My hold on the third Temperance Brennan book came through! I started reading this after a fairly stressful school week and this was the perfect antidote.

Deadly Decisions starts with a tragic death – a nine-year-old girl is caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs. A murdered child is something Tempe can’t overlook, so she gets herself onto the team investigating this case and discovers a second body. With the danger increasing every day and her visiting nephew engaged in increasingly risky activities, Tempe must find a way to keep it all together.

Unlike A Conspiracy of Bones, Tempe is working within the system as she solves the case, though she’s still getting in trouble for following leads on her own. And I think this one change made me enjoy the book a lot more – it was a more conventional police procedural and while it wasn’t as original as A Conspiracy of Bones, it was an easy read. The plot moved along at an exciting pace and all the strands were woven together to create an exciting ending. I think I finished this in three sittings because I found it hard to put down once I started reading!

I also really liked how there was a lot more science in this book, probably because Tempe is working at the lab. Although I didn’t understand what was going on, I enjoyed hearing how Tempe used these in her pursuit of the case and seeing how she worked with people in the law enforcement.

By the way, this is a very minor point but there are small sentences in French in the book, since it’s set in Canada, and I felt really happy that I understood most of them! French class has been really hard for me, so this feels like a tiny bit of progress. But I do think that even if you aren’t a French speaker, these short phrases wouldn’t hinder you from enjoying the book – they’re not very often and they’re short enough that I think most people can guess what they mean from context.

Overall, I enjoyed this book! I’m finally used to book-Tempe (not the TV show) and I’m somewhat invested in her story; I didn’t mention it earlier but something was going on with her boyfriend – it’s not a huge part of the main plot but it was interesting enough to make me want to read on. I’ve got a lot of books on the TBR, but I’m hoping to get to book 4 soon!

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