The truth is I had to focus very hard on the character interaction in this book to get through it. Even to the point where I was perfectly aware I was projecting. This book was a struggle for me. I'm not really into crime (this is probably the first crime novel I've read in its entirety), don't really stomach gore for gore's sake (I could have done without the weird maggots-writhing-on-the-naked-headless-torso scene) and find scientific informational type paragraphs (of which the novel seems largely composed) unutterably boring.

This book seems to be crammed with lists of long, probably important, but unfortunately not-all-that-interesting things. Take for example this riveting extract from Chapter 5: “Discouraged, I ran through a mental checklist of methods for PMI estimation with dry bone. Ultraviolet fluorescence, staining for indophenol and Nile blue, supersonic conductivity, histological or radiographic structure analysis, nitrogen or amino acid content evaluation, Bomb C14 testing, calculation of fat transgression, carbonate, or serological protein levels, benzidine or anti-human serum reaction.” While I apologize for inflicting that upon you also, I think you'll understand why it was necessary for my point. My point being: nobody reads text-book language for pleasure. At least not anyone I'd trust.

On the other hand, there are odd moments of hilarity in the book that cannot be ignored. Tempe (oh yeah, that's her name, but shorter, pretty cool hey?) is constantly poking fun at herself, particularly in regards to her appearance. I'd have to say my single favourite moment in the entire novel is when she refers to herself as “a badly permed shih tzu.” Forgetting all that forensic anthropologist stuff Tempe, you know what you should be? A stand-up. Funnybone, the new Tempe Brennan novel. I'd buy that.

Just as a final note, if you're hoping to find anything enlightening (or at least vaguely interesting) about Santería, Satanism or Wicca in this novel, think again. Every time religion or spirituality is dealt with it's like reading the regurgitated version of a wikipedia factsheet. Also, I would question whether it was really necessary to name some of the first few Wiccans Tempe encounters “Sky Bird, Raven, India and Dreamweaver”?

In short, my experience with this book could easily be likened to watching a 500 hour episode of CSI with no commercial breaks. You're so bored with the action you end up making your own adventures.

Image courtesy of Random House Australia.