Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs is another gripping thriller from the North American forensic anthropologist. This time the setting is Tempe Brennan’s home state of North Carolina.
The story begins with a plane crash in the Smoky Mountains. Brennan is early on the scene and starts picking her way through a mass of bodies.
On a subsequent detour in the forest she’s confronted by coyotes and discovers a severed foot. She suspects the foot isn’t from the plane wreck and starts investigating.
Political interference from the state’s Lieutenant Governor sees her hauled over the coals and accused of compromising the aircraft disaster inquiry.
Dismissed from the scene she continues to pursue the mysterious foot through forensic and other channels, piecing the jigsaw together step by step.
Brennan draws the nasty conclusion that a group of high-powered intellectuals, business and civic leaders, are involved in a cannibal conspiracy, killing elderly people whenever one of their number dies so they can consume the flesh and strive towards longer life.
As she closes in on the ringleaders one of them seeks to shut down the pursuit by shutting down Brennan. There’s some suitably spine tingling suspense and high drama.
The story flows well and retains interest throughout. As usual Reichs tends to give more detail than required in some of the scientific explanations.
She lost me with a laborious analysis of why the plane crashed and I actually skipped those pages. It wasn’t relevant to the mystery of the foot.
Apart from that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were some sympathetic insights into rural North Carolina and Cherokee culture. I liked the snake handler references and descriptions of rivalry between competing preachers.
The Swain County Sheriff, Lucy Crowe, was wonderfully portrayed and I hope she returns as a character in future novels.
I also hope that Brennan sorts out her love life. It’s starting to grate that she can’t decide whether to fall for Montreal detective Andrew Ryan.
His cameo in Fatal Voyage was contrived, but Reichs gets away with it, just, thanks to clever writing.
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