister, living in ANOTHER state, JUST HAPPENS to have recently joined the same murderous cult responsible for all these murders! Tempe doesn't have to pursue the investigation -- the clues just come flying to her from points all over North America. I am amazed that so many self-described mystery buffs do not even comment on these faults in their reviews. Did they not notice them? Or are they so dazzled by the forensic details (which are indeed excellent)that they forgot the basics of a believable plot?

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting, so don't start reading it before bedtime., July 26, 2000

By 

April "Cheshire Cat" (Everett, WA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death du Jour (Temperance Brennan Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

A different kind of professional female sleuth with the feel of non-fiction fiction. The author is a real-life forensic anthropologist for the State of North Carolina, and is also a professor at The University of North Carolina. The author's character has been divorced, has a 'wacky' sister and a grown-up daughter,is working for the Province of Quebec and teaches at university as well. Dr. Temperance Brennan, the first person narrator, has co-workers who hate her and a male detective who irritates and attracts her. Real excitement is constantly being created because the distractions caused by her personal life interfere with her sleuthing, which the reader can figure out by a few minutes. Despite the University credentials of both character and author, the book is very readable and fast. If bone science doesn't give you the creeps, I suggest taking this book with you on summer vacation. (There is a lot of snowing in the book,a mental boost if the sun is getting too much.)

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Move over, Kay Scarpetta, August 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Death du Jour (Temperance Brennan Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

After the disappointment of Patricia Cornwall's latest books, I've greatly enjoyed Kathy Reichs new series, which features Tempe Brennan, a forensic anthropologist based in Montreal and Charlotte. In this book, Charlotte and other parts of North Carolina are much more central to the story than in Reichs' earlier Deja Dead.

The plot is entertaining and you'll learn a few things along the way that you probably didn't really want to know about maggot life cycles.

Although I found Death du Jour not quite as terrifying as Deja Dead, it's a definite page turner. Recommended for the non-squeamish...but don't read it when you're home alone.