Dr. Bill Brockton, founder of The Body Farm in Tennessee, never has a dull day and this is never more evident than in THE BONE THIEF. It's just another day in the life of this overworked anthropologist when suddenly it all starts to get a lot more interesting. The beginning of the excitement is when Bill receives a phone call from attorney, Burton DeVriess, affectionately known as "Grease." Bill's expertise is needed to help with a DNA test on a corpse that is being exhumed. What should be a routine event turns into something much more when the opened coffin reveals a terribly mutilated skeleton. From there, things just get even crazier when Bill is recruited by the FBI for a sting operation they are running to stop a growing black market body parts operation.
In the middle of all of this, Bill has to deal with some possible repercussions from his last adventure as well as trying to land more funding for the Body Farm and help his friend Dr. Eddie Garcia find a way to replace his hands ---literally. It's difficult keeping his secrets from everyone he cares about, and it gets even harder the further into the investigation he goes. Bill's life is turned upside down as more of his friends start to question the sort of man he is. Not being able to tell them about the undercover operation, he must continue to let them think what they will about him, right up until the moment where he faces a possible life ending resolution.
As usual, the team of Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson pulls out all the stops. The reader is spared nothing in THE BONE THIEF, right down to the graphic medical procedures that are always a large part of their books. This book is not only exciting and tension causing but it's also a "thinking person's" mystery. They seek to educate as well as entertain. In this effort, they succeed admirably.
Reading THE BONE THIEF is a lot like being on a runaway roller coaster that fights to put on the brakes once in a while before careening off wildly again. You'll love every second of it!
New York Times bestselling author Jefferson Bass delivers an authentic and knuckle-biting thriller in which forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton must confront a crime of unimaginable proportions on his own doorstep. Find out why Booklist says, "Fans of forensic fiction will want to add this author to their list of favorites." The Bone Thief - 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?
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