jjares reviewed on 6/24/2019 + 3284 more book reviews

PLEASE NOTE: The Body Farm Series (see below) should be read in order.
This will be my last Jefferson Bass book, I believe. Cadavers I have no problem with, but a medical examiner losing his hands to radiation poisoning is too much. Actually, this plot thread occurred in an earlier story. That wasn't gruesome enough, so now he's back in this story, trying to get artificial hands. I've had enough.

Like I said in an earlier review, why can't Dr. Brockton just handle bodies at the Body Farm? I have not seen the purpose of the girlfriends the good doctor has been romancing. Now it turns out that the doctor's latest paramour is pregnant. One of the things I do not like about this series is that, once a character becomes part of the story, they never seem to leave. Dr. Jess Carter, the deceased love-interest from the first book, is still mentioned repeatedly. I could understand the grieving for his wife of 30+ years, but Brockton and Carter were close for a short time.

This story centers on the FBI enticing Brockton and his Body Farm to try to bring down a postmortem body parts chop shop. If this weren't enough, there's a grave robber afoot. This book has an embarrassment of riches in the plot department. It doesn't seem to be using anthropology to solve crimes, but to have a 21st-century sleuth chasing after the bad guys. As the plot got more and more bizarre; I finally skip-read the last 60 pages. I think I will concentrate on the nonfiction side of the Jefferson Bass team.

Body Farm Series
1) Carved in Bone (2006)
2. Flesh and Bone (2007)
3. The Devil's Bones (2008)
4. Bones of Betrayal (2009)
** 5. The Bone Thief (2010)

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