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Flesh and Bone: A Body Farm Novel By Jefferson Bass ( Harper )
Release Date: 2008-01-01
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Product Description
Anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton founded Tennessee's world-famous Body Farm—a 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.
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 Excellent!!!
This book was the perfect follow-up to the previous. There were so many twists and turns that I could not put the book down until I had finished it. I hope that Jefferson and Bass continue to write books like this. Great characters and wonderful work.
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ALL IS NOT AS IT SEEMS... ( lawyeraau )
Once again, the dynamic writing duo of Dr. Bill Bass, forensic anthropologist and founder of the real life University of Tennessee Body Farm, and journalist Jon Jefferson team up for another Body Farm mystery, writing under the pseudonym of Jefferson Bass. This is a series to which I am quickly becoming addicted. The science of anthropological forensics is a fascinating discipline, and those who enjoy reading about its application in the solving of mysteries will certainly enjoy these body farm novels and their central character, Dr. Bill Brockton, who is the head of the Anthropology Research Facility of the University of Tennessee, commonly referred to as the Body farm.
In this second novel, Dr. Brockton not only tries to solve an anthropological mystery, he finds himself at the heart of a mystery. When Dr, Brockton is requested by medical examiner Jess Carter to assist her and shed some light on a forensic puzzle by re-creating a specific death scene at the Body Farm, he finds his relationship with Dr. Carter evolving into one beyond that of colleague.
Dr. Brockton, however, finds his life begins careening out of control when he, as a scientist, affronted by the idea of intelligent design, a euphemism for creationism, discusses the concept in his class, affronting one of his students, whose belief in creationism causes the student to take legal action. Finding himself at the vortex of a public spectacle, Dr. Brockton finds his professional life crumbling around him.
Then, the unimaginable happens. Accused of a heinous crime that he did not commit and finding that all the forensic evidence points to him, his personal life spirals out of control. With the evidence mounting against Dr. Brockton, and many of his friends and colleagues looking at him askance, it appears that the only one who can save him from the unthinkable is himself.
While the plot strains credulity, the book is, nonetheless, an absorbing read, sustained by the forensic detail and the innate charm and likeability of its central character. I certainly look forward to reading the next Body Farm novel.
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 Needs A Better Edit
Flesh and Blood, A Body Farm Novel
When I bought this book at a drug store enroute to the airport last month, I wasn't thrilled with the selection available. I'd looked at all the other books on the shelf and nothing else jumped out at me. So, just like when the Wintergreen Lifesavers box is empty and I have to satisfice with Peppermint, I picked it up. The cover text promised that this work would thrill the fans of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs. Hmmmm......
Jefferson Bass is a pen name for the writing team of Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson. Bass, founder of University of Tennessee's Body Farm, and Jefferson, a seasoned journalist, combine their expertise in murder, mayhem and small town politics to produce a story about a forensic anthropologist, Dr. Bill Brockton, who works with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Medical Examiner, Dr. Jess Carter, to solve murders and put the bad guys in jail.
Now I read and enjoy almost all types of fiction (except science fiction). Sometimes I like a snack--a la Janet Evanovich's One for the Money, sometimes I need a meal--like Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Flesh and Bone, however, is more like the jar of pickled okra in the back of my pantry leftover from the gourmet basket I received as a housewarming gift from my contractor twelve years ago.
I have to admit that I did not realize this book was the second in a series. Perhaps some of my frustration with the first few chapters might have been mitigated, had I read the first book. Before my plane took off, I was getting itchy to throw the book in the trash and start Sky Mall shopping. I had read/skimmed over the first 10-15 pages before I even realized the first person narrator, the main character, was male. I decided to go back to the beginning and re-read what I had missed. The narrative didn't improve the second time around. I gave up completely when the stewardess offered headphones for the in-flight movie. A few days ago, I came across this book in a stack and picked it up again. I refused to re-read the beginning, so I just jumped in at the dogearred page and gutted my way through to the end.
The plot is credible, but predictable. The main character, Dr. Bill Brockton, is mildly sarcastic, likeable in a Sad Sack sort of way, enduring the absurdities and humiliations of life in eastern Tennessee. The supporting characters had potential, but remained underdeveloped--almost limp.
The narrative, like Dr. Brockton, wanders aimlessly through the streets of Knoxville for no apparent reason -- venial sins such as these I can almost forgive. However, clunky dialogue ("As you know, Bill...") and useless info dumps of research material make me reach for my red Sharpie.
In the most glaring example of awkwardness, we find Dr. Brockton, the forensic anthropologist who knows enough about the science of forensics to imagine that the murder found hanging in a tree might have shed a "glove" of skin from his hand. So he returns to the crime scene long after the cops and the CSI techs have finished and gone home. He crawls on his hands and knees searching the scene for the discarded skin "glove". And when he finds it, he knows enough to preserve it in a solution of water and fabric softener, and transport it to his friend for analysis. A friend he says, who just happens to be 'the one guy in the state' who could recover fingerprints from it and identify the victim. But then Brockton requires a lecture on the absolute basics of fingerprint analysis down to the level of "fingerprints are made up of whorls, arches, and loops? He's worked with the police for years, investigating murders, studying evidence. He even jokes with his attorney about the effect the television show, CSI, has had on modern juries. No, thank you.
At this point, I forced myself to continue reading as an academic exercise. Ms. Reichs, Ms. Cornwell, you ladies have nothing to fear. Team Jefferson Bass offers no threat in your genre of forensic thriller.
When I turned the last page, I still had a few bubbles left in my bath and a few sips of wine in my glass. I glanced at the preview chapter of the next book, The Devil's Bones and read a wonderful line of dialogue that could just about make me forgive the two authors for all of the above inelegance and read their next book. Dr. Brockton responds to some banal comment about the weather with the quip:
"It's not the heat, it's the stupidity."
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Definitely not a cozy!!!! ( bethebibliophile )
This is the second book in the Body Farm series by Dr. Bill Bass & Jon Jefferson. Their protagonist, Dr. Bill Brockton, is a forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee Knoxville where he teaches and is director of the Body Farm. Dr. Bill runs the first and only Body Farm in the US - a facility where donated (and carefully documented) cadavers are studied in various conditions and states of decay to further forensic research. While trying to replicate a recent homicide, Dr. Bill has to hang and tie up a body dressed in women's clothing to a tree and try to mimic the brutal beating inflicted upon the person. Because of the beating, identification of the original victim has been unsuccessful so Dr. Bill has also been invited to try to recreate the skull - but can he manage to do all that without getting his own bashed in?
Dr. Bill seems to be a very busy man. While recreating death scenes, he's trying to romance a local medical examiner as well as help her identify her unknown victim. Not sure where the lines in their professional and personal relationships have been drawn, he fumbles a bit in the process but to the reader it makes his character quite human. Trying to get back into the dating scene after his long-time wife's death from cancer has taken its toll on him, but he decides that Dr. Jess Carter is worth the effort. While being encouraged by his friends and co-workers in his work and play, he seems to go back and forth between the scientific aspects to the somewhat immature antics more often than one would think. But when a second body is found on their recreated crime scene everyone's world is turned inside out and finding the killer - for both murders - becomes a must for Dr. Bill - because unlike the police, to whom Dr. Bill is suspect #1, he knows that he is innocent.
There are many plot lines co-existing in this novel - most of which are wound together somehow but not difficult to follow. I didn't realize that I had missed the first book until after I finished this one, so it stands alone well. Dr. Bill was a puzzle to me until I discovered there were two authors - that seemed to explain the different behaviors and moods of the character to me. I suspect as the series continues that development will smooth some of that out. I like the idea of the novel, but I did expect more forensic procedure than interpersonal byplay amongst the characters.
This is not a book for those are easily grossed out. Cozy readers should not attempt this series. I think that those who do enjoy procedurals would enjoy most aspects of the book, but the suspense factor, while it does exist, is not edge of the seat. I am looking forward to The Devil's Bones next to see how things develop.
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 Good but not as good as the first ( nurselinzy )
Had to read it because I read Flesh and Bone which I loved but was alittle let down. Good but alittle slow at times. A must read because of twist that I never imagined.
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Addiction
