About the authors:
William Bass
Born: August 30, 1928, Staunton, VA
Education: B.A.–University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA
M.A. –University of Kentucky, Lexington KY
Ph.D -Anthropology- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA
Jon Jefferon
Born: November 13, 1955, St. Joseph, MO
Education: B.A. English–Birmingham Southern College, Birmingham, AL
Website: http://www.jeffersonbass.com/
Thriller Sub-genre: Forensic Thriller
Publisher: Harper-Collins/William Morrow
Future of the series: Another addition to the series is in progress, so stay tuned.
Review of the latest in the series- Without Mercy
The Simon Review
Jefferson Bass of the Body Farm Series is a pen name for two authors; Jon Jefferson, who is a professional writer, and Dr. William Bass who is a forensic anthropologist and the founder of the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, also known as the ‘Body Farm’. Though Dr. Bass is retired from the center, he is actively involved in consultation and speaking engagements at the youthful age of 85. I would assume that Jon Jefferson does the majority of the writing for the Body Farm series but gets his insight on story topics and forensic consultation from Dr. Bass.
The main character of the series, Dr. William Brockton, is a fictional version of Dr. Bass and is also probably of bit of Jon Jefferson as well. William Brockton is a delightful character, a typical scientist that is totally engrossed in his subject with a geeky sense of humor. A widower at the start of the series, he is involved in several romantic interludes which ultimately have unfortunate endings. There is, however, a sexual tension that occurs between Brockton and his female graduate student, Miranda Lovelady. The future of their relationship is at this point in the series is a big question mark and we are left with a cliff hanger at the end of The Inquisitor’s Key, but don’t expect any answers in the latest book, Cut to the Bone, because this novel is a prequel to the series (meaning no Miranda Lovelady).
Overall this is a fun series. Unlike other forensic thrillers, the series takes place at a research facility and not a morgue or through the medical examiner’s office which gives a refreshing insight into the trials and tribulations of working in an academic environment. Brockton is a true scientist that has to find a tenuous balance between working as a researcher and working with the legal system which doesn’t always go hand in hand and often gets Brockton into a bit of trouble. Like any typical thriller, Bill Brockton’s life is often at risk and makes me wonder if Bill Bass has the same problems.
This series is a must read for the forensic thriller junkie, it is full of the latest technology in forensic science but is presented so that the layman can comprehend easily. The series is more accepting then most to read in a different order. The latest book, Cut to the Bone, is a prequel and could be easily read before any other book in the series and is not a bad place to start.
Simon’s pick:
Most Favorite Novel in the Series– Cut to the Bone, the novel is a prequel to the series when Dr. Brockton first establishes the ‘Body Farm’ and is a younger man with his wife and then teenage son. It is a very exciting, sit on the edge of your seat thriller, which is just to my liking.
Least Favorite Novel in the Series–The Inquisitor’s Key, I really dislike Da Vinci Code spin-offs and this is one of them.
What about the science? William Bass is a highly renowned forensic anthropologist that was the first to establish a research facility at the University of Tennessee that studies the effects of different environmental factors on human decomposition. The facility is also known as the ‘Body Farm’. Dr. Bass’ consultation on this series gives a delightful insight into both the workings of a research facility as well as insight into the latest forensic findings.
The Bill Brockton Technical Word in Review: Foramen magnum-It is the large hole or opening that is found at the base of the skull. It allows for the connection of nerves and blood vessels from the brain to the spinal cord.
‘..I shone a flashlight through the foramen magnum and peered inside the cranial vault, in case there was a fracture on the inner surface that might have ruptured one of the meningeal arteries, the arteries carrying blood to the brain. “I’m not seeing anything, either,” I said. “Doesn’t mean she wasn’t killed. Just means that any injuries that she had were soft-tissue trauma.” I took a final look into the cranial vault. “Oh, hey, did you find a wasp nest in here?
He reached up and plucked a small grey object from the narrow shelf above the counter, then dropped into my palm. A dozen or so hollow, hexagonal cells made of dry, papery pulp, it weighed almost nothing. “It’s a little crunched on the sides, from the forceps,” he said. “Getting it through the foramen magnum was like trying to pull a ship out of a bottle.”–Cut to the Bone
Books in the Series by Order:
Vote for your favorite Forensic Thriller on the Forensic Fiction List on Goodreads Listopia.
Goodreads Forensic Fiction Best List
Most Favorite in the series: The Bone Yard with a score of 4.14
Least Favorite in the series: Inquisitor’s Key with a score of 3.78
Based on overall ratings from Goodreads, Amazon (US & UK), and Library Thing.
#1- Carved in Bone- 2006
Listed #9 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
First Line:
I picked up the hunting knife with my left hand and tested its heft, then shifted it to my right hand to compare.
Characters
Dr. William Brockton: Forensic anthropologist and the head of the University of Tennessee’s ‘Body Farm’.
Miranda Lovelady: Brockton’s research assistant and graduate student
Tom Kitchings Jr.: Cooke county sheriff, who has the stereotypical southern cop persona
Jeff Brockton: Bill Brockton’s 32 year old son
Burt DeVriess: Defense lawyer
Art Bohanan: Police officer, criminalist and fingerprint expert. A good friend of Brockton’s.
Garland Hamiliton: Knoxville medical examiner and nemesis to Brockton
Setting
Tennessee
Renowned anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton has spent his career surrounded by death at the Body Farm. Now he’s being called upon to help solve a baffling puzzle in a remote mountain community. The mummified corpse of a young woman dead for thirty years has been discovered in a cave, the body bizarrely preserved and transformed by the environment’s unique chemistry. But Brockton’s investigation is threatening to open old wounds among an insular people who won’t forget or forgive. And a long-buried secret prematurely exposed could inflame Brockton’s own guilt–and the dangerous hostility of bitter enemies determined to see him fail . . . by any means necessary.
“Accessible only through my office, the collection room housed all our forensic specimens- row upon row of metal shelves filled with cardboard boxes like the one stolen off my desk last week. Flipping on the fluorescent lights, I began scanning the shelves. The foot-square ends of the boxes presented themselves like books in a library- a library of murder mysteries, all of them carved in bone.”
Looking for reviews for Carved in Bone? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.37 out of 5 stars based on 417 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.58 out of 5 stars based on 33 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.92 out of 5 stars based on 10,540 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.66 out of 5 stars based on 238 ratings
Total Score 3.93 (updated 11/13/18)
#2- Flesh and Bone- 2007
Listed #35 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
First Line:
The chain-linked fence yowled like an angry tomcat in the watery light of dawn.
Characters
Dr. William Brockton, Miranda Lovelady, Jeff Brockton, Burt DeVriess, Garland Hamilton, and Art Bohanan
Jess Carter: Chattanooga medical examiner and love interest for Brockton
Setting
Tennessee
Anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton founded Tennessee’s world-famous Body Farm—a small piece of land where corpses are left to decay in order to gain important forensic information. Now, in the wake of a shocking crime in nearby Chattanooga, he’s called upon by Jess Carter—the rising star of the state’s medical examiners—to help her unravel a murderous puzzle. But after re-creating the death scene at the Body Farm, Brockton discovers his career, reputation, and life are in dire jeopardy when a second, unexplained corpse appears in the grisly setting.
Accused of a horrific crime—transformed overnight from a respected professor to a hated and feared pariah—Bill Brockton will need every ounce of his formidable forensic skills to escape the ingeniously woven net that’s tightening around him . . . and to prove the seemingly impossible: his own innocence.
“Flesh forgets; bone remembers,” she had said before hanging up. It was a mantra of mine that I uttered enough times for her to remember, apparently.”
Looking for reviews for Flesh and Bone? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.45 out of 5 stars based on 456 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.07 out of 5 stars based on 27 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.05 out of 5 stars based on 9,117 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.65 out of 5 stars based on 167 ratings
Total Score 4.06 (updated 11/13/18)
#3- The Devil’s Bones- 2008
Listed #37 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #133 out of 168 on Goodreads Best Science Thrillers Book List
First Line:
The drop of daylight was fading from the western sky- a draining that seemed more a suffocation than a sunset, a final faint gasp as the day died of heatstroke.
Characters
Dr. William Brockton, Miranda Lovelady, Jeff Brockton, Burt DeVriess Garland Hamilton, Art Bonahan, and Jess Carter
Setting
Tennessee
A woman’s charred body has been found inside a burned car perched atop a hill in Knoxville. Is it accidental death, or murder followed by arson? Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton’s quest for answers prompts an experiment straight from Dante’s Inferno: In the dark of night, he puts bodies to the torch, researching how fire consumes flesh and bone.
In the meantime, Brockton is sent a mysterious package—a set of cremated remains that looks entirely unreal. With the help of a local crematorium, he investigates and discovers a truth too horrifying to believe: A facility in another state has not been disposing of bodies properly, instead scattering them all around the grounds.
Little does Brockton know that his research is about to collide with reality—with the force of a lit match meeting spilled gasoline. En route to trial, his nemesis, medical examiner Garland Hamilton, has escaped from custody. What follows is a deadly game of cat and mouse, played for the ultimate stakes: Brockton’s own life. With help from his loyal graduate assistant, Miranda, and ace criminalist Art Bohanan, Brockton eventually tracks Hamilton, but when the police arrive, they find only a smoldering ruin. Sifting through the ashes, Brockton finds the incinerated remains of Hamilton . . . or does he? The answer—along with Brockton’s ultimate test—comes in a searing moment of truth.
Looking for reviews for The Devil’s Bones? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.52 out of 5 stars based on 131 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.61 out of 5 stars based on 23 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.14 out of 5 stars based on 6,657 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.78 out of 5 stars based on 114 ratings
Total Score 4.13 (updated 11/13/18)
#4- Bones of Betrayal- 2009
Listed #33 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
First Line:
The colorful tents crowding the clearing where I stood wouldn’t have looked out of place at a carnival or Renaissance fair.
Characters
Dr. William Brockton, and Miranda Lovelady
Dr. Leonard Novak: A physicist from the Manhattan Project that carries a dark secret from the past
Beatrice Novak: Leonard Novak’s wife
Dr. Eddie Garcia: Knoxville medical examiner
Setting
Tennessee
Dr. Bill Brockton is in the middle of a nuclear-terrorism disaster drill when he receives an urgent call from the nearby town of Oak Ridge—better known as Atomic City, home of the Bomb, and the key site for the Manhattan Project during World War II. Although more than sixty years have passed, could repercussions from that dangerous time still be felt today?
With his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady, Brockton hastens to the death scene, where they find a body frozen facedown in a swimming pool behind a historic, crumbling hotel. The forensic detectives identify the victim as Dr. Leonard Novak, a renowned physicist and designer of a plutonium reactor integral to the Manhattan Project. They also discover that he didn’t drown: he died from a searing dose of radioactivity.
As that same peril threatens the medical examiner and even Miranda, Brockton enlists the help of a beautiful, enigmatic librarian to peel back the layers of Novak’s life to the secret at its core. The physicist’s house and personal life yield few clues beyond a faded roll of undeveloped film, but everything changes when Brockton chances upon Novak’s ninety-year-old ex-wife, Beatrice. Charming and utterly unreliable, she takes him on a trip back into Oak Ridge’s wartime past, deep into the shadows of the nuclear race where things were not quite as they seemed.
As Beatrice drifts between lucidity and dementia, Brockton wonders if her stories are fact or fancy, history or myth. But he knows one thing—that she holds the key to a mystery that is becoming increasingly labyrinthine. For as the radiation count steadily rises, and the race to find the truth intensifies, the old woman’s tales hint at something far darker and more complex than the forensic anthropologist himself could have ever imagined.
Looking for reviews for Bones of Betrayal? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.30 out of 5 stars based on 165 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.32 out of 5 stars based on 22 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.10 out of 5 stars based on 5,235 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.81 out of 5 stars based on 102 ratings
Total Score 4.10 (updated 11/13/18)
#5- The Bone Thief- 2010
First Line:
The women’s face blurred and smeared as I pivoted the camera on the tripod.
Characters
Dr. William Brockton, Miranda Lovelady, Dr. Eddie Garcia and Art Bonahan
Setting
Tennessee
Dr. Bill Brockton has been called in on a seemingly routine case, to exhume a body and obtain a bone sample for a DNA paternity test. But when the coffin is opened, Brockton and his colleagues, including his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady, are stunned to see that the corpse has been horribly violated.
Brockton’s initial shock gives way to astonishment as he uncovers a flourishing and lucrative black market in body parts. At the center of this ghoulish empire is a daring and prosperous grave robber. Soon Brockton finds himself drawn into the dangerous enterprise when the FBI recruits him to bring down the postmortem chop shop—using corpses from the Body Farm as bait in an undercover sting operation.
As Brockton struggles to play the unscrupulous role the FBI asks of him, his friend and colleague medical examiner Eddie Garcia faces a devastating injury that could end his career. Exposed to a near-lethal dose of radioactivity, Dr. Garcia has lost most of his right hand and his entire left hand. Out of options, he embarks on a desperate quest: both of his ravaged hands will be severed at the wrist and replaced with those from a cadaver. But unless suitable ones are found soon, the opportunity will be lost.
As Brockton delves deep into the clandestine trade, he is faced with an agonizing choice: Is he willing to risk an FBI investigation—and his own principles—to help his friend? Will he be able to live with himself if he crosses that line? Will he be able to live with himself if he doesn’t? And as the criminal case and the medical crisis converge, a pair of simpler questions arise: Will Dr. Garcia survive—and will Brockton?
“Black market kidneys from Pakistan, butchered and stolen bodies, a murderous bone thief, and a daring professor who risked his life in an undercover sting. Hell of a story.”
Looking for reviews for The Bone Thief? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.25 out of 5 stars based on 146 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.50 out of 5 stars based on 16 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.04 out of 5 stars based on 4,312 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.68 out of 5 stars based on 80 ratings
Total Score 4.04 (updated 11/13/18)
#6- The Bone Yard- 2011
Listed #113 out of 150 on Goodreads Best Science Thriller Book List
First Line:
I held the last of the dead man’s bones in my left hand.
Characters
Dr. William Brockton, Miranda Lovelady, and Art Bonahan
Angie St. Claire
Setting
Tennessee
The onset of summer brings predictably steamy weather to the Body Farm, Dr. Bill Brockton’s human-decomposition research facility at the University of Tennessee. But Brockton’s about to get more heat than he’s bargained for when Angie St. Claire, a forensic analyst with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, asks him to help prove that her sister’s death was not suicide, but murder.
Brockton’s quick consulting trip takes a long, harrowing detour when bones begin turning up amid the pines and live oaks of the Florida panhandle. Two adolescent skulls–ravaged by time and animals, but bearing the telltale signs of lethal fractures–send Brockton, Angie, and Special Agent Stu Vickery on a search for the long-lost victims. The quest leads them to the ruins of the North Florida Boys’ Reformatory, a notorious juvenile detention facility that met a fiery end more than forty years ago.
Guided by the discovery of a diary kept by one of the school’s young “students,” Brockton’s team finds a cluster of shallow graves, all of them containing the bones of boys who suffered violent deaths. The graves confirm one of the diary’s grim claims: that one wrong move could land a boy in the Bone Yard. But as the investigation expands, it encounters opposition from the local sheriff, who’s less than delighted to find forensic experts from the state capital and the Body Farm digging up dirt in his county.
As Brockton and his team close in on the truth, they find skeletons in some surprisingly prominent closets . . . and they learn that the ghosts of the past pose perilous consequences in the present.
“A stone’s throw from the second grave, I saw a third. This- this had to be the Bone Yard…”
Looking for reviews for The Bone Yard? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.36 out of 5 stars based on 223 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.55 out of 5 stars based on 22 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.13 out of 5 stars based on 3,970 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.77 out of 5 stars based on 64 ratings
Total Score 4.14 (updated 11/13/18)
#6.5- Madonna and Corpse- 2012 (A Novella)
First Line:
“Turn off that damned alarm!”
Renowned bone detective Bill Brockton and his intrepid assistant, Miranda, are about to get immersed in murder and intrigue in Avignon, France, home of the popes for most of the fourteenth century. But first, in this artful prequel to The Inquisitor’s Key, other mischief is afoot in the ancient walled city. Inspector René Descartes of the French National Police is roused from a deep sleep to investigate a break-in at the Petit Palais, Avignon’s museum of medieval masterpieces. Descartes’s discovery plunges him into an elaborate, art-lined labyrinth: a labyrinth that leads him to a master forger’s studio . . . and to a charred corpse. Just as he’s finally closing the case, Descartes gets called to an even more bizarre death scene, where his path—and his fate—will collide with those of Brockton and Miranda.
Amazon Rating-US: 3.24 out of 5 stars based on 135 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.29 out of 5 stars based on 13 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.72 out of 5 stars based on 890 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.67 out of 5 stars based on 21 ratings
Total Score 3.66 (updated 11/13/18)
#7- The Inquisitor’s Key (UK Title: The Bones of Avignon)- 2012
First Line:
A mockingbird twittered on a branch of a dogwood as a middle-aged man- his hair going to salt-and-pepper, but his body fit and his movements brisk- approached a chain-link gate at the edge of a wooded hillside.
Characters
Dr. William Brockton, and Miranda Lovelady
Setting
Tennessee and Avignon, France
Miranda Lovelady, Dr. Bill Brockton’s protégée, is spending the summer helping excavate a newly-discovered chamber beneath the spectacular Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France. There she discovers a stone chest inscribed with a stunning claim: inside lie the bones of none other than Jesus of Nazareth.
Faced with a case of unimaginable proportions, Miranda summons Brockton for help proving or refuting the claim. Both scientists are skeptical–after all, fake relics abounded during the Middle Ages–but evidence for authenticity looks strong initially, and soon grows stronger.
Brockton and Miranda link the bones to the haunting image on the Shroud of Turin, revered by millions as the burial cloth of Christ, and then a laboratory test finds the bones to be two thousand years old. The finding triggers a deadly tug-of-war between the anthropologists, the Vatican, and a deadly zealot who hopes to use the bones to bring about the Second Coming–and trigger the end of time.
Sophie Huston from Goodreads gave her impression of Jefferson Bass’ novel The Inquisitor’s Key. Go Fonzie!
Hmm. I think the authors have jumped the shark a wee bit with this one …
Looking for reviews for The Inquisitor’s Key? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.13 out of 5 stars based on 216 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.11 out of 5 stars based on 38 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.76 out of 5 stars based on 3,063 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.29 out of 5 stars based on 76 ratings
Total Score 3.78 (updated 11/13/18)
#7.5-Jordan’s Stormy Banks- 2013 (A Novella)
First Line:
The flames flared within the darkness, swirling red and orange and oily black, as the cross caught fire on the courthouse lawn.
In the summer of 1990, Dr. Bill Brockton—a bright, ambitious young forensic scientist—is hired by the University of Tennessee to head, and to raise the profile of, the school’s small Anthropology Department. Six months later, the ink on his contract barely dry, Brockton is called to a gruesome crime scene in a rural area to identify a corpse and determine how the woman died. But the case—one of Brockton’s first murder investigations in Tennessee—could also prove to be his last when he runs afoul of both the county sheriff and an angry mob intent on administering their own swift, rough brand of “justice.” With his back to the wall, Brockton is forced to think fast, talk faster, and hope for a miracle.
Amazon Rating-US: 4.20 out of 5 stars based on 104 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.50 out of 5 stars based on 10 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.03 out of 5 stars based on 654 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.85 out of 5 stars based on 13 ratings
Total Score 4.06 (updated 11/13/18)
#8- Cut to the Bone- 2013
First Line:
Some wounds heal quickly, the scars vanishing or at least fading to thin white lines over the years.
Characters
Dr. William Brockton
Tyler Wainwright: Brockton’s graduate assistant
Kathleen Brockton: Bill Brockton’s wife
Setting
Tennessee
In the summer of 1992, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore begin their long-shot campaign to win the White House. In the sweltering hills of Knoxville at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Bill Brockton, the bright, ambitious young head of the Anthropology Department, launches an unusual-some would call it macabre-research facility, unlike any other in existence. Brockton is determined to revolutionize the study of forensics to help law enforcement better solve crime. But his plans are derailed by a chilling murder that leaves the scientist reeling from a sense of déjà vu. Followed by another. And then another: bodies that bear eerie resemblances to cases from Brockton’s past.
The police chalk up the first corpse to coincidence. But as the body count rises, the victims’ fatal injuries grow more and more distinctive-a spiral of death that holds dark implications for Brockton himself. If the killer isn’t found quickly, the death toll could be staggering. And the list of victims could include Brockton . . . and everyone he holds dear.
“The words of Brubaker, the FBI profiler, came shrieking into my mind. At the time he spoken them, I’d shrugged them off; now, they cut me to the bone.”
Looking for reviews for Cut to the Bone? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.38 out of 5 stars based on 491 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.00 out of 5 stars based on 6 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.06 out of 5 stars based on 2,896 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.64 out of 5 stars based on 39 ratings
Total Score 4.10 (updated 11/13/18)
#9-Breaking Point-2015
A Sample Clip of the Audiobook
First Line:
McCready stopped and knelt beside a rut in the dirt road, raising a hand to halt the six men and two women who fanned out behind him.
Characters
Dr. William Brockton and Kathleen Brockton
Setting
Tennessee
It’s been ten years since Dr. Bill Brockton created the Body Farm—the world’s first postmortem research facility dedicated to advancing the frontiers of forensic science—and the researcher is at the pinnacle of his career. Under his leadership, the University of Tennessee’s forensic anthropology program has become the most prominent in the world, and Brockton’s skills and knowledge are in high demand among top law enforcement. Calling him in for a number of high profile cases, the FBI now wants him to identify the charred remains of a maverick millionaire, killed in a fiery plane crash.
But a storm is about to hit Brockton with cataclysmic force. First, his identification of the crash victim is called into question. Then he receives a threatening message from the serial killer who attempted to murder the scientist and his family a decade ago. And from Brockton’s beloved wife Kathleen—his lodestone and his source of security—he gets the most shocking news of all. Will Brockton be able to weather this deluge . . . or has he finally reached the breaking point?
Slipping a Bible from the nearest rack, I flipped through it until I came to the Book of Job. I’d never actually read it, but I’d heard the story countless times over the years. Job was a good and pious man, brought to the breaking point by an onslaught of misfortunes. Through it all- tragedy upon tragedy, all of them undeserved- Job’s faith held firm, and in the end, God rewarded him. Maybe I could learn something from Job, I thought, as I began to read.
Looking for reviews for Breaking Point? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.49 out of 5 stars based on 189 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.88 out of 5 stars based on 8 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.08 out of 5 stars based on 1,723 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.80 out of 5 stars based on 28 ratings
Total Score 4.12 (updated 11/14/18)
#10-Without Mercy-2016
First Line:
A warm spring breeze stirs the stand of tulip poplars, twitching their upturned, aspiring branches, their tender new leaves and delicate flowers pale in the moonlight.
Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton has spent twenty-five years solving brutal murders—but none so bizarre and merciless as his latest case: A ravaged set of skeletal remains is found chained to a tree on a remote mountainside. As Brockton and his assistant Miranda dig deeper, they uncover warning signs of a deadly eruption of hatred and violence.
But the shocking case is only the beginning of Brockton’s trials. Mid-case, the unthinkable happens: The deadliest criminal Brockton has ever foiled—the sadistic serial killer Nick Satterfield—escapes from prison, bent on vengeance.
But simply killing Brockton isn’t enough. Satterfield wants to make him suffer first, by destroying everything he holds dear: Brockton’s son, daughter-in-law, grandsons; even Miranda, his longtime graduate assistant, now on the verge of completing her Ph.D. and launching a forensic career of her own.
The dangers from all directions force Brockton to question two things on which he’s based his entire career—the justice system, and the quality of mercy—and to wonder: can the two co-exist?
If not, which will Brockton choose in his ultimate moment of truth?
Looking for reviews for Without Mercy? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.80 out of 5 stars based on 181 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.45 out of 5 stars based on 9 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.06 out of 5 stars based on 1,384 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.94 out of 5 stars based on 17 ratings
Total Score 4.03 (updated 11/13/18)
A-Thrill-A-Week 