Customer Reviews

Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensics Lab--The Body Farm--Where the Dead Do Tell Tales

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an utterly fascinating book describing a series of case studies taken from the career of the first author, Bill Bass, who is one of the nation's leading forensic anthropologists and the founder of the Body Farm. I had first encountered the Body Farm from reading about it in the book by Mary Roach, "Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers" (a wickedly funny and interesting book in its own right). I have also had a life-long interest in true crime books, so when I found out about "Death's Acre" I ordered it promptly.

And I was not disappointed. A previous reviewer expressed some dissatisfaction that the book did not deal solely with the work done at the Body Farm. While it is true that the title of the book is perhaps misleading in this regard, I personally am glad that the book focused as much as it did on the variety of cases that Dr. Bass consulted on throughout his career. I find it more interesting to hear about how forensic anthropology can help bring a murderer to justice than to read clinical data regarding just how many maggots can hatch in a body after 30 minutes in what temperature.

This is probably a good time to offer a gentle warning: This is a great book and totally fascinating, but if that last sentence about maggots upset you, you should probably forego buying and reading this book because that is only a mild taste of what you will encounter inside its pages. What happens to a human body after death isn't pretty, and the authors do a great job of describing it clinically and in terms that a lay audience will understand. But you need a pretty strong stomach to deal with it, especially when what is being described is, say, the brutally murdered body of a four-year-old girl. The book also contains a section of photographs, some of which involve decaying bodies (naturally enough given that this is the subject matter of the book), but if you do not particularly want to see pictures of decaying bodies, find another book to read.

But I would not want prospective readers to think that this book is gory just for the sake of sensationalism. The authors draw a compelling portrait of the role of forensic science in solving crimes and convicting the perpetrators of the crimes. The tone of the book is always scientific and the attitude toward the victims and research subjects at the Body Farm highly respectful.

The writing is also terrific. I think Dr. Blass made an excellent decision when he enlisted Jon Jefferson as co-author, as the writing is more literary and enjoyable than you expect from most mainstream academicians. The only suggestion for improvement I would make is that I wish the authors had included a few more pictures or diagrams of some of the more important diagnostic cues that are relied on in determining gender, age, and race. For example, we are repeatedly told of structural differences in the pelvis and skull that help to determine sex; it would have been helpful to see diagrams illustrating those differences.

Bottom line: Terrific book, one that left me half-wishing I had become a forensic anthropologist instead of a psychologist.

I am from Knoxville, TN, and have grown up with the "mystery" of the body farm. The book is wonderful in its detail of how and why the research facility was started. I read the book in two days, and was left with wanting more. For those in the southeast area, you might recognize some of the case studies mentioned in the book, and it's interesting to find out how much UT's anthropology department was involved in those cases.

It was also nice to learn more about Dr. Bass' personal life, not just his vital stats. He is a bit of a local legend, so it was nice to see the "human" side of him in this book.

For anyone interested in forensic science, don't pass up this chance to learn more about it!

"Death's Acre..." by Dr. Bill Bass & Jon Jefferson, NY, G.P.Putnam's Sons, 2003 - ISBN 0-39915134-6 (hc), 6 in. x 9 in., 280 pg. plus Appendices, bone charts, glossary, index & foreword by Patricia Cornwell.

"DA..." is an easy to read expose (largely non-technical) of the Anthropological Research Facility or "Body Farm", a unique research facility first conceived & established in 1980 by Dr. Bill Bass, forensic anthropologist at the Univ. Tennessee. Basically, this is a secluded retreat where human corpses are placed on surfaces, buried, or submerged in water -- Then, photos & diverse inquires made of rate of decomposition, saponification, mass, temperature, destruction by maggots, hornets, beetles, etc., & remains (teeth, bones, chemicals) for purpose of using data to determine sex, race, age, size and time since death (time of death) for forensic purposes.

The book's voice Dr. Bass, written by Jefferson, is in a cozy, mindful & quick-witted style affording appropriate insight into death, dying & the dead. All told, an autobiography (irregular time-line) of Dr. Bass, revealing lives & deaths of his parents, 3 marriages, his heart problem, success & notoriety of the Body Farm, & his achievements & personal recognition by peers. His self-satisfaction attitude is deserved, his drollery is homespun. To read this book is to then know Dr. Bass. He's one of the good guys...

Just finished Death's Acre by Bill Bass, I found it quite well done, not overly technical, and an absolutely macabre subject presented with a good sense of humor to lighten it. Fascinating to read about the progression of forensic anthropology from the '50's to the present. Yes, if you have read Pat Cornwell's Body Farm, this is about the real place that inspired her.

As the title indicates, this book is so much better than I expected. I expected it would be "drier" given the subject matter. Instead it reads more like a technical medical autobiographical novel. The stark reality of the material is very graphic and will probably be uncomfortable to even the hard core readers. This coroner-scientist-professor does not parse when it comes the facts or the details surrounding death - from the ooze and bugs to its causes, his findings, and legal outcomes. I was engrossed in the book almost from its start. The author integrates the history of the infamous Body Farm with the cases he worked on both before and since its inception. But he writes very well about the various investigatory cases he has been involved with over the decades, including some very unusual medical facts arising therefrom. He is honest about his (few) mistakes and is quite vain about his achievements. He seems somewhat of a name dropper, too. The book could have had less of the autobiographical details and more of the legal outcomes.

I highly recommend this book to those readers who watch Court TV, Forensic Files, and even the sugar-coated CSI.

Being as the Body Farm is almost in my backyard, and I've heard so much about it, I had to read this book. I was afraid that it might be too graphic, but it wasn't. It was so interesting that I read it cover to cover in less then a week. Mr. Bass writes his stories in such a way that you are totally memorized. I simply never knew all that could be done to a body, regardless of it's stage of decomposition, to find information out about it. My hat off to Mr. Bass and all his years of dedication.

Death's Acre is an engaging read. It is so beautifully crafted that the loving, kind, and humerous nature of Dr. Bill Bass shines through the myriad of anthropological detail. The cases Dr. Bass has been involved in, many of which you will have read about or heard in the news, will keep you as spell-bound as any Grisham or Cornwell novel, and they have the added advantage of being true. Dr. Bill Bass is the founder of the real Body Farm, an adjunct of the University of Tennessee, where in-depth studies are conducted on what happens to the the human body after death. Jon Jefferson has done a superb job. I was half expecting to be grossed out by the subject matter but instead I found myself engrossed with the life and thoughts of the gifted Dr. Bass and the writing of the equally gifted Jefferson. If you're in the least bit jaded with fictional murder stories or want to know more of what goes on behind the scenes of murder case, this book will intrigue you.

This book is really about the career of forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass not a detailed account of the inner workings of the Body farm as the title of the book would indicate.

An engaging storyteller, Dr. Bass shares his career successes and mistakes with the reader. He is an anthropologist and therefore it shouldn't surprise anyone that most of the stories deal with the study of bones (though he does throw a few other subjects in.) He will educate the reader on the skeletal differences between the sexes as well as different races...but you find out little about the research facility known as the Body Farm.

If the title of the book had been different I think I would have rated it higher, instead it left me feeling mislead and a bit disappointed.

As someone who has had a lifelong fascination with death, decomposition, murder, funerary and burial practices, and all manner of morbid stuff, I was eager to read "Death's Acre." I had read a little about the Body Farm previously, so I couldn't wait to get the whole story from the man who started it all, Bill Bass.

I expected the book to focus very narrowly on the Body Farm itself, but that isn't the case. The reader does get information about Bass's background and how he got into anthropology -- and then forensics -- in the first place. This moves into logical background about Bass's initial work with corpses and the eventual founding of the Body Farm. I thought it was interesting that the Farm got started not only as a much-needed research facility for learning about an uncharted area of science, but it also seemed to have been started because Bass was running out of place to store messy dead bodies (a broom closet at the university and even the trunk of his beloved Mustang proved to be not the best places after all!).

The book then gets into some of the difficulties the Farm has had -- protests about its location, protests about the use of unclaimed cadavers (particularly those of U.S. veterans) and some of the projects it has hosted (including an adipocere formation experiment and an experiment suggested by crime author Patricia Cornwell).

But most of what comprises this book are stories about Bass's career -- his failures and successes. The failures (most notably the Shy case) point up the need for a facility like the Body Farm, and the successes point to the value of the data gathered at the site. All the workers at the Body Farm -- living and dead -- are doing a great deal to aid forensic science. In the future, justice for murder victims will be served more swiftly and accurately because of the work done at the Body Farm.

Avid readers of true crime will enjoy the specialized "professional" view of cases that may already be familiar to them. I was familiar with the Madison Rutherford and Perry/Rubinstein cases, but getting the technical details from Bass (shaped for maximum readability by his capable co-author Jon Jefferson) gave the stories a new dimension. Especially fascinating was the description of the study Bass's student made of the effects of differents types of saws upon bone, which helped lead to a conviction in the death of Leslie Mahaffey, one of the victims of the diabolical Paul Bernardo, the male half of the Canadian "Barbie and Ken" husband-and-wife murder team. There's also an inside look at the infamous Tri-State Crematory case from 2002.

There's a lot of eye-popping detail in this book, some of it horrifying, some of it poignant, some of it -- dare I say -- hilarious. See if you can keep yourself from laughing when you find out why Bass had to buy his first wife two new kitchen stoves, or why he had to buy his third wife a new blender.

Even when the tone of the book becomes humorous, Bass is always professional and respectful. Bass sees himself as a scientist, first and foremost, and his ultimate goal is to use his science to bring criminals to justice. He's humble, big-hearted, and always willing to learn from anybody -- be it a colleague, one of his own students, or the voiceless dead who speak to him with their inert, shattered bones.

If your taste is for forensics and you can't get your fill on tv, this book is for you. Gives a good, honest and comprehendable look at the world of forensic research done at the body farm. A good blend of info and history, with touches of humor throughout. Yes, I said humor. There is humor in everything if you know where to look. An enjoyable read for those with an interest.