Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: July 17, 2001
Publishing house: Scribner
Sale Popularity Level: 480698
Studio: Scribner
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The fourth bestselling Temperance Brennan thriller from expert forensic anthropologist and internationally bestselling author, Kathy Reichs
Amazon.com Review:
When forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan joins the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team mobilized to investigate an airplane crash in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains, she literally stumbles on a body part that doesn't match up with the remains of any of the plane's passengers. The leg she grabs out of the jaws of a coyote feeding on the carnage scattered around the site belongs to an unidentified elderly man, and seems to have no connection with the disaster. But an abandoned hunting lodge near the crash site does, although before Tempe can figure out exactly how they're linked, she's pulled off the DMORT unit and forced to stand idly by as her professional reputation goes up in flames. When Andrew Ryan, a detective familiar to readers of Kathy Reichs's earlier books (Deja Dead, Death du Jour, Deadly Decisions), appears on the scene, another mystery begins to unfold. There seems to be no trace of two men on the plane's manifest, Ryan's partner and his seatmate, a criminal who was being escorted back to Canada via Washington, D.C., the doomed flight's final destination, to stand trial for murder.
As usual, Reichs serves up a solid helping of forensic science as the DMORT operatives do their thing, and Tempe traces the remains of a man killed 40 years ago to a series of ritual murders of senior citizens, and further to those whose influence was responsible for her firing. Reichs keeps the narrative moving along despite the somewhat ponderous technical and scientific information; her pacing is brisk and her series heroine in fine form. Tempe's romantic life gets more interesting with every new adventure. A solid thriller that will please the best-selling author's regular readers and serve as a good introduction to new ones. --Jane Adams
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Rated by buyers -
When a plane crashes in the mountains of North Carolina, a bevy of agencies scramble to determine the cause - the FBI (was it terrorism?), the National Transportation Safety Board (the people who rebuild crashed planes to determine cause), and even the Quebec Provincial Police, who had an officer on board transporting an extradited Hell's Angel. Temperence Brennan - the forensic scientist with the unlikely name who stars in numerous Reichs books - is part of the Disaster Response Team and helps identifying victims. When she comes across a body part that couldn't have come from the plane crash her life comes crashing down around her - she is suspended by her university and profession for ethical violations, threatened with arrest by the local police, and personally berated by the Lieutenant Governor.
Whose foot is it? Is it really independent of the plane crash? Is there any connection to that weird cabin out in the woods? Any connection to the senior Hell's Angel who, incidentally, remains unidentified in the wreckage? Reichs skillfully manipulates multiple storylines and keeps numerous suspects in play far longer than I would have thought possible. That's a compliment and probably also realistic. After all, a plane crash's cause is never solved overnight. She also throws in a varied array of colourful characters, from the monstrously large (and female) sherriff to a snake-handler preacher to a hound-dog ex-husband.
It's true that she may have overdone it with the number of characters - I had trouble keeping track of all the minor players. It's also true that the last 50 pages of the book are a letdown - as the mystery is solved, it seems a little silly (and far-fetched). Worse still is a tacked-on kidnapping that feels like a cheap Hollywood action sequence. Fortunately, most of the book is much better and keeps you guessing (even though, like a Columbo episode, you know the identity of the bad guy fairly early on).
This is the very first Reichs book I've read and I enjoyed it. Even though the characters are part of a "series", this book can easily be read very first - it's stand-alone and doesn't engage in that annoying habit of plugging the other books in the series with little side comments. As the back material states, fans of CSI and similar shows will like it, and with Reichs's own background in forensics, it is more scientifically sound.
Rated by buyers -
Having finished FATAL VOYAGE, all i could think of was how had I gone so long without discovering this author? Great characters, especially Tempe Brennan who is constantly making smart remarks or thinking smart remarks and keeping them to herself. The story is told in very first person from the point of view of Temperance, who is called in to help identify the bodies of people who died in a plane crash. Without giving too much away, Brennan comes across some bones that don't belong to any of the crash victims and the plot takes off from there. We get a secret society, cover ups from high ranking officials and international implications. Kathy Reichs keeps the plot moving nicely although some of the forensic information was a little too deep for my brain cells to process. I gave this one 4 stars. Good plot, great characters and fun to read. It could have been dumbed down just a bit so that it was at my level. Easy to recommend FATAL VOYAGE. Now I'm ready to enjoy more of Kathy Reichs' works.
Rated by buyers -
the ideas that kathy writes about are gripping. it held my interest till the very end. i have read almost all of her books. i really enjoy the tv series "bones". if her books do not hold your interest then there is something wrong with you.
Rated by buyers 
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I liked Reichs' 2007 release so much that I decided to check out my library's Kathy Reichs collection. To read them chronologically, I started with the earliest available, Fatal Voyage. I was very excited to read this book. The very first few chapters were promising- Tempe Brennan has to help identify the bodies of victims aboard a crashed airplane. Brennan finds a mysterious foot that does not belong to any of the victims. She decides to take it with her to have it id'ed. (A major no no in her life of work.) And so, the plot becomes complicated!!!
Tempe gets involved with waaay too many people, from top government officials to university professors to common folk. There are many possible reasons for the downing of the flight. There are also many suspects. But, instead of focusing on the flight and/or the mysterious foot, Reichs also drags us into an investigation on the property of the crash. And then we're trying to keep track of victims, suspects, irrelevant dead people, and all sorts of living people. Not to mention the incoherent plot structure! Honestly, reading this book gave me a headache!!! And we also meet Tempe's cat and her ex-husband temporary dog, with the dog becoming overly involved in this case!!!
Also, Tempe is in serious trouble for removing that foot from the site. It's an interesting look at her ethics, but it gets lost in between the gazillion other plots!!!
I stopped in the middle of the book to read some spoliers on amazon. Knowing about them helped me move through the book a little quicker. I expected absurdity. The most absurd was the CONSPIRACY THEORY- mixing everyone from Pope Innocent to Ben Franklin, and likening some of their "stuff" to modern-day fraternity pledges. (Sadly, Reichs doesn't know her Catholic theology well; she obviously has no idea what TRANSUBSTANTIATION is!!! Nor does she understand the purpose of the Lateran Council.) Nothing like Christian/Catholic bashing- Reichs doesn't have to believe, but she doesn't have to bash Christianity!
Skip this one! It will give you a headache.
Rated by buyers -
In Kathy Reich's Fatal Voyage, forensic anthropologist Dr. Tempe Brennan is called upon to aid in the body recovery at the site of a horrible commercial airline crash. The horrific crash took the lives of over 80 people. The grisly crash site has drawn attention from FEMA, NTSB, DMORT and the FBI and no one is spared from the brutalities of the crash. Brennan is surprised to find Canadian colleague Andrew Ryan also at the site. His partner was on the plane, escorting a criminal. One theory was that the plane was blown up to silence that criminal from testifying. While concerned about what caused the crash, Brennan is more interested in aiding in identifying all the remains of the bodies.
While wondering on the outer edges of the crash site, Brennan runs across a pack of coyotes about to dine on a human foot. She and Ryan scare them away and Brennan decides to take the human foot back with her for processing instead of following procedure and leaving it where she found it so it can be properly documented. Then she discovers the foot might not belong to a passenger on the plane. It's characteristics didn't match anyone on the plane, nor did it appear to have decomposed at a rate appropriate for the crash victims. Before Brennan can investigate further, she is removed from her duties. It seems some powerful people don't want her anywhere near the crash site.
Brennan is devestated at first, but then becomes more determined to find out what is going on. A mysterious old cabin seems to lie at the center of the mystery. Brennan enlists the help of several locals and along with Andrew Ryan, she tries to find out how the foot, the cabin, and several missing persons over the last 50 years tie together and with the plane crash.
This is a good book, not great. It was written around the time of Sept. 11, 2001, and the author mentions this in her notes at the end. I like the Brennan series and think it is better than the Scarpetta series. However, without going into details, let's just say a lot of the story had nothing to do with the main plot. I read Reichs again. Her books are fast moving and Brennan has a good voice as a 1st person narrator.
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