Publisher's Weekly Review
In Bass's uneven sixth forensic procedural featuring Dr. Bill Brockton (after The Bone Thief), Brockton, who's in charge of the Body Farm, a Tennessee research facility where cadavers are left to decay for research purposes, agrees to help a visiting Florida forensic analyst, Angie St. Claire, with a personal tragedy. St. Claire's sister has died of a shotgun blast to the head in Georgia, a death ruled a suicide by the local authorities, but St. Claire suspects her brother-in-law killed her sister. Brockton's efforts to preserve evidence that could support St. Claire's theory ends up taking a backseat to another puzzle, based on events at an actual Florida reform school, where boys were routinely physically abused. Realistic descriptions of forensic work compensate only in part for less than convincing action sequences. Bass is the writing team of Bill Bass, the real-life model for Brockton, and Jon Jefferson. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Somewhere along the way, the novels about forensic anthropologist and crime solver Bill Brockton have become worthy of mention in the same breath with Kathy Reich's Temperance Brennan mysteries. The series has always been skillfully written, but the most recent titles have been especially gripping. In the sixth, Brockton, a fictionalized version of his cocreator, Dr. Bill Bass, founder of the University of Tennessee's world-famous Body Farm, travels to Florida to help out a colleague and winds up embroiled in a mystery involving the recently discovered skulls of children who may have been murdered a few decades ago. Bass and cowriter Jon Jefferson make a good team, with Bass' scientific expertise nicely complementing Jefferson's background as a journalist, and fans of forensic-themed mystery fiction (Reichs', of course, and Patricia Cornwell's and Beverly Connor's) definitely should add the Brockton series to their reading lists.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In the sixth forensic novel (after The Bone Thief) by the writing team of Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson, forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton is in Florida helping Angie St. Clair, a forensic analyst from the state's crime lab, investigate her sister's death. Although it was ruled a suicide, Angie suspects her brother-in-law was involved. As they gather evidence, a prowling dog retrieves two skulls from the burial site of the notorious North Florida Boy's Reformatory School, where the superintendents routinely abused juveniles. The actual school with its scandalous history still exists, but Bass's extensive description of the forensic investigations lessens the impact of this potentially powerful fictional account. Verdict Bass's debut, Carved in Bone, brought a fascinating perspective to the traditional mystery novel, not surprising as Bill Bass founded the University of Tennessee's famous Body Farm. Unfortunately, the subsequent novels lack the thrilling pizzazz and compelling action that's characteristic of whodunits. And in this title, excessive incidental details and moderate dialog restrict the flow of an interesting central plot. Recommended for tolerant and loyal series fans. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/10.]-Jerry P. Miller. Cambridge, MA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.