Jefferson Bass
William Morrow
October 4th, 2016
Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton has worked a lot of murder scenes. None as grim as this one. He’s called to a remote scene in an area known for being unfriendly to outsiders to a body that isn’t all there. It isn’t strictly a body–its bones. Part of a spinal column, a gnawed leg bone, and a few other random bits. They’re next to a chain with one end in a padlocked loop, and the other wrapped around a tree. Someone was left here to die. Brockton hasn’t seen anything quite this cold, when he discovers how the victim met their grisly end.
While he’s investigating the months-old murder, he receives news that the most formidable serial killer he helped put in jail has just escaped, and has plenty of reasons to be coming for revenge.
Without Mercy is the 10th in the Body Farm series, featuring Brockton and his assistant Miranda. It takes place in Tennessee, at the site of a university Body Farm–a place where forensic anthropologists study decay rates, and the effects different factors have on the decay of bodies.
Jefferson Bass is the writing team of Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass, who is the real life counterpart of Bill Brockton. He heads the real Body Farm at the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Research Facility.
The story is suspenseful and entertaining, and touches on some recent and relevant topics. The characters are ones that have been fun to follow throughout the run of this series. The science is all there too, so it satisfies mystery and crime procedural readers by being both well written and scientifically accurate.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.