Summer Reads: Bones Never Lie and The Hangman’s Song
Are you like me, where you get tired of all the hype, and the flavor of the month? I try to stay away from books that everyone is talking about, but if I am honest, I am not always immune to the hype. And that was the case with The Girl on The Train. If you visit one of the bigger bookstores, the book occupies the premium real estate so it is front and centre, and you cannot help but seeing it. The Girl on a Train is very well written and it wasn’t a bad book, in fact, I liked the evolution of the main character. But in my humble opinion, there are other books that I much preferred, such as Strangers on a Train (which I have reviewed). And I just finished reading Bones Never Lie: A Novel (Temperance Brennan)
by Kathy Reichs and The Hangman's Song (Detective Inspector Mclean)
by James Oswald.
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Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, Book Review
I love my readers and I want only the best for you, so I am always emphasizing the importance of reading books from different genres and by authors who are from countries other than your own. I am leading a Reading Challenge to get people reading one book a week, and even if you read one book every other week that is great. The Challenge is meant to stretch you, as well as encourage you to connect ideas from the different books that you read. I am participating in the Reading Challenge, but reading a book a week wouldn’t stretch me since I already read at least two books a week. The biggest challenge I am facing, is trying to introduce a diversity of books on my reading menu. Right now, I am not doing a really good job, but I intend to keep at it. For instance, this past weekend, I wanted to read a business book that I would summarize, a book to enable me to perform my craft better, and one book for entertainment. Instead, I read reading Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs, The Hangman’s Song by James Oswald and I have started Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason. The three books are detective stories, but they are set in four different countries – Bones Never Lie is set in the US and Canada, The Hangman’s Song in the UK, and Strange Shores in Iceland.
Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs
Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs is more of a page turn than The Girl on the Train. There are several main characters, but I am focusing on Dr Temperance Brennan, an anthropologist and police detective Andrew Ryan. A serial killer is loose and targeting preteens. A few years prior, Brennan and Ryan almost caught serial killer Anique Pomerleau, who had kidnapped and murdered several teens in Montreal. Barrow from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg calls Brennan in to work on a new case where another preteen is missing. There are similarities to the Pomerleau case and that’s why they want Brennan involved. They also want her to get hold of Andrew Ryan because he has been missing in action for a while now. Brennan and Ryan were in a very serious relationship, but after his 20-year old daughter overdosed, he found comfort in the bottle. How would you feel if your partner shut you out while he is grieving, and leaves without any explanation? Since leaving, she receives one visit and one email message.
I liked Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs a lot not only for the story, but because Brennan’s mother played a key role in providing clues to solve the case. For instance, her mother, Daisy Brennan, is very computer savvy, more so than her daughter. By using the IP address of the email Ryan sent to Brennan, and the website, ipTRACKERonline.com, she is able to tell her daughter where her former lover is hiding out. There are many elderly people who are very computer savvy, and I was delighted to see that in this book. Although it is difficult for Brennan, she books a flight to Costa Rica. She finds her ex and it takes some convincing to bring him back to the US to assist on the case.
Daisy Brennan provides another clue by uncovering a pattern for the abductions, and she also uncovers that many more children were abducted. What Bones Never Lie shows, is that police officers need assistance when solving crimes, and also, that based on the information they have, they also make wrong assumptions, which take them down the wrong path. This is another book to assist you in honing your problem solving skills. About two-thirds into the book, I figured who the kidnapper is. There are some gruesome parts like hiding a body in a big pot of maple syrup, but I loved the ending of the story, and you have to read the book to find out.
If you like detective stories, you will like Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs.
The Hangman’s Song by James Oswald
I also liked The Hangman’s Song by James Oswald, which is an Inspector McLean novel. Inspector Tony McLean is not liked by his peers and superiors because he is wealthy, he inherited a lot of money when his grandmother, who raised him, died. It is the general feeling that he should resign from his job because he doesn’t have to work. And the other police officers play some expensive pranks on him. To force him to quit, his superiors place him in roles that are far beneath his experience and skill.
Detective Chief Inspector Jo Dexter and Tony McLean are at the docks because of a tip about smuggling people. They discover sex workers being smuggled off a ship. The women are arrested, and they are terrified, refusing to speak to the police officers when they are taken to the police station. One of the sex workers, Magda, talks to McLean while they are alone, and she tells him about her abusive pimp, Malky Jennings. Many of the police officers do not “waste” their time investigating, because in their opinion, sex workers are scum.
The police are called to what looks like a suicide, but the medical examiner and McLean think that there is something odd about it. The suicide note doesn’t sound like a suicide note, and there are no fibers from the hemp rope under the victim's nail. McLean decides to investigate and get into trouble because the top guys are more interested in closing cases than solving crimes. There are several more cases made to look like suicide that pose the same problem for McLean. With the information he and his small team have, it is very difficult to say definitively that it’s a homicide.
There is another storyline in The Hangman’s Song. Emma, McLean’s girlfriend comes out of a coma, but doesn’t remember him or any of her experiences. When he takes her to her apartment, the place is foreign to Emma, so she agrees to stay at his home. She goes for therapy, but instead of getting better, she is regressing, and she often behaves like a child. McLean doesn’t like the role of a father.
It is interesting to see the storylines developing and it is stimulating to try to figure out what is going on. This is another excellent read, but I didn’t like the ending, and you know that there is going to be another instalment.
If you like murder mysteries and detective stories, for summer reads, I recommend: Bones Never Lie: A Novel (Temperance Brennan) by Kathy Reichs, The Hangman's Song (Detective Inspector Mclean) by James Oswald, Strangers on a Train
by Patricia Highsmith, and Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
by Agatha Christie.
Get Started Here – I want to help you get started on your learning journey. Read The Invisible Mentor 2015 Reading Challenge, then Join the Facebook Group for the Reading Challenge today, connecting the ideas from the books you read!
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