Beyond the Body Farm
In this riveting book, Dr. Bill Bass, the renowned bone sleuth explores the rise of modern forensic science and takes readers deep into the real world of crime scene investigation.
Beyond the Body Farm is an extraordinary journey through some of the most fascinating investigations of Dr. Bass's career—and a remarkable look at the high-tech science used to crack the most perplexing cases. Some of Bill Bass's cases rely on the simplest of tools and techniques, such as reassembling—from battered torsos and a stack of severed limbs—eleven people hurled skyward by an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory. Other cases hinge on sophisticated techniques Bass could not have imagined when he began his career: harnessing scanning electron microscopy to detect trace elements in knife wounds; and extracting DNA from a long-buried corpse, only to find that the female murder victim may have been mistakenly identified a quarter-century before. In Beyond the Body Farm, readers will follow Bass as he explores the depths of an East Tennessee lake with a twenty-first-century sonar system, in a quest for an airplane that disappeared with two people on board thirty-five years ago; see Bass exhume fifties pop star "the Big Bopper" to determine what injuries he suffered in the plane crash that killed three rock and roll legends on "the day the music died"; and join Bass as he works to decipher an ancient Persian death scene nearly three thousand years old. Witty and engaging, Bass dissects the methods used by homicide investigators every day, leading readers on an extraordinary journey into the high-tech science that it takes to crack a case. |
Publication date: October, 2004
The Barnes & Noble Review
Excellent Read 5 stars If you are interested in forensics, this is a must! The book is nothing short of excellent. It's very entertaining, well written with wit thrown in. I could not put this book down until I finished. I look forward to more works by the author (HINT HINT). Forensics at its best 5 stars This book is not like the books with the main character of Dr. Brockton. This book is about the writer of Dr. Brockton's character and the work he himself has done as a forensic pathologist. Dr. Bill Bass will do forensic cases and as a reader you will enter into his world and follow him as he does the actual work. The reader has to like forensics to both understand what he is doing and be ready for the gory things that go along with this line of work. The book is fascinating and a great read. Dr. Bass has a way of making these gory things interesting and you find yourself getting caught up in the cases he presents in the book. I highly recommend this for anyone who watches shows like CSI - to get an idea of what it is really like. BookPage Scientifically authoritative as well as accessible to mainstream crime buffs. Some cases are heartbreaking - at least one is downright weird. Knoxville News-Sentinel Beyond the Body Farm offers a real-life understanding of forensic anthropology and the science behind it. |