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    Deadly Decisions: A Novel
    Deadly Decisions: A Novel
    Deadly Decisions: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Deadly Decisions: A Novel

    Written by Kathy Reichs

    Narrated by Lorelei King

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    When innocent blood is spilled, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan deciphers the shattering truth it holds in this exciting thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs.

    Nine-year-old Emily Anne Toussaint is fatally shot on a Montreal street. A North Carolina teenager disappears from her home, and parts of her skeleton are found hundreds of miles away. These shocking deaths propel Tempe Brennan from north to south, and deep into a shattering investigation inside the bizarre culture of outlaw motorcycle gangs—where one misstep could bring disaster for herself or someone she loves.

    From blood-splatter patterns and ground-penetrating radar to bone-sample analysis, Deadly Decisions triumphantly combines the authenticity of a world-class forensic professional with the narrative power of a brilliant crime-writing star.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateFeb 21, 2012
    ISBN9781442353633
    Author

    Kathy Reichs

    Kathy Reichs’s first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. Fire and Bones is Reichs’s twenty-third novel featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Reichs was also a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama, Bones, which was based on her work and her novels. One of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Reichs divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina. Visit her at KathyReichs.com or follow her on Twitter @KathyReichs, Instagram @KathyReichs, or Facebook @KathyReichsBooks. 

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    Reviews for Deadly Decisions

    4/5

    872 ratings37 reviews

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    • 3/5
      In this third Tempe Brennan mystery, Reichs strays from the tried-and-true forumla, without great success. Tempe is starting to act like an irritatingly helpless female.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      This book has potential, but Brennan acts blatantly stupid for someone who is supposed to be an intelligent Dr.

      I do not understand how someone who has been attacked in her home multiple times in relation to cases can find an actual eyeball in a jar in her car while investigating a violent gang and just write it off as "Oh, it was probably just a prank".

      Her actions follow this theme in repeating cycles throughout the entire novel.
    • 5/5
      This was a pretty good thriller with a very good performance.
    • 3/5
      PLOT OR PREMISE:In this third installment in the Dr. Temperance Brennan series, there are biker gangs in Montreal, and they are killing each other. Most of it happens in Montreal, which is an improvement over the bopping around in previous books..WHAT I LIKED:The story is interesting, and Reichs is still above average..WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:Some of the characters are fast becoming clichés. And if you don't figure out a sub-plot (spoiler alert!) about her love interest being a dirty cop, you need to take Mystery Fiction 101 again. Temperance also gets to play Mommy again, this time to a nephew, but it isn't particularly exciting. More of a Scarpetta rip-off. Again, too, Reichs plays fast and loose with a couple of clues that make Brennan look like an idiot to any intelligent reader and really detracts from the story. The final ending is almost surreal, and reads more like a script for an action TV-series than reliable fiction..BOTTOM-LINE:Not up to the standards of the first book.DISCLOSURE:I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow her on social media.
    • 3/5
      Deadly Decisions doesn't vary much from the pattern established in Reichs' first two Temperance Brennan novels. This one (again) features one of Brennan's friends/family in peril, and (again) teaches us much more about forensics than your average episode of CSI.This time the featured forensic topic was blood spatter. Five pages worth of lecture, which I have to admit that I didn't read. I skimmed until I found the conclusion: "so this means that the victim was beaten before he was shot?" I don't think my enjoyment of the book suffered for my laziness.The villains in Deadly Decisions are OMCs, Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs. Apparently there's a biker war in Montreal, and innocent bystanders are getting caught in the crossfire. Brennan volunteers for a multi-agency task force to address the problem, and as a result, she (and her readers) are treated to not one, but two lecture presentations about the history of OMCs in the U.S. and Canada. These presentations are complete with overhead and slide projectors. Like the blood spatter, the storyline would have made just as much sense even without such deep background. I realized the details were a severe distraction when I found myself putting down the book so I could construct an organization chart to keep track of all the parent clubs and puppet clubs.Maybe I'm just overly critical because this isn't my usual genre. Overall, it's a perfectly entertaining read. I just wish the surprises had been more... surprising.
    • 4/5
      I learned a lot about bikers and their gangs. Fast read and didn't scare me shitless like her debut novel.
    • 4/5
      I'm really enjoying this series! This book was even better than the last.
    • 4/5
      Really liked the biker theme. Some plot twists were quite interesting.
    • 3/5
      Tempe Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, splits time between North Carolina and Montreal. She has been assigned as liaison to Operation Carcajou, a task force on criminal activities of motorcycle gangs.The setting for the story occurs mainly in the Canadian spring " when the thaw offers up the dead, hidden by the snows of a long winter". Two skeletons are found as well as the skull and leg bones of a teen whose body had been lain to rest in North Carolina in 1984. The mystery facing Tempe is to determine how the skull ended up in Montreal and what is the connection to the skeletons of the two motorcycle gang members buried with it.

      The story is a bit predictable. One thing that irritated me a bit was Tempe's knack for doing stupid things under pressure. This makes her look weak at critical moments, and introduces plot elements that are not really necessary. Yet, even with these flaws, this is a good read.
    • 4/5
      3.5 starsForensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan is back in Quebec to help out with a couple of bodies that have been found. The couple of bodies escalates into more bodies, some that have been dead for years, and some innocent bystanders, as it seems that there is a biker gang war happening. Meanwhile, Tempe's nephew, Kit, arrives for a visit, and manages to get himself involved with some potentially dangerous people. This was good, but I'm not sure I liked it as much as the first two. I found it a bit tricky to keep all the bodies straight – who was who, who was with which gang, etc. A few stuck out in my head (the innocent bystanders), but otherwise, it was bit tricky for me to keep track of. Toward the end, the action picked up a bit and I was a bit on the edge of my seat for a short time.
    • 3/5
      Reichs third novel starring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. When a biker gang war turns violent Brennan is called in. A biker clubhouse excavation uncovers the bones of two men, and nearby, a partial skeleton of a young girl. Brennan's teenage nephew Kit comes to visit and is interested in Harley-Davidsons and their riders, and she worries that he is involved with the biker gangs. The first book I have read in this series - started off a bit slow and there was much forensic detail, and some unnecessary and silly scenes, but an okay read.
    • 5/5
      This book show all typical Tempe qualities. It is well written. However, the story combine the Biker War in Montreal with all background questions, like drugs and murders, in combination with familiar problems. It shows how easy it is to find the way to the wrong side and how difficult it is to find the way out of it.
    • 3/5
      Deadly Décisions by Kathy Reichs is the third in the Temperance Brennan series. In this one the discovery of parts of a girl's skeleton during the investigation into an on-going biker gang war in Montreal opens up a cold case. Brennan is brought in to help identify the remains and is thrust into a turf war that might involve her nephew.While the TV series spawned from the books has little in common with the source material, the two do share interesting (albeit sometimes obvious) observations on different subcultures and equally interesting scientific tidbits. I suspect the science is closer to reality (though by how much, I can't say) in the books. Certainly Brennan doesn't have access to super smart assistants and their home-brew magic science sleuthing devices. It is for these two details, though (the scientific investigation and the cultural observations) that I both read the books and watch the series.In the books, including this one, Brennan, while more connected with friends and family, lacks the bravado and fighting skills of her younger TV counterpart. Instead, she seems to have an uncanny knack for getting both herself and her family into trouble with the very folks she's investigating. While these scenes are there for drama, they quickly become tiring.Take for instance Brennan's nephew. He shows up conveniently enough just as she takes this biker gang case. He, of course, has taken an interest in hogs. He, of course, is naively suckered into a web of intrigue that puts himself and his aunt in danger. His interaction with the ballsy big bad du jour gives Brennan just the connection to crack the case wide open (of course).All the way through, until the plot paint-by-numbers called for Brennan to connect her personal problems with the case, the nephew insisted he wasn't hooked up with dangerous bikers. It sure would have been refreshing if that had been the case. I realize that probably won't happen in any of the books I read. But I will keep hoping, nonetheless.
    • 3/5
      It's definitely getting better, but still kind of cheesy/predictable. Are all crime novels/series like this?
    • 3/5
      Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist, is summoned back to Quebec because of a biker war which has resulted in several fatalities which only Tempe can identify. When a young bystander becomes a casualty as well, Tempe delves into the biker world to end the madness.
    • 4/5
      I truely enjoy Kathy Reichs engaging and interesting novels. I have a vested interest in both archaeology and in the forensic sciences and always have done. This book hit home in many ways. The insightful interactions of the biker gangs and thier rituals, how self worth and loyalty are often traded like cards in order to get higher up in the ranks of bikerdom. Very very good book.
    • 3/5
      This is the third in the series of Temperance Brennan books (and this is probably my third or fourth reread of it). The problem I've been finding with rereading these books is that I know what happens at the end. Normally this isn't a problem with a book. In fact, the books that I regularly reread (like Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter books and The Time Traveler's Wife) are because I know what happens. It's like a comfort blanket, or going to visit a favourite holiday spot. You don't have to think so hard, sometimes you do spot something which you've never seen before, but mostly it's just retreading old ground.When you're reading crime novels, mysteries, thrillers, whodunnits, whatever, for the first time, you've got all the build up to find out what the twist in the end will be. When you're rreading them, you already know what's happened. Or worse, you remember bits of what happened, you remember who did it, but not how or something like that.I always find that rereading books like this makes me read them slower. There's not the sense of urgency to figure it out, and you know more-or-less how it's going to end. I've noticed with my reread of the Kathy Reichs books it's taken me a bit longer than it normally would (when I first got them I read one a day for three days, then went back to Waterstones to buy the next three).With this one, I couldn't remember as much of the story, so I think that made it a little easier to read. I remembered things that would happen, but I didn't remember when or why, so that bit kind of surprised me. I couldn't remember exactly why the murders were committed, so again, that spurred me on. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series a bit more now because I was worried that I wasn't enjoying them as much as I did in past.I do have to admit that I do find myself skim reading some sections, the bits which detail things like blood spatter analysis (which having read this book once, and watched numerous episodes of CSI and the like, I pretty much get when they start talking about it). I'm sure that's just me, I like that I can read it, without having to read it really really closely, so I get the jist of what's being said there. Kathy Reichs has a habit of going into massive detail on things, which probably could have been more glossed over without spoiling the story at all.The book did have some good, funny little one liners as well. That's something which Kathy Reichs does well, little comments which Tempe is thinking to herself and things. They're usually similar to the sorts of things I think myself, so I guess I can relate there.
    • 3/5
      A nine-year-old girl is killed in the cross-fire of a motorcycle gang war and Tempe volunteers to help, but things get very complicated when her nephew comes for a visit with his new-found love for all things Harley Davidson. My main attraction to this series is the forensic information that is given and this installment is no exception; there is an inordinate amount of details pertaining to forensic and police work and to the biker world. It worked for me because I have a special interest, but if you're looking for a standard whodunit or procedural mystery, you will get a severe case of information overload. Also, there's the main-character-acts-stupid-and-gets-in-trouble bit that I have a problem with, especially since, in this case, it's only to let the reader know one piece of information which we easily could have figured out for ourselves. Good read if you want the scientific bit, rather poor read if you don't.
    • 1/5
      I was not a fan of this book.. I enjoyed Reichs' second book in the series, Death Du Jour, because it had a great mystery to be solved and an interesting tension between Booth and Brennan. However this book had none of that. Deadly Decisions is bogged down with a lot of boring and painstaking details about the world of motorcycle gangs. It was so detailed, that it bored me to tears and kept me from wanting to continue on with the series.
    • 4/5
      It's a beautiful spring day and in the quiet woods of the FBI's headquarters at Quantico, forensic anthropologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan, is teaching a body recovery course when she is urgently called back to Quebec. A gruesome duty awaits her: a biker war is raging and two of the foot soldiers have blown themselves up. The only person qualified to make sense of what remains is Tempe. When the body of a nine-year-old girl is wheeled into the morgue - slain in biker crossfire - Tempe vows to lend her skills to fight this evil, and enters the dark underworld of the bikers.
    • 4/5
      Dr. Brennan is back at it again, this time digging up skeletons and secrets of Montreal's rough 'n rowdy outlaw motorcycle clubs. Complicating matters is Andrew Ryan's apparent sudden turn to the dark side and a visit from Brennan's bike-loving nephew.Another solid mystery. However, at this point, Brennan has run out of family members to get in the middle of her investigation, so hopefully the next book will adopt a different formula.
    • 5/5
      Read this in 2011 after finding 3 of Reichs books at a thrift and buying then reading out of sequence I relized I had to read them all in order! I just love Kathy Reichs books! I have never read so many books in so little time all 13 in 5 months time. I know that is nothing for some people but for me its amazing.
    • 4/5
      Pretty good; this one features Tempe Brennan investigating motorcycle gang wars in Quebec, with tendrils stretching down to the American South. A mysterious skull needs a name and a home.I'm only a middling fan of these books. I like the TV series better. It's very funny to see how totally different the characters are.
    • 3/5
      For someone so "smart" Tempe Brennan sure does some dumb things. Running into the line of fire, blatantly ignoring directives from seasoned detectives, going to biker bars alone at night, etc. The plotting in these books would be pretty good if the author didn't continually have her heroine behave in such an idiotic way in order to create suspense or reveal important plot threads. I also do not appreciate that some member of Tempe's family or a close friend is always somehow involved with the criminals and of course is put in danger. There are way too many coincidental happenings as well. Tempe must "happen" to know someone in every law enforcement agency or field on the continent. However, I enjoyed the technical details about crime solving that were imparted in such a way that they fit into the story. I liked the fact that there was less unexplained/untranslated French in this book than the last two. I learned quite a lot about Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, which was interesting. Even though every chapter ends on a (heavy-handed) cliffhanger (seriously, I find myself going "da-da-DAAH" in my head, you know, the melodramatic sound effect?), I had absolutely no trouble putting the book down and going to sleep. Maybe that's why it took me 13 days to read 300 pages. (Usually I read 90-100 pages per day.) Also: If you're looking for books about the "Bones" TV show, you will be disappointed. I already knew that, but I still find myself disappointed. I guess I expected better.
    • 4/5
      Played both on the private and investigative side, I found some intersting topics in this book: hoe Tempe deals with her unpredictable and money pampered nephew and how the forensic antropology can study things in different ways: the blood spatters could be as boaring as interesting, personally I loved the subject. Another amazing thing is her relationship with the always present/absent collegue/friend/lover Andrew Rayan, sometimes more in her thougths, but always there when needed. Does a love like that really exist?
    • 4/5
      Good mystery series. The forensic science is good, Temperance Brennan is a complex character, and it all fits together quite well.
    • 1/5
      Definitely worse than the first. I missed the second one because there is another book in a different series with the same name: Death Du Jour.IF Kathy Reichs is writing these books herself, she needs to pay more attention to the back story she has created in previous stories. IF she has hired a ghost writer, then that person needs to read the back story.If every book begins with her having problems with Claudel and every book ends with the two of them on good footing, something is happening that we are hearing about.Anyway, I'll keep reading them, simply because I am a masochistic person with OCRD (obsessive, complulsive, reading disorder), not because they are really worth anyone's time to read.
    • 3/5
      Tempe Brennan joins a task force to investigate some biker gangs in Canada after a young girl is killed in the crossfire. Her nephew, Kit, also gets involved when he stays for a visit and professes to a love of motorcycles and gets a little mixed up in the gangs themselves.The series is really good and has enough science without being too confusing for a layman.
    • 4/5
      This series continues to appeal to me. The explanations are never too heavy handed, and Brennen is always in the wrong place at the right time and it makes her a bit more real even in the unlikeliness of it all. I think the best part though, is I feel like the author's pacing and general story development meshes insanely well with my reading style. I can almost feel every twist as it comes and it makes the whole read far more entertaining.
    • 4/5
      Another page turner in the Temperence Brennan series. Slightly more gore than in the last one, so not for the faint hearted.