What I'm reading: Deja Dead

After going through so many of Dorothy L. Sayers' fantastic Lord Peter Wimsey novels, I was in the mood for another mystery novel. For years now, I've been a fan of the show Bones on Fox. I knew that it was based on a book series and had been curious to see if they were any good. A few years back, Martha had checked one of the books out of the library but wasn't really sold on it. She had mentioned in its defense that it might've been because she read the book out of its intended sequence, since she had to choose the book the library had.

I thought I'd give the series a chance, starting at the beginning. I got my hands on the first book in the Temperance Brennan series, Deja Dead, and got to reading.

I have to admit that I wasn't that impressed. Despite the fact that the book was well-written and had great moments in it, it just wasn't very engaging. There were definitely times when I thought to myself that I should pick the book back up and I first went through the mental list of things to do to see if there was something more enjoyable for me to be doing.

Pretty much every review starts off with a disclaimer that the book series is very different than the TV show. Indeed, they only hold a tenuous similarity, but that's not really what my problem was. There was just something with the narrative voice, or perhaps it was with the pacing, that just really kept me distant.

Ultimately, if anyone told me that they loved this book or the series, I wouldn't be surprised. It's got a lot going for it. But I also wouldn't be at all shocked if someone told me that they couldn't make it past the first 20 pages. Personally? I'd rather have spent my time watching Bones.