bare bones by Kathy Reichs.

bare bones continues the tale of Dr Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist. There are 3 parts to this story, the bones of a newborn baby, a plane crash and a cache of bones discovered in the woods. This novel is about Dr Brennan's life in and out of work. It is written in the first person and she is a likeable, hard working character. You will read some interesting forensic detail as Temperance goes about her job. Slowly the clues mount up and the investigation of suspects unfold.

bare bones is a rather run of the mill Crime, Scene, Investigation novel. There is nothing unusual or particularly gripping. This is an easy book to put down. I last read a Kathy Reichs novel in 2009 and although bare bones is easy reading, it is not her best novel. It is quite shallow and rather dull, I lost empathy for the characters. The last 13 pages explain how everything fits together but by then my heart was not really into this book. Kathy Reichs is a top selling author but bare bones is pedestrian. Was bare bones at 420 pages and written in 2003 just published to fulfil Kathy's contractual quota? I think it is a poor read as it disappoints and I know Kathy Reichs can do much better. I will be voting bare bones 2 stars on Goodreads and suggest you give this one the MISS.

Dark Passage by Griffin Hayes

5 year old Tyson Barrett was told to never enter the locked room at the end of the hallway in his home. One day he did... what he saw the reader does not know as the story jumps to when Tyson is 38 years old. Tyson now has really bad nightmares and finds sleep very difficult. You assume Tyson is suffering from PTSD at whatever he witnessed was behind the locked door when he was 5 years old. Tyson joins a drug trial to see if the medication will help him sleep. The dreams continue and you wonder if something sinister is going on or whether Tyson is slowly losing his mind. Dark Passage got off to a good start but then tragedy strikes Dr Stevens and the story rolls downhill from there. It becomes a paranormal fantasy novel and is a little daft. Things do not add up and the characters motives are unbelievable. This book was written in 2011 and I downloaded the 434 KB Amazon Kindle version. Dark Passage fails to live up to it's promise and simply becomes an okay read which I will vote as 3 stars on Goodreads. It is a disappointing read that could have been a gripping thriller that dealt with mental health issues.

A better reward for your feedback.

When you give feedback to a company, the results vary quite a lot. In a previous post I sent my feedback to National Express and because my text had a key safety word in it, I received within minutes a call back from a manager at Service Support. The issue was dealt with in the manner National Express thought was appropriate. I was not rewarded for my stress.

Brewers Fayre have a better idea when they receive feedback from their diners. Keep your till receipt and do the online survey. Yes, there is a lot of questions and a lot of box ticking but at the end they send your a voucher for a free pudding when you buy a main meal on your next visit. This rewards the diner for spending their time to give feedback to Brewers Fayre in a manner which they find very useful in running their business. Brewers Fayre are paying for this feedback rather than getting snitchers for free like National Express encourage.

If you want people to put the time and effort into giving your business genuine feedback, then take a leaf out of the Brewers Fayre menu and offer a small reward. The puddings on the menu sell for under £4 and the cost price is considerably less. Brewers Fayre get to sell another main meal to the diner and get the volume of genuine feedback they desire for a very small cost. Brewers Fayre are happy to pay a token sum for the feedback while National Express view passenger feedback as a freebie.

The Curious Case of Daniel Walter by Rose Carter.

This story starts with Daniel killing his father. Ryan Cook is the detective assigned to the case. Witnesses point to Daniel being the killer. Can Ryan prove the killer was Daniel and not his identical twin brother Peter?

This book has a bad format, as from the start you know that Daniel is the killer. This novel is written in sections from the viewpoint of Daniel and Ryan. It is a teenage drama set in America and is not much of a crime thriller. Daniel's quest is to create doubt in a courtroom, so he has to be somewhat creative.

This novel does ramble on quite a bit. At one stage I even wondered if Daniel actually had a twin brother or if he was a schizophrenic with 2 personalities. I developed no empathy for any of the characters in this story. Proof is generally found by good Police work but the ending was no great shakes.

I bought the 278 KB Amazon Kindle version of this book which was written in 2011. I thought it was a disappointing read and I will vote it only 2 stars on Goodreads. This is a book to MISS and I consider it a FAIL.