Without Mercy

August 22, 2016
In bestseller Bass’s subpar 10th Body Farm novel (after 2015’s The Breaking Point), forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton, founder of the Body Farm for postmortem research, investigates some skeletal remains found in the woods in Tennessee’s Cooke County. The absence of a skull makes identification especially difficult, and evidence that the bones belong to a murder victim who was deliberately made into bear bait makes the need to identify the corpse urgent. Meanwhile, Brockton’s bête noire, serial killer Nick Satterfield, who almost took the lives of the scientist and his family decades earlier, escapes from prison in a way that Thomas Harris fans will find familiar. Satterfield’s appearance shifts the book’s emphasis from interesting scientific detective work to a paint-by-the-numbers cat and mouse game with a sadistic madman. The action builds to a denouement that’s predictably implausible. Bass is the pseudonym for the writing team of Bill Bass, founder of the real-life Body Farm, and Jon Jefferson. Agent: Giles Anderson, Anderson Literary Agency.

May 15, 2016

A battered skeleton chained to a mountaintop tree isn't the worst of forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton's worries. Nick Satterfield, the vicious serial killer Bill helped put behind bars, has broken out and is bearing down on him. Next in the "Body Farm" series, which frequently makes the New York Times best sellers list.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2016
In this tenth entry in the popular Body Farm series, forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton has a new case. Bones were found in a field near a tree with a chain attached to it. It isn't a complete skeleton, and identification is not going to be easy, but with forensics and some good detective work, Brockton soon realizes that a young man met a gruesome death that was probably a hate crime. But things get worse before they get better when a serial killer Brockton helped put away escapes from prison, motivated by revenge. On a lighter note, Brockton's beloved assistant has finally completed her dissertation and is looking for a new job, leaving him bereft. This is a dark, suspenseful story with enough forensics to please any fan of the genre. The science is fascinating and never slows the story, due to the skill of the forensic-anthropologist/journalist partnership known as Jefferson Bass. Fans of Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell should enjoy Without Mercy, as well as the rest of the Body Farm series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)