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The second in the Body Farm series offers insightful details on forensics, but lacks the pressure-cooker intensity I expect in a suspense novel.

With the release of the new Body Farm novel, The Devil’s Bones, last year’s Flesh and Bone recently hit bookstore shelves in paperback. I got the review copy and started it with excitement.

And could not get past page 2. I decided that I’d read enough suspense novels and needed to shake up my reading and reviewing world, so I picked up a few tomes in different genres before coming back. I still could not get through it. I read something else, then came back to it with a determination to finally read it, review it and move on.

The plot is great. Jefferson Bass’ signature hero, Dr. Bill Brockton, is helping the cops on a new case. His path intersects with the lovely state ME Jess Carter, the only woman who seems to appeal after the death of his wife two years earlier. As they work together to figure out what happened to a transvestite killed in a gruesome fashion, Brockton finds himself accused of murder. He must do whatever it takes to stay out of jail while he tries to find the real killer.

It’s not that Flesh and Bone is terrible. The writing is solid. It has fascinating details about forensic anthropology and the Body Farm – a real place at the University of Tennessee where scientists study decomposition to help cops times of death or weapons used. There were a few great twists and a red herring that could keep people from figuring out the real whodunit. What it lacked was the flare – the heart-stopping action – I have come to expect in a suspense novel. 

That said, those who enjoy Patricia Cornwell will likely embrace this series with verve. I remember once talking with cops and a few medical examiners at a conference and they could not stop talking about her work. They appreciated her attention to detail – the accuracy of that detail – and could not wait to get their hands on the latest in the series. They said they were so tired of the CSI inaccuracies, it was refreshing to pick up a book that actually had some truth to it. This book will definitely appeal to that audience.

Personally, I tired of Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series by Black Notice and still cannot look at the covers of any of her latest books without shuddering. I love detail, but they were too detailed and repetitive in what happened to her signature character. Flesh and Blood offered that same intensive detail, but did not have the intensity that grabs me from page one. I did appreciate that the authors killed off someone I consider a major character. That takes guts – especially at the beginning of a series.

Jefferson Bass is the writing team of the real Body Farm founder, Dr. Bill Bass, and veteran journalist Jon Jefferson. They also co-authored Death’s Acre, a book about the real Tennessee Body Farm – a book that must grace my shelves. This writing style would fit that type of nonfiction book. It just did not appeal to me for suspense fiction.

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