This was a gruesome read. The writing team managed to suck me into the story not only on a surface level, but on a deeper emotional level. This story turned my stomach and what makes it even worse is that it is based on the Florida Reform School and the horrors that occurred there. I went on to d...
This book in the series was as well-written as the others, but the plot was the most upsetting to me. Unfortunately, there was a lot of truth used in the plot line - abuse at a boys "reform" school. It broke my heart to read some of the things that were done to those children. However, the author...
It turned out to be better than I thought it would be. The author put some effort into creating a parallel story set in the Renaissance to give some depth to the mystery. The plot reminded me a little of the only Robert Ludlum book I have read, but that was 25 years ago and I do not remember the...
Although published well into the series, this is actually set as a prequel to the Body Farm series, in 1992.Dr. Bill Brockton, head of the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Department, is being called to help with time and cause of death in a series of seemingly unrelated murders, which then...
Good novel. I loved how history, art and criminology all interacted at once. I did not know it was a book series but you definitely don't have to read the previous books to read this one. However, the mystery wasn't really a mystery as the reader is able to solve the case by the middle of the boo...
Prequel...I haven't read the rest of the series yet but I am really interested now. Better than some of the previous books in this series. It was good to get some background.
"Madonna and Corpse"--This is one of the best reads as a prequel. A delectable appetizer to the grand entree' that lies ahead! This work is about 44 pages in length, and then it is followed by a bonus excerpt of "The Inquisitor's Key". It is a story that pulls you in and prepares you for the adve...
I will admit, I have been trying to read this book for about 6 months now. It isn't that the story or the writing is bad, it is just that the first 13, to me were just really slow and didn't really leave me wanting to turn the pages. There were just small bits of exciting things, like the crime s...
Not for the squeamish, The Body Farm grabbed my attention from the get- go, and never let go until the end! I read it in one day. Fortunately this book was suggested to me by my GR friend Michael, as a candidate to read in my Road Trip USA Challenge, for the state of Tennessee. I am so glad I fol...
The Devil's Bones: A Novel (Body Farm Novels)
“Hey,” I said, “would you hold my calls?” “Napping again?” she teased. “Not yet, but I probably will be soon,” I admitted. “I’m taking another run at Miranda’s dissertation. Last time I nodded off at page six.” “In that case, I’ll buzz you every five minutes.” “You’re such a help.” I hung up, smi...
I was lecturing, as part of a series called Smithsonian Saturdays, to three hundred people who’d given up a weekend afternoon—and given up fifty bucks apiece—to sit in a windowless underground auditorium and view slides of decaying corpses, bullet-riddled skulls, and incinerated skeletons. I’d ha...
Digging deep into my wallet, I found the business card—formerly crisp and imposing, now dirty and crumpled—that I’d gotten from Pat Maddox, the NTSB crash investigator, and dialed the number. The phone rang half a dozen times before a deep, gravelly voice rumbled, “Uh . . . yeah . . . Maddox.” “O...
I’ve never done that before, and I’ll never do it again. I’m sorry, but I’m only human.” “But…why her?” And she began to sob anew. Jess was right. I had been blind and careless. “Oh, Miranda. Listen to me. You’ve already got the best of me, don’t you understand? If we tried to have more, we’d end...
Once the sheets were in perfect alignment, he inserted them into the three-hole punch and swung the lever down slowly. Closing his eyes to concentrate, he savored the slight variations in resistance as the steel posts punched through the five single-spaced pages, sheet by sheet by sheet. &n...