Carved in Bone

Jefferson Bass is the nom de plume for two writers: Jon Jefferson, a journalist, writer and documentary film maker and Dr Bill Bass, the founder of the Body Farm. Bass’ expert knowledge of his subject shines through in every page. Have you ever wondered how bones are de-fleshed* for examination? Bass will tell you in detail. You will either find it macabre, grisly and deeply unsettling or macabre, grisly and totally fascinating. I happily admit to falling into the latter category.

Forensic based crime fiction has become very popular in recent years. CARVED IN BONE is a worthy entrant in this sub-genre. Not only is it chock full of scientific details of forensic anthropology in easily understandable terms, it is also one terrific yarn. show more The characters have depth and the setting is so well described it is easy to visualise.

I loved the book and found myself reading aloud passages that describe some of the forensic procedures, much to the chagrin of some of my family.

If you’ve read similar books in the past and have found them wanting in some areas, give CARVED IN BONE a try. With the immensely likeable but flawed Dr Bill Brockton and his associates, CARVED IN BONE puts authors like Cornwell and Reichs in the shade. I enjoyed the book so much I have taken steps to get hold of their second Brockton novel, FLESH AND BONE. show less

While I appreciate that this book is based partially on true life (namely Dr. Bass' career), I find the book bloated with characters, plots, and tangents. I would guess the problems with this book mostly stem from being a first book with poor editing.

DNF at 25% (which seems to be a tap out point for a number of people) when the protagonist starts making out with his student. I was already a bit icked out by him and how he sexualized every single woman he came across but that was just too much (and too unbelievable. Middle aged men need to stop watching so much professor/student porn - they think it’s an accurate reflection of college life.)

The science and forensic bits were interesting but after looking through reviews, I didn’t see anything that would reward me for continuing to deal with the sleazy professor and his erections so I’m putting this down. I might try their non-fiction book though.

From Amazon:

The Body Farm is a patch of ground in Tennessee dedicated to the science of death, where human remains lie exposed to be studied for their secrets.

Renowned anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton has spent his career surrounded by death at the Body Farm. Now he's being called upon to help solve a baffling puzzle in a remote mountain community. The mummified corpse of a young woman dead for thirty years has been discovered in a cave, the body bizarrely preserved and transformed by the environment's unique chemistry. But Brockton's investigation is threatening to open old wounds among an insular people who won't forget or forgive. And a long-buried secret prematurely exposed could inflame Brockton's own guilt—and the dangerous show more hostility of bitter enemies determined to see him
fail by any means necessary.

My Thoughts:

One of the two men who wrote this book, Dr. William Bass, started the original Body Farm, at the University of Tennessee. So the book becomes a work of fiction about a very real place. The idea of the Body Farm is now being copied world-wide to train police and scientists not only in the way to determine when crime has been perpetuated, but also to understand the death process for other sciences such as anthropology and archaeology. This is definitely not a book for the squeamish or weak of heart. The graphic prologue is fair warning of descriptions to come. Fascinating mix of country feuds and university science. Bill Bass and Jon Jeffeson present us with lots of very interesting 3-dimensional characters and a smart, sympathetic hero. Excelled story telling. show less

Carved in Bone is a book that's been sitting on my To-Be-Read shelves for years, and now was the time that I was in the mood to read it. It is a tale well told, with an interesting main character and lots of information to share.

Jefferson Bass does an excellent job in placing readers in the hills and hollows of eastern Tennessee, where people's memories are long and their willingness to forget and forgive microscopically short. The scenes in the cave are particularly well done, and they had me looking for a way out the entire time Brockton was down there. I also liked how Bass could go into forensic detail without graphic and gory detail.

If you like the subject of forensics, and let's face it, that's probably the main reason why show more readers would pick up a Body Farm mystery-- there's much to be learned here. I think the nugget of information that impressed me the most was about children's fingerprints. (Before puberty, a child's fingerprints are water-based and evaporate, which is one reason why finding missing children can be so difficult.)

There's a lot of good to be found in this first Body Farm mystery. The mystery was first-rate, and I thought the setting was excellent, but, ultimately, Dr. Bill Brockton did not "grab me" enough to make me want to continue reading the series. Your mileage may certainly vary. show less

Great forensic fiction in the tradition of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs, although better in my opinion. The authors have created a down-to-earth and sympathetic character in Dr. Bill Brockton, have put him in a fascinating setting and surrounded him with interesting supporting characters. I especially enjoyed the wild "mountain man" Waylon, and hope he and Jim O'Conner appear in subsequent novels. The novel was a perfect blend of character study, action, suspense, with a little courtroom drama, and realistic forensic details. I'll definitely be reading his other books.

Body Farm. Readers who might have dabbled in the Kay Scarpetta series will recall references to the place. This book has shown up in my Goodreads recommendations for a while now, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Whatever my expectations were, this book ended up being a HUGE let down.

The first few pages draw you in, I must admit. The concept of Body Farm itself has a morbid but nonetheless intriguing appeal to it, and the first few pages of the book live up to it. Renowned forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton is requested by the County Sheriff's office to look at some remains they've found in a cave. The remains turn out to be 30 years old, and well-preserved, and it might just be possible to catch the killer after all this time. Adding show more to this premise are some wonderful insights into the world of forensic anthropology.

But the book goes only downhill from here. The protagonist is a middle-aged white man who goes into unnecessary, irrelevant, and completely sexist descriptions about the women around him. He spares no female character in the book- his undergraduate students, his grad student, a colleague, or women he refers to in conversation with the male characters. All of it is INAPPROPRIATE, and while it happens in real life, made me wonder how the editors condoned it.

Then there's the plot itself- watered down with so many situations that are over-the-top and completely irrelevant to the central mystery. I skimmed through a lot of the pages, and realized it made no difference to the reveal at the end. You can predict who the killer is and surmise the situations leading to the murder pretty early in the book, but boy this book took FOREVER to get to the conclusion.

If this book pops up in your Goodreads recommendations, as it did in mine, I'd say scroll right past it. There are far better mysteries/crime procedurals out there. show less