Who were these people? What brought them to this gruesome fate? And where are the children? Homicide Detective Andrew Ryan, with whom Tempe has a combustive history, joins her in the arson investigation. The puzzle surrounding Sister lisabeth Nicolet’s life and death provides a welcome contrast to discoveries at a burning chalet, where scorched and twisted bodies await Tempe’s professional expertise. A strange, small coffin, buried in the recesses of a decaying church, holds the first clue to the cloistered nun’s fate. Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist for the Province of Quebec, digs for a corpse where Sister lisabeth Nicolet, dead for over a century and now a candidate for sainthood, should be lying in her grave. Assaulted by the bitter cold of a Montreal winter, the American born Dr. Now, in Death du Jour, the author who lives the life she writes about extends her reach while still building on the rich ensemble cast, page turning suspense, and cutting edge forensic detail that made D j Dead an international sensation. A New York Times bestseller, a number one bestseller in both Canada and Britain, and winner of the prestigious Ellis Award for Best First Novel of 1997, it was also a Main Selection of the Book of the Month Club, with foreign rights sold to nineteen countries. Rarely has a first time novelist made such a spectacular international publishing debut as Kathy Reichs did with her acclaimed forensic thriller D j Dead.

Told with lacerating authenticity and passion, ‘Deja Dead’ is both poignant and terrifying as it hurtles toward its breathtaking conclusion and instantly catapults Kathy Reich into the top ranks of crime authors. As a pattern continues to emerge, Tempe calls upon all her forensic skills, including bone, tooth/dental, and bitemark analysis and x ray microflourescence to convince the police that the cases are related and to try to stop the killer before he strikes again. Something about the crime scene is familiar to Tempe: the stashing of the body parts the meticulous dismemberment. One look at the decomposed and decapitated corpse, stored neatly in plastic bags, tells her she’ll spend the weekend in the crime lab.

The remains are probably old and only of archeological interest, but Tempe must make sure they’re not a case for the police. First, though, she must stop at a newly uncovered burial site in the heart of the city. Temperance Brennan, who has left a shaky marriage back home in North Carolina to take on the challenging assignment of Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec, looks forward to a relaxing weekend in beautiful Quebec City.

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