Once again, the dynamic writing duo of Dr. Bill Bass, forensic anthropologist and founder of the real life University of Tennessee Body Farm, and journalist Jon Jefferson team up for another Body Farm mystery, writing under the pseudonym of Jefferson Bass. This is a series to which I am quickly becoming addicted. The science of anthropological forensics is a fascinating discipline, and those who enjoy reading about its application in the solving of mysteries will certainly enjoy these body farm novels and their central character, Dr. Bill Brockton, who is the head of the Anthropology Research Facility of the University of Tennessee, commonly referred to as the Body farm.
In this second novel, Dr. Brockton not only tries to solve an anthropological mystery, he finds himself at the heart of a mystery. When Dr, Brockton is requested by medical examiner Jess Carter to assist her and shed some light on a forensic puzzle by re-creating a specific death scene at the Body Farm, he finds his relationship with Dr. Carter evolving into one beyond that of colleague.
Dr. Brockton, however, finds his life begins careening out of control when he, as a scientist, affronted by the idea of intelligent design, a euphemism for creationism, discusses the concept in his class, affronting one of his students, whose belief in creationism causes the student to take legal action. Finding himself at the vortex of a public spectacle, Dr. Brockton finds his professional life crumbling around him.
Then, the unimaginable happens. Accused of a heinous crime that he did not commit and finding that all the forensic evidence points to him, his personal life spirals out of control. With the evidence mounting against Dr. Brockton, and many of his friends and colleagues looking at him askance, it appears that the only one who can save him from the unthinkable is himself.
While the plot strains credulity, the book is, nonetheless, an absorbing read, sustained by the forensic detail and the innate charm and likeability of its central character. I certainly look forward to reading the next Body Farm novel.
