Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason by Russell Shorto is an examination of how we got to where we are today by looking at the travels of the bones from Renee Descartes. To refresh the memory of anyone who needs it, Renee Descartes is the philosopher who said “I think, therefore I am,” and used that as his starting point for figuring out the world instead of what he was told by authority figures (at the time, these were primarily the church and royalty).

The publisher calls it “a grand and strange history of the 350-year-long debate between religion and science.”

I quite enjoyed Descartes’ Bones. Shorto did a good job of keeping to the history and not making value judgments on the beliefs that are part of this history. This is not a philosophy book, but a history book. The word skeletal in the subtitle is not only a description of the physical bones, but of the depth of history presented. While some see that as a weakness, I think this book fills a need. Many people need a brief introduction to the history of faith versus science and would be turned off by a deep examination of the philosophical conflicts. Using Descartes’ bones as the scaffolding for this introduction is a way to make the history accessible and interesting to readers who otherwise would never touch a book on the topic.

If you’re already aware of Descartes’ influence on modern thought, then this book is likely not for you unless you are interested in how his bones were used as relics throughout the centuries. If you don’t know what Descartes’ philosophies have to do with the conflict between faith and science, then Descartes’ Bones is a brief, readable introduction.

Patrick Rush is on a downward spiral. His wife has died, leaving him to raise their son alone. He is systematically being demoted at the newspaper where he works as the arts section becomes the entertainment section and he finds himself being the TV critic with the unflattering moniker of The Couch Potato for his column.

Feeling the need to recapture some enthusiasm for something in his life, Rush joins a writing group hoping to start on the novel he feels is buried somewhere inside of him. Unfortunately, no one in the writing group seems to have much in the way of talent. Except for Angela who tells a haunting story of abuse and an evil man who does evil things: the Sandman. As Angela reveals snippets each week, Rush finds himself showing up just to know how the story ends.

When a serial killer appears who’s technique is just like the Sandman, the need to know how the story ends takes on more urgency. Especially when all signs point to Rush being the killer.

That’s as much I can tell you without giving the plot away. This is one of the best thrillers that I’ve read in a long time (and I realize that I recently said something similar about Reich‘s Rules of Deception). If I had to boil it down to a single element, it is Pyper‘s refusal to stick to conventions that makes this book for me. The main character doesn’t act the way I would expect him to and the book doesn’t end the way I expect thrillers to end. And those are all good things, great in fact.

Now I’m going to geek out a bit about the fact that Pyper is Canadian. If you’re not Canadian, you may not realize that much of our publishing industry is either devoted to CanLit (literary fiction which is often also very self-consciously Canadian) or imported popular fiction (mostly from the US). Finding Canadian popular fiction writers is difficult. Finding Canadian popular fiction writers who set their stories in Canada and manage to sneak in some Canadian pop culture while they are at it is even more difficult. Pyper does both, which thrills me as a Canadian reader (hence the geek out in progress).

I have nothing against reading American popular fiction (or British, or Australian, or New Zealand-ish?). In fact, I read quite a lot of it and I’m used to having stories set in Boston or New York or wherever. As long as it’s a good story and good writing, I’m happy. But it’s nice, ever once in a while, to have the extra bonus of sharing the culture of the protagonist and not having to translate things like Barnes & Noble to Chapters (not actually mentioned in Pyper’s book, but you get the idea).

No matter where you live, if you love a good thriller this is definitely a book to buy. As soon as I get through my current stack of books (which keeps multiplying when I’m not looking—why is that?), I’m going to track down Pyper’s other books: The Wildfire Season, The Trade Mission, and The Lost Girls.

You can find Andrew Pyper’s Books on Amazon:

I took the advance reader’s copy of Christopher Reich‘s Rules of Deception on a road trip a couple weeks ago. The back copy looked so enticing that I didn’t want to wait until I got back to read it. I didn’t manage to finish it while I was away so I spent my first half a day back finishing up the book instead of working on my own writing. I’m happy to say the book lived up to its promise.

Dr. Jonathan Ransom loses his wife in a climbing accident in the Swiss Alps. A few days later, baggage claim tickets are delivered to his hotel room–for his wife. Not knowing what they might be for, he goes to claim them only to have two thugs try to steal the bags. The thugs are actually Swiss cops, and Ransom, having killed one of them, is now a killer and on the run. The contents of the bags reveal that his wife was not who he believed her to be. Ransom finds himself the subject of manhunt and the target of an assassin as he tries to discover who his wife really was and what is really going on.

The plot is intricate, the chapters are short, and the pacing is fast. I found that I was drawn right into the story and was no longer aware of the author writing. Reich uses the technique of having a lot of separate strands of plot at the beginning of the book that he eventually connects until everything comes together. This technique is tricky because if it doesn’t work the reader ends up confused and aggravated. For me, Reich pulls it off. I did get confused a couple of times, but I chalk that up to only being able to read a chapter or two at a time when I was reading the beginning of the book (I was visiting family).

Reading Reich reminded me of David Morrell in some ways. Reich ties everything together and pays attention to all the details which reminded me of David Morrell’s Creepers (also an excellent and fast-paced read).

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