Kathy Reichs is finally back on track with her latest addition to the Temperance-Brennan-series after the previous 3 novels in my opinion did not live up to the standards she herself set with the first 3 books in this series:
In the 7th book of the series Tempe has traveled to Montreal to testify in a case, but gets drawn into another investigation: the skeletons of three young females have been found in the basement of a pizza-by-the-slice-joint. Tempe is forced to work with her pet-foe, Detective Claudel, which makes things even more difficult: Claudel thinks that the skeletons are ancient and doesn't want to spend much time investigating. Tempe's gut feeling and her findings prove that the skeletons must be from the 1950's or 1980's/1990's, however.
As much as the origin of the skeletons remains a mystery, Tempe's relationship to Ryan gets more and more enigmatic: Ryan is his usual charming and sexy self, but hardly available for Tempe and she wonders whether they are still an item or not.
An elderly woman who claims to know about the females dies all of a sudden. Tempe's best friend Anna, who is on a marital sabbatical, suddenly disappears. Tempe's condo is ransacked, all glasses and mirrors destroyed... Since Claudel is still reluctant and also to distract herself from her fears regarding Ryan, she starts investigating herself and stumbles right into the cesspit of evil.
Reichs has found back her pace, her dry sense of humor and has got back to great puns ("Detective Delightful" e.g.). Yet again she managed to link explanations & solutions of the problems Tempe faces to the story without being pontificating: C14-dating, Stockholm Syndrome, Reverse Stockholm Syndrome to name a few. Every now and then the explanations could have been a tad more compact, though. Nevertheless and despite of a slow start "Monday Mourning" becomes a real page turner and deserves a full five stars!