'Deadly Decisions' Offers Murderous Biker Gangs and Traitorous Loved Ones

The third installment in Kathy Reichs's Bones-inspiring series featuring Tempe Brennan began as nothing much to write home about. Halfway through, however, Deadly Decisions grabbed my attention and caused me to sit up reading half the night last night.

Think biker gangs gone wild and bones dug up from decade-old graves. That's how the novel begins, and it took a lot for me to keep going. Namely, I really like Tempe and I'm determined to read Reichs's series about her in order. That's about the only thing that made me continue to read. I think it's normal for writers to get a sophomore-slump a few books into their series. That's what I told myself the problem was. A couple of books under her belt, Reichs probably signed some sort of contract and had to continue writing, plot idea or no plot idea.

I have little interest in biker violence, especially in Canada. I'm not sure I even believed that kind of stuff really happened. During a bored moment mid-read, I googled "biker gang murders" and "bikers shot Canada" and "biker territory wars". And I found that much of Reichs's plot for Deadly Decisions was, in fact, fact-based. Browse some of the stories I found:

• "In Depth: Biker gangs in Canada" from the CBC website
• "Timeline of the Bandidos Massacre" from the CBC website
• "Shedden massacre" entry from Wikipedia.org
• "Bandidos guilty; read tweets here: All six found guilty of first-degree murder or manslaughter" article from the London Free Press website

During the course of the novel, Tempe is added to a special task force set up to investigate gang-related crimes, especially biker ones. This puts her into direct conflict with some of the toughest opponents she has faced thus far. Add her nephew Kit into the mix, and Tempe is pushed to the limit. Additionally, her new romantic interest and long-time coworker Andrew Ryan has been accused of drug involvement and embezzling stolen goods. With no one to turn to, Tempe throws herself into the investigation at hand.

While some of the plot wasn't thrilling to me, Tempe is at her best in this novel. I enjoyed the involvement during this and the previous book in the series of her family in her life in Montreal. Loved ones behaving badly ups the ante for this forensic anthropologist.