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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Bone Detective With Heart, March 22, 2008
THE DEVIL'S BONES by Jefferson Bass is the third novel in the Dr. Bill Brockton forensics series. Jefferson Bass is the pseudonym of Dr. Bill Bass, a forensics specialist that founded Tennessee's Body Farm, and Jon Jefferson, the journalist who co-wrote Dr. Bass's nonfiction books.
I enjoy the CSI world a lot, and I can differentiate between Hollywood DNA results (done while you wait) and real-world DNA results (six months waiting list), but I'm still a sucker for a well-told tale with plenty of hard science behind it. THE DEVIL'S BONES has a lot of both going for it.
I enjoyed Dr. Brockton's first-person "aw shucks" kind of down-to-earth storytelling quite a lot. I grew up in small towns where PHDs still wear cowboy books and haven't quite shaken the rural accents. I always looked up to those men and women (yes, there are women there who haven't gotten out of cowboy boots either) because they knew so much but hadn't gotten away from the lives they'd grown up in. To me, his character felt very natural and real.
However, I was constantly aware that this was a third novel in a series because I was reminded over and over again that I wasn't privy to the events in the preceding novels. To my way of thinking, there were simply too many ties to the last couple of novels to make this one easily picked up and absorbed by a new reader. I'm going to go back and read the other two books in order, because I was well entertained, but I really regretted not having read them before I read this one. So that's a caveat for new readers that might be interested in this. I think the series is well worth the investment, though.
There's also a lot going on in this novel. In the beginning, Dr. Brockton tries to help a colleague out on a murder investigation that includes burning various body parts in an automobile fire at night. Readers are treated to a lot of scientific data right off the bat, but in a way that's immediately absorbable and makes a lot of sense. I particularly enjoyed this case because it ran throughout most of the book.
A second investigation leads Dr. Brockton into the grisly discovery that a crematorium isn't doing its job. Instead, the owners have elected to simply toss the bodies into the woods. That storyline was actually taken from recent news. I remember the news articles I read on the real case and was appalled. The authors' descriptions of the horrendous circumstances of what those abandoned bodies were subjected to are graphic.
The storyline that I most regretted involved Dr. Brockton's ongoing battle with Garland Hamilton, a medical examiner who has it in for the forensic anthropologist. Over the course of the last two books, Hamilton murdered Dr. Brockton's love interest.
Occasionally the writing jarred, however. The writers are given to hyperbole from time to time, such as having Dr. Brockton "bound" into action. I haven't met anyone that's ever claimed to have "bound" into action. There are a few other instances of this kind of overstatement that reminds you you're reading a book, but thankfully they're few. Just noticeable.
I had a good time with the novel. It's fast, fun, and breezy, and has a lot of scientific facts and information about arson, burned bones, crematoriums, and other forensic details to keep my interest piqued. Not only that, but Dr. Brockton's narrative made me feel like I was again back home in those small towns where I grew up. He's an engaging character and I look forward to reading more of his investigations.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Third's the charm, February 12, 2008
In this third Body Farm novel, Dr. Bill Brockton takes on three bone chilling cases. The first involves establishing whether a woman was burned alive or her remains were incinerated at some later time to falsify the time of death. The second to find out whether the cremains of Dr. Brockton's former defense attorney's deceased Aunt Jean really are hers. The third, to find out if Dr. Brockton's nemesis, the former Knox County, Tennessee Medical Examiner and murderer of Brockton's love interest, really incinerated himself in a cabin fire after he escaped from jail.
The plots of all three are interwoven in authentically like real crime happens. Of course, we have some old favorites returning: Art Bohannon, the wise-cracking KPD fingerprint specialist; Miranda Lovelady, the gifted and hardworking grad student; Burt DeVriess, aka "Grease", the slick defense attorney; and Jim Conner, the new Sheriff from Cooke County, Tennessee. Of course, the forensics are topnotch, the tension doesn't let up, and there's just enough good-humored wisecracking to keep reader blood pressure from skyrocketing.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Seeing a skeleton was like reading a diary.", April 13, 2008
Dr. Bill Bass (founder of the famed Body Farm at the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility) and Jon Jefferson are back with the third installment in their series featuring professor and forensic anthropologist extraordinaire, Dr. Bill Brockton. Brockton has endured one tragedy after another; his wife, Karen, died of cancer, and medical examiner Dr. Jess Carter, with whom he had a close personal relationship, was the victim of a psychopathic killer who had a vendetta against Brockton. Although he has an attentive son, a kind daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren, Bill is often lonely and his work provides the welcome distraction that he needs.
With the capable assistance of his devoted research assistant, Miranda Lovelady (I am not making this name up), Bill investigates the suspicious death of forty-seven year old Mary Louise Latham, who apparently perished after smoking in a car and setting the surrounding grass on fire. Although Mary's husband, Stuart was in Las Vegas when his wife died, he had a plenty of motive for eliminating her. To get a better idea of the circumstances surrounding the possible crime, Bill and Miranda set fire to two sets of bones sitting in two wrecked cars and subsequently examine the remains. Observing the scene is Art Bohanan, the Knoxville Police Department's senior criminalist and Bill's good buddy. Later, when Bill takes a look at Mary's skeleton as well as the farm where she lived, he makes several significant discoveries that shed light on what may have happened.
Other matters that preoccupy Bill are a case involving the Trinity Crematorium (whose owner, Delbert Littlejohn, may be perpetuating a cruel fraud on his clueless clients) and his forthcoming testimony in the trial of Jess's alleged murderer. Trepidation turns to terror when Bill's archenemy escapes from jail. Will this maniac come after Brockton in an effort to permanently silence him? Do dead bodies decay in hot weather?
"The Devil's Bones' is fatally marred by too much cutesy dialogue ("a little less conversation, a little more incineration," "It's not the heat, it's the stupidity," "even a blind squirrel finds some nuts"), minimally fleshed-out characters (no pun intended), and an underdeveloped and predictable plot. "The Devil's Bones" has two saving graces: the authors' rich use of local color and the wealth of information provided on cremation and forensics. Such details make books of this type perennially popular in our criminology-obsessed culture. Unfortunately, this novel is CSI-lite; it will appeal mainly to undemanding readers who enjoy unchallenging and escapist fiction.
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