Unexpected

Reading Kathie Reichs' Seizure was a weird experience. The nearest analogy would be eating a spoonful of strawberry ice-cream, only to discover that it was actually coffee-flavoured. It's not exactly unpleasant but it's certainly unexpected.

If you're expecting a similar crime thriller to those of the excellent Temperance Brennan series, you're going to be disappointed here. Seizure is the second in the Virals series (I haven't read the first) following the adventures of Brennan's great-niece, Tory, and her pals. The story is, to put it mildly, plain daft; but it did sort of grow on me, although I don't think I'll be racing out to read the rest of the series.

Having been infected with a mutant parvo-type virus by a mad scientist in the first volume of the series, Tory and her pals have developed super-hero type powers in as much as they periodically develop the same senses as dogs or wolves (excellent scent and hearing for instance - they also bizarrely seem to develop great vision, which is certainly not characteristic of the domestic dog, nor I would suspect of the wolf). They are also into adventures, and in Seizure set off on the trail of the pirate Anne Bonny's missing treasure.

It is incredibly silly - the Famous Five (there really are 4 kids + dog) meets the Twilight generation. Perhaps because of trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible it is only on the last page that Tory's true age is revealed, making the opening of the book a disconcerting experience for anyone expecting the usual police procedural-type case. It does have it's moments, it's well paced, predictable but fun, and I suspect that the audience Kathy Reichs is aiming this at - the post-Blyton, just-starting-Christie, and, yes, into Twilight will probably thoroughly enjoy this. I think I might have preferred it as a read if it hadn't had the super-hero mumbo-jumbo, but that might be purely an age thing, or even just me.

Older readers will probably either love it or hate it. For younger teens it could be a very good introduction to the work of Kathy Reichs.