Flesh and Bone: A Body Farm Novel (Body Farm Novels)

From Publishers Weekly At the start of the entertaining second Body Farm novel from the pseudonymous Bass (the writing team of forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass and journalist Jon Jefferson), Dr. Bill Brockton ties a dead man dressed in drag to a tree at the Body Farm (a facility he heads outside Knoxville, Tenn., devoted to researching postmortem decay), in an effort to replicate a recent murder. Dr. Bill's just beginning a romantic relationship with another participant in this experiment, Chattanooga medical examiner Dr. Jess Carter. The story veers wildly from fascinating forensics with a high yuck factor to sophomoric and corny romantic byplay, often in the same scene. Fans of the bestselling first book in the series, Carved in Bone , and readers with a penchant for the gross and grisly will take to Dr. Bill, a hero with a big heart who isn't afraid to tackle complicated issues while solving mildly engrossing mysteries. Dr. Bass and Jefferson are the coauthors of Death's Acre , about the actual Body Farm. 7-city author tour. (Feb.) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton, who made his debut in Carved in Bone (2005), returns to defend himself against a charge of murder. The mummified body of a woman is found in a cave in Tennessee. Brockton, who works at the University of Tennessee's Body Farm (founded in real life by Bill Bass, one-half of "Jefferson Bass"), has seen his share of gruesome sights, but this one has him stymied. And when a second body turns up, Brockton finds himself square in the spotlight. The second Body Farm mystery is as smoothly written as the first (Bass' coauthor, Jon Jefferson, is an accomplished journalist), but it goes a lot farther in exploring its protagonist, a man who spends his life looking at death. The story is razor sharp, too, with a nice mixture of mystery and horror. Fans of forensic fiction will want to add this author to their list of favorites. David Pitt Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved Dr. Bill Brockton, the founder of the world-famous Body Farm, is hard at work on a troubling new case. A young man's battered body has been found in nearby Chattanooga, and it's up to the talented Dr. Brockton to assemble the pieces of the forensic puzzle. Brockton is brought into the case by the rising star of the state's mechanical examiners, Jess Carter. Just as they're on the verge of breaking the case open, events take a terrifying turn. Brockton has re-created the Chattanooga death scene at the Body Farm, but a killer tampers with it in a shocking way: placing another corpse at the setting, confusing authorities and putting Brockton's career and life in jeopardy. Soon Brockton himself is accused of the horrific new crime, and the once-beloved professor becomes an outcast. As the net around him tightens, Brockton must use all of his forensic skills to prove his own innocence . . . before he ends up behind bars with some of the very killers he's helped to convict. *Flesh and Bone* is another roller-coaster ride into the world of forensic anthropology, its twists and turns marked by drama and pathos, humor and grief, families and friends and enemies. With captivatingly real characters, plus fascinating scientific insights drawn from the case files of a living forensic legend, this astonishing novel confirms Jefferson Bass as one of our most talented authors of suspense. Anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton founded Tennessee's world-famous Body Farma small piece of land where corpses are left to decay in order to gain important forensic information. Now, in the wake of a shocking crime in nearby Chattanooga, he's called upon by Jess Carter the rising star of the state's medical examiners to help her unravel a murderous puzzle. But after re-creating the death scene at the Body Farm, Brockton discovers his career, reputation, and life are in dire jeopardy when a second, unexplained corpse appears in the grisly setting. Accused of a horrific crime transformed overnight from a respected professor to a hated and feared pariah Bill Brockton will need every ounce of his formidable forensic skills to escape the ingeniously woven net that's tightening around him... and to prove the seemingly impossible: his own innocence. The secrets about violent murder are investigated at . . . The Body Farm A burned car sits on a Tennessee hilltop, a woman's charred body in the driver's seat. Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton's job is to discover the truth hidden in the fire-desecrated corpse. Was the woman's death accidental . . . or was she incinerated to cover up her murder? But his research into the effect of flame on flesh and bone is about to collide with reality like a lit match meeting spilled gasoline. The arrival of a mysterious package—a set of suspiciously unnatural cremated remains—is pulling Brockton toward a nightmare too macabre to imagine. And an old nemesis is waiting in the shadows to put him to the ultimate test, one that could reduce Brockton's life to smoldering ruins Called In By Chattanooga Medical Examiner Jess Carter To Investigate The Death Of A Young Man, Forensic Anthropologist Bill Brockton Is Subsequently Framed For Jess's Murder, Forcing Him To Apply His Investigative Skills To Prove His Innocence. Jefferson Bass.