At the moment I'm working my way through my sister's collection of Kathy Reichs. I know they are a bit formulaic, but they are so deliciously disturbing! And comforting, disturbingly. :P Knowing that Reichs is a forensic anthropologist and that what I'm reading comes from real stories just makes her very vivid and descriptive writing something I can't put down.
At first I found her colourful metaphors and smilies distracting because they were so out of context, but now I enjoy the random bits of pop culture and such that she works in. Heh, some of it is almost inappropriate in the context, which suits me... I like some degree of dark humour.
But what's with all the NZ references? So far we have a book on Maori art, someone's tattoos would make a Maori warrior proud, Tempe listens to a Kiri Te Kanawa cd and as she gets used to roller blades she is like Black Magic gliding through the water in the Americas cup. As I read that last one, I was up in the middle of the night half watching NZ losing the 2007 Americas cup.
So not heavy reading, but great to take my mind off things during the holidays when I was feeling sick. Even if I did have to get up and turn off all the lights in the apartment in case someone had broken in. Most people would turn them on, but then the baddies would be able to see them. I figured that out when I was very small and have never been afraid of the dark.
Not that the very tame writing of Kathy Reichs scares me or anything. It's just... real bad guys will always scare me more than anything supernatural ever could.
I'm just going to stop typing now.
I've got some Kathy Reichs - not nearly enough of the collection though! And I thought the TV adaptation (Bones) has been very good, albeit some pretty obvious differences to the books, because Kathy R has been involved in it, there has been a reasonable amount of book forethought kept, including that humour.
I do like her books though. Partly because knowing it is all based on her real work, but also because I do quite like her style of writing. They aren't heavy to read I agree and that's some of the appeal as well. Sometimes a crime novel can just become too bogged down with a story or plotline. I tend to prefer crime novels that are more character driven like this (Wire in the Blood being another example).
*makes note - must get the rest of Kathy Reichs novels in!*