The Bone Thief (Body Farm Series #5)

entertaining Body Farm mystery

University of Tennessee's anthropology department chairman and the head of the school's human decomposition research facility the Body Farm, Dr. Bill Brockton and his grad assistant Miranda Lovelady open a coffin to obtain a sample for a DNA paternity test. However, the remains inside have been desecrated.

The FBI asks Brockton to assist them on ending a lucrative body parts black market operation. He agrees to play the role of a supplier though he remains preoccupied by his last case Bones of Betrayal. At the same time he struggles with an undercover role to end a chop shop, his medical examiner friend Eddie Garcia has been exposed to a dose of radioactivity that has cost him both hands amputated and likely his job unless he takes an illegal underhanded spin with his hope being Brockton.

This is an entertaining Body Farm mystery as the hero is caught in a personal value's dilemma between helping his friend and ending the black market sales of body parts. This issue comes on top of his inability to move past the betrayal that "murdered" his heart. Although two late shaky spins detract from an otherwise solid undercover tale, forensic fans will enjoy Dr. Brockton's moral crisis.

Harriet Klausner

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Stronger writing than its predecessors

Anytime Grease calls, Dr. Bill Brockton knows the case could be dicey. "Grease" is the nickname given to Burt DeVriess, a wealthy Knoxville defense attorney. DeVriess wants Dr. Brockton to exhume the body of a eight-year-old corpse in order to determine if the wealthy decedent fathered an illegitimate child with one of the city's most notorious madams.

But, the body in the coffin isn't intact. Someone's chopped up the decedent. As Dr. Brockton continues his investigation, he uncovers more of the Ivy Funeral Home's former clients with empty graves.

But why are dead bodies being stolen? Parts are big business. Some unscrupulous tissue firm is clearly paying for cadavers.

When the FBI get a lead on a firm, they ask Dr. Brockton to go undercover and offer to supply the group with donated cadavers from the Body Farm. The assignment goes against everything Dr. Brockton stands for, but if the law has any chance of catching the grave robbers, he's going to have to help.

"The Bone Thief" is my favorite of the Body Farm novels by the award-winning team of Dr. Bill Bass, the founder of the real Body Farm, and Jon Jefferson, his film and writing partner. It's the grittiest and tightest paced of their efforts so far. The book will literally have you up reading well past your bedtime.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Another top read by JeffersonBass... ethics and morality versus

Another top read by JeffersonBass... ethics and morality versus friendhip... a mystery to solve and body parts black marketing that must be stopped... Dr. Brockton has his hands (and heart) full in this must read.

Jefferson Bass has done it again. The Body Farm novels are an e

Jefferson Bass has done it again. The Body Farm novels are an excellent read.

The Bone Thief

Dr. Bill Brockton runs the 'Body Farm' where donated bodies are laid out in plots, carefully kept track of by his assistant and studied for different affects on decomposition. Burt DeVriess, 'Grease', a defense attorney calls Dr. Brockton to examine a body that is being exhumed for a paternity case. The only problem is, when the body is exhumed, it is obviously missing some pieces!
Black market body parts are a big business. At least that is what the FBI is using to convince Dr. Brockton to go undercover to help them find who is buying and selling these body parts. After opening several other graves, the signs point to a funeral home and Brockton reluctantly agrees to be a part of the sting.
All the while, Dr. Brockton is trying to reconcile with a former flame who isn't at all what she appears and, may have a bigger hold on him than Brockton ever imagined! He is also faced with several ethical decisions one of which could jeopardize a man's life and could be losing a valuable asset in his assistant.
This is a thrilling addition to the Body Farm series. Once you start it, you won't put it down!

Reviewed by Ashley Wintters for Suspense Magazine

Fun page turner

Another great story in the body farm series

Highly Recommend

I have enjoyed all of the Jefferson Bass books. The Bone Thief provided a perspective about the secretive work & creation of the atom bomb. Great book!

Wow! Hard to put down

I liked the synopsis, knew a little about Dr. Bass' body farm before I discovered this series, but did not expect such a wonderful story. Great characters, some of the most detailed and unique I've ever seen. The story is complex, multi-faceted, and if you like forensic stories, Patricia Cornwell, autopsies, murder investigations, etc, then this is a must for you. This is book #5, I went out and bought the first four in the series and my wife and I devoured them one by one. It is not necessary to read them in sequence, but it will help as some events and characters are referred to downstream and come into play in subsequent stories (in a peripheral way). Start with Carved in Bone (#1), then Flesh & Bone, The Devil's Bones, Bones of Betrayal, The Bone Thief, then The Bone Yard (hardback as I write this). You won't be disappointed!

Again!

Superb Body Farm book, yet again! Keep 'em coming.

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One for the Good Guys

If you have not yet found one of the most likable characters in literature, you need to meet Dr. Bill Brockton. He is a straight arrow with a firm moral compass which, in The Bone Thief, gets him into all kinds of trouble. As usual, Jefferson Bass wraps several plots around each other. In one plot, Brockton is asked to do a simple paternity test on a dead man (Brockton is the fictional director of the University of Tennessee's very real body farm) But when the corpse is exhumed, it has been horribly mutilated. In another plot, the FBI wants the good doctor to go undercover in a sting operation to stop someone who is illegally selling body parts. This leads to one of the funniest scenes, where the bad guy has Dr. Brockton meet him at the Library in Las Vegas, which is not a library at all. Then there's the plot about a one-time lover who is now on the run for the murder of an atomic physicist, There are at least three more plots in the book, One reviewer said that it was confusing. I prefer to call in interesting and devious

I love the characters in this series. Besides Brockton, there is his graduate assistant, Miranda, an outspoken save the whales type, and there is Grease, the high-powered defense lawyer. There are also administrative and academic types, as well as an abundance of law enforcement types.

I thought it was great fun, with a wonderfully hopeful ending.

Again, if you are not familiar with The Body Farm Series, you are in for a real treat

very, very disapointed...

The plot just kept jumping around, I found myself trying to read one page and would have to turn back a page or two to find who I was reading about. I looked so forward to this book. A lot was borrowed from previous books. I felt like they just ran out of things to write about and had to get a book out by a deadline. I hope not...I so love Jefferson Bass books. Hoping for the next one

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not His Best Effort

Although I look forward with anticipation to Bass's books, this one was certainly not his best effort.

Not As Compelling as the First Books of the Series, but Still an Excellent Read

Dr. Bill Brockton finds himself in another moral dilemma in the latest book in the series, when his friend and coworker continues to be in desparate need of a way to continue working after the loss of the major part of both of his hands. Add to that the trafficking of body parts on the black market, and you the have the makings of a great read. While not quite as good as the first books of the series, this is still a great read for fans of Dr. Brockton. Thrills and chills as well as the apparent betrayal of friends lends another dimension to this chapter of the continuing series. I looks forward to the next one in the series!

Disappointing/ goodbye for me

I have been a fan of these guys since the first body farm series however the last two books has been disappointing for me. I ended up tossing this book aside without finishing it. Usually I am immobile for a day after one of their books are released. This latest book is all over the place. Too much continuation from the bones of betrayal.

I was drawn to this series for the forensic anthropology content but the last two books have fallen short of this.

Frankly, I could care less about an aging forensic anthropologist's love affair with a criminal residing within the bowels of the city sewer. This is a continuation of the previous book, where she alludes the police, and turns up pregnant in this latest book.

I can already see the next book, "grandfather Bill's journey to Japan to seek long lost child. NO THANK YOU. This latest book deals with what should have seen closure in the previous book plus donor transplants, cadaver black market, and of course 2 chapters on missing limbs from a corpse, which does not get anymore attention until the last half of the book and then only a mention. Where is the forensic anthropology?

I can appreciate the author's appreciation of the donorship program however, the series of books did not start out with "live," medical situations such as transplants and radioactive materials. Not much need for a forensic anthropologist in regards to a "nuked" cadaver.

On a positive note, I would highly recommend the first 2 books.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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