Dr. Brockton is called about a skeleton in the hills of Tennessee. Since there is no flesh, it's impossible to tell how long the young woman has been dead. Right then, he comes up with the concept of a place where they can study corpses as they decompose and determine in a more scientific method the time from death. Dr. Brockton convinces the University of Tennessee President to give him some land and the Body Farm is born.
As they establish their research, Dr. Brockton and Tyler are called into more murder investigations. Each one is an exact replica of one Bill investigated in the past.
When one of the victims escapes the killer, they are able to get a sketch and the search for the killer begins in earnest. Not only Bill's life is in danger but his family is threatened as well.
Like all Jefferson Bass stories, this one is filled with tense, dramatic situations which keep the reader on edge as the story reaches its climax. CUT TO THE BONE is filled with even more pathos than normal as Bill brings in an artist with a talent for pulling details from the skull of the first victim.
Even with this taking us to the past of the Body Farm and its investigators, readers will find the story engrossing. If you like forensic mysteries, you must add this author to your list. Even though CUT TO THE BONE isn't the first in the series, it's a good place to start the series since it deals with the conception of the Body Farm and introduces some of the recurring characters in the series.
Jefferson Bass’s Cut to the Bone, the long-awaited prequel to his New York Times bestselling mystery series, turns the clock back to reveal the Body Farm's creation—and Dr. Bill Brockton's deadly duel with a serial killer. 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. 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...and everyone he holds dear.
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