Helpful Score: 9
Great book. If you like Patricia Cornwell you will love this. I will definitely be looking for all books in this series. This was fast paced and kept me guessing. The characters were fun to get to know. If you are interested in forensic anthropology, this is a book to read. There is also some humor. I found myself laughing out loud sometimes. I highly recommend this book.
Helpful Score: 8
My new favorite forensic fiction writer is the team of Jefferson Bass! I like the plotline of this novel and although the ending was not a completely surprise, the action leading to it was enough to keep my interest. Jefferson Bass is able to weave lots of background information into the story without overpowering it. They are also able to use enough technical jargon to lend realism to the story without losing the reader. I also liked the offhand mention of both real and fictional medical examiners (if you skip paragraphs, you'll miss it)!
Helpful Score: 5
Yes - I am hooked on CSI. But only the original Las Vegas one and I must admit I preferred the beginning stories to the recent - the ones where they would graphically show the damage caused by the bullet or knife, etc. So of ocurse I had to read this one...I am a Kay Scarpetta fan also. Very interesting story line - and very interesting authors - Jefferson Bass is a team, one of whom (Dr. Bill Blass) actually founded the Body Farm at the University of Tennesee's Anthorpology Research Facility. So this was almost a must read!
Helpful Score: 4
Very interesting factual account of the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility (the Body Farm of Patricia Cornwell's novel) described in a fictional setting. Also, gives a captivating account of life in the isolated and clannish backwoods of the Tennessee mountains.
Helpful Score: 2
This is the first in the Body Farm series. Dr. Bill Brockton is a forensic anthropologist at the Body Farm still mourning the death of his wife two years before when he is contacted by Sheriff Tom Kitchings of Cooke County Tennessee. A mummified body is found in a mountain cave which turns out to be a young woman who supposedly ran off years ago. Added to that fact, she is found to have been found to be pregnant at the time of her murder. Added to that, there's a lot of illegal goings on in Cooke county, everything from cock fighting to marijuana growing, added to that the possibility that there is corruption going in the sheriff's office. Leena Bonds, the young woman was related to the sheriff, she was dating a young man who went to Vietnam and when he returned, she was gone. There is bad blood between Kitchings and O'Conner. This was a terrific first novel, you have the Appalachian mountain folk with feuds dating back to the Civil war, you have the Body Farm and of course you have murders and intrigues and of course forensic anthropology which Kathy Reich's novels and TV series brought to people's notice. Even if forensic anthropology doesn't interest you, there's enough of other stuff going on to make this a fast paced novel that's hard to put down
