Books › Grave Secrets
Grave Secrets
A Novel
First published 2002 · 469 pages
A gritty, scientifically rigorous descent into the shadows of political violence, where the bones of the past demand justice in the present.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a sweltering, dread-soaked excavation site where history refuses to stay buried. The narrative moves at a brisk, methodical clip, balancing the clinical precision of forensic anthropology with the escalating tension of a high-stakes thriller. A heavy, somber atmosphere permeates the pages, grounded in the visceral reality of political corruption and violence, yet it is pierced by a fierce, empathetic drive for justice. The prose is sharp and authoritative, pulling no punches when describing grim realities, but it remains deeply human at its core. It is a perfect match for readers who devour gritty, scientifically accurate procedurals and appreciate a tough, highly competent investigator navigating a landscape where the ghosts of the past collide violently with the present.
- Mood
- tense
- somber
- oppressive
- dread-soaked
- Tone
- clinical
- authoritative
- gritty
- empathetic
- suspenseful
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- seeking justice for the forgotten · the weight of history · past versus present violence · political corruption · professional detachment
- The writing
- Sharp, scientifically precise, and grounded in visceral, sensory details that pull no punches.
- The arc
- Begins with a heavy, sorrowful reverence for the dead and accelerates into a tense, adrenaline-fueled race against ongoing violence.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave gritty, scientifically accurate forensic thrillers set against complex, high-stakes political backdrops.
Content notes
- mass graves
- child death
- graphic violence
- sexual assault
- political violence
About the book
It was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers ravaged the village of Chupan Ya, raping and killing women and children. Twenty-three victims are said to lie in the well where, twenty years later, Dr. Temperance Brennan and a team from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation now dig. No records were kept. To their families, the dead are "the disappeared."Forensic anthropologist for the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, Tempe is in Guatemala for a month's service to help some families identify and bury their dead. She digs in a cold, damp pit where she finds a hair clip, a fragment of cloth, a tiny sneaker. Her trowel touches something hard: the hip of a child no more than two years old.
It's heartbreaking work. Something savage happened here twenty years ago. The violence continues today. The team is packing up for the day when an urgent satellite call comes in. Two colleagues are under attack. Shots ring out, and Tempe listens in horror to a woman's screams. Then there is silence. Dead silence.
With this new violence, everything changes, both for the team and for Tempe, who's asked by the Guatemalan police for her expertise on another case. Four privileged young women have vanished from Guatemala City in recent months. One is the Canadian ambassador's daughter. Some remains have turned up in a septic tank, and Tempe unfortunately knows septic tanks.
Teaming with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolome Galiano, and with Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, who may have more than just professional reasons to join her on the case, Tempe soon finds herself in a dangerous web that stretches far beyond Guatemala's borders. The stakes are huge. As power, money, greed, and science converge, Tempe must make life-altering choices.
From cutting-edge science in the lab, where Tempe studies fetal bones and cat hair DNA, to a chilling en-counter in a lonely morgue, "Grave Secrets" is powerful, page-turning entertainment from a crime fiction superstar who combines riveting authenticity with witty, elegant prose.
Description from Open Library.
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