The Bone Thief

I have been a super fan of all of the books in this series. I believe this book is yet the most exciting. The author has thrown in black market bodies and bones. There are so very many side stories around that it is impossible to be bored by just the main story, as they are a delight in humor and a high amount of activity you just got to love. As this is a series that you can follow one after the other, it is also a stand alone book. It has the ability though that if you have not read the other previous books you will want to back track and read just for the enjoyment. Lots and lots of sub stories, love interests, bad guys, good guys, funny bone humor, it is just so interesting. I cannot wait for yet another. If, you like Bones, the TV series, you will be 100 times thrilled with The Bone Thief and Body Farm adventurers.

I read "Bones of Betrayal," and loved it so I was excited to have a chance to read another of the Body Farm novels. Our beloved, Dr. Bill Brockton, forensic anthropologist and head of the Body Farm is once again thrust headlong into another mystery. This time dead bodies are being stolen, corpses are missing parts as grave robbers keep the police busy, and Dr. Brockton finds out some information about his love, Isabella from the first novel, that may well change his life. I like these books for several reasons. First our author gives each character so much depth that you are almost one with them. They are brought to life as their personalities blossom through their many adventures as they interact with one another and the mounting problems set before them, and you are left with a great desire to see how certain situations turn out in each one of their lives. The author also fits together the pieces of so many areas of the mysteries within each read, and that is no small feat, bringing most things to closure, yet leaving a few strings dangling within the characters lives to keep your interest perked for the next novel. It is fast paced, descriptive and very well written. If you want a really great forensic mystery read, these novels are for you. The details in many of the Body Farm experiments that are shared are absolutely fascinating. In my opinion these novels are some of the best I have ever read and I look forward to more. Very well done.

THE BONE THIEF is the fifth installment in the Body Farm series by Jefferson Bass. And let me tell you, this book will take your mind off of all your troubles. I know. I had a 3 day case of stomach flu will reading this book. I couldn't eat, couldn't get out of bed, couldn't really do anything. All I could do was sleep...and read this novel. THE BONE THIEF helped me forget (at least temporarily) how really lousy I really felt. And that is a ringing endorsement! Even though THE BONE THIEF is the 5th book in a series, it stands very well on its own. While there are important references to previous stories, they are well explained, and I never felt lost. With a multithreaded storyline based in the black marketeering of body parts, an FBI sting operation, the paternity of an unborn child, and the agony of a dear friend, THE BONE THIEF is a clear winner. I zipped right through THE BONE THIEF, even in my dilapidated condition. The plot and pacing both worked well, with the science, the action, and multiple threads all blending seamlessly. The characters were likeable and well developed, and I felt that I had a good rapport with them, even the ones from earlier books. The characters truly felt real and very human in both their professional and personal foibles and woes. All in all, THE BONE THIEF is an excellent read, and I will definitely be reading more books in this series.

I enjoy books that employ up-to-date technologies and the subsequent ethical challenges that spring forth in unanticipated ways. Characters involved in these shifts of economies/ethics sometimes find the issues cut to the very being of their own relationships in work & families. Dr. Bill Brocton and his graduate assitstant, Miranda Lovelady, are asked by Burton Devriess, Knoxville's most colorful and agressive attorney to exhume a body & obtain a bone sample for a DNA paternity suit. Soon this event sparks and ignites other disparate threads to coalesce in a cascade of ethical/technological issues that play themselves out into life and death. Central to the story is is a Dr. Gen Faust, M.D., PhD. Vice President, R & D of OrthoMedica in Bethesda. The company produces: artificial hips, knees, shoulders, elbows, and orthopedic hardware, as well as a line of surgical tools, designed to allow surgeons to install OrthoMedia parts-and only OrtoMedia parts-with precision and ease. They are developing interfaces that can translate a patient's CT scan into specifications for computer-controlled fabricating systems; and also developing synthetic scaffolds: fines messes of carbon, coagen, and other fibers that provide frameworks for bone or cartilage to grow in. Central to the story as well is is Dr. Eddie Garcia, a medical examiner, facing the amputation of another hand that has only a couple of appendages left. There are detectives & the FBI involved, as well as those selling body parts, bones, organs, tissues, corneas, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, skin, etc. I learned the pricing of these markets- here & around the world. I learned that funerals have gotten so damn expensive that people are donating their bodies to avoid the cost or are paying the cost with the use of ever more clever financial instruments concerning their bodies that the markets are devicing. As the authors are indeed the experts, as well as on the recieving end of all the current & brewing technologal/ethical isues bubbling up from this ecletic societal mix. You just can't find a better story on all it all comes together/...or doesn't. For readers that want to be entertained, informed, and up-to-date on literally life & death issues- THIS IS THE ONE. The writing is just great. For example the descriptions of Las Vegas, where I reside, we spot on:... world's biggest carnival, full of dazzling promises, dizzying rides, and rigged games of skill ? chance...I found myself appalled and amused in equal measure...Excalibur, its castle turrets topped with crayon-colored cones. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!

Anytime Grease calls, Dr. Bill Brockton knows the case could be dicey. "Grease" is the nickname given to Burt DeVriess, a wealthy Knoxville defense attorney. DeVriess wants Dr. Brockton to exhume the body of a eight-year-old corpse in order to determine if the wealthy decedent fathered an illegitimate child with one of the city's most notorious madams. But, the body in the coffin isn't intact. Someone's chopped up the decedent. As Dr. Brockton continues his investigation, he uncovers more of the Ivy Funeral Home's former clients with empty graves. But why are dead bodies being stolen? Parts are big business. Some unscrupulous tissue firm is clearly paying for cadavers. When the FBI get a lead on a firm, they ask Dr. Brockton to go undercover and offer to supply the group with donated cadavers from the Body Farm. The assignment goes against everything Dr. Brockton stands for, but if the law has any chance of catching the grave robbers, he's going to have to help. "The Bone Thief" is my favorite of the Body Farm novels by the award-winning team of Dr. Bill Bass, the founder of the real Body Farm, and Jon Jefferson, his film and writing partner. It's the grittiest and tightest paced of their efforts so far. The book will literally have you up reading well past your bedtime. Rebecca Kyle, March 2010