Kathy Reichs is an interesting writer. Her books are first-person crime narratives written from the perspective of a forensic anthropologist, which is her “real life” occupation.

According to the author’s blurb, she is one of only 50 accredited forensic anthropologists in the United States.

She works part time for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina and part-time for the equivalent agency in Montreal, Quebec.

The book’s first-person fictional character, Dr Temperance Brennan, also holds those positions.

Apparently the job’s mundane regular task is to analyse old bones that are dug up on construction sites, in the forest or wherever. She needs to determine if the bones are human and if foul play might have been involved.

Brennan, known as Temp, has a knack for getting deeply involved in her work to the point of irritating police officers.

From their point of view she’s meant to provide a scientific reference point, but Temp goes beyond the call of duty and likes to play detective. She’s pretty good at it too, which irritates some of the officers even more, especially her antagonist Luc Claudel.

What I like about Reichs are her settings and the unique scientific perspective she brings to crime fiction. I’ve read three of her books now and they’re all similar in style.

Deja Dead and Deadly Decisions are set in Montreal. Temp has learnt French and blends nicely into the culture of what must be North America’s most fascinating city, perhaps with the exception of New Orleans.

As an Australian reader I’d like to be given more of a taste for Montreal, but I also understand the author not wanting to distract from the pace of her work. The French language references and selective place descriptions are interesting enough.

Grave Secrets, the second book I read, alternates between Montreal and Guatemala. In my opinion it’s her best work. It shows a genuine empathy for her subjects, compassion for the less fortunate and a determination to make right from wrong.

Deadly Decisions didn’t work as well for me, but I still enjoyed the book. It narrates a gang war between the Hells Angels and Vipers.

It goes a little over the top and it stretches belief sometimes that Brennan and her nephew somehow manage to get themselves into particular situations.

That seems to be the biggest challenge for crime and mystery writers; maintaining credibility in the storyline. There’s no doubt it’s a skill and some do it better than others.

Kathy Reichs is relatively new to writing and will hopefully deliver many more novels in the years to come.

The scientific background she writes from is surely unique and it’s to her credit that this aspect is usually not overdone (the blood splatter analysis in Deadly Decisions an exception).

Writing in the first person makes it difficult for her to develop secondary characters, but there is scope for her to do this in future books. Claudel, in particular, could be the focus of stories in his own right.

I look forward to reading more of her work.