The Devil's Bones: A Body Farm Novel

From Publishers Weekly The lack of a strong central plot undercuts the third forensic thriller by bestseller Bass, the team of Dr. Bill Bass, founder of Tennessee's world-renowned Body Farm, and journalist Jon Jefferson (after 2007's Flesh and Bone ). Two cases occupy Dr. Bass's fictional alter ego, Dr. Bill Brockton—the death of Mary Latham, a 47-year-old Knoxville native, whose charred remains were found in a burned-out car, and a disreputable Georgia crematorium that simply dumped bodies on its grounds. These probes soon take a backseat to a cat-and-mouse game with the doctor's arch nemesis, Garland Hamilton, who tried to frame him for murder in Flesh and Bone . When Hamilton escapes from incarceration before going to trial, Brockton must keep looking over his shoulder. While a smattering of Bass's trademark authentic forensic detail lifts this main narrative thread, a more focused look at a single case might have made the novel a better read. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review "[A] fine thriller...this third installment is the best of a steadily improving series, but it’s doubtful we’ve seen the finest moments yet." -- Booklist

A burned car sits on a Tennessee hilltop, a woman's lifeless, charred body seated inside. 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 inhuman 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.

Publishers Weekly

The lack of a strong central plot undercuts the third forensic thriller by bestseller Bass, the team of Dr. Bill Bass, founder of Tennessee's world-renowned Body Farm, and journalist Jon Jefferson (after 2007's Flesh and Bone). Two cases occupy Dr. Bass's fictional alter ego, Dr. Bill Brockton-the death of Mary Latham, a 47-year-old Knoxville native, whose charred remains were found in a burned-out car, and a disreputable Georgia crematorium that simply dumped bodies on its grounds. These probes soon take a backseat to a cat-and-mouse game with the doctor's arch nemesis, Garland Hamilton, who tried to frame him for murder in Flesh and Bone. When Hamilton escapes from incarceration before going to trial, Brockton must keep looking over his shoulder. While a smattering of Bass's trademark authentic forensic detail lifts this main narrative thread, a more focused look at a single case might have made the novel a better read. (Feb.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

A woman's charred body has been found inside a burned car atop a hill in Knoxville. Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton is on the case, torching bodies to research how fire consumes flesh and bone. Days later, he receives a mysterious package - a set of cremated remains that seems entirely unreal. As Brockton investigates, he uncovers a truth too horrifying to believe Meanwhile, disgraced medical examiner, and Brockton's nemesis, Garland Hamilton, has escaped from custody. A deadly game of cat and mouse begins, with Brockton's life at stake. Finally running Hamilton to ground, Brockton finds only the incinerated remains of his enemy, or does he? Before he finds the truth, Brockton will face his ultimate test Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton studies how fire consumes flesh and bone in order to solve the mysterious death of a woman found inside a burned car in Knoxville. Meanwhile, Brockton discovers that his nemesis, medical examiner Garland Hamilton, has escaped custody and Brockton's own life is in danger Investigating a suspicious death in which the victim's remains were found in a burned car, forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton engages in an unorthodox experiment to better understand the case