CARVED IN BONE

TITLE: CARVED IN BONE
AUTHOR: JEFFERSON BASS
Pages:
Date: 17/03/2008
Grade: 4.5
Details: no. 1 Dr. Bill Broxton Mystery
Library

Jefferson Bass is actually a writing duo consisting of Dr. Bill Bass (forensic anthropologist and founder of "the body farm) and Jon Jefferson (journalist, writer and documentary film maker).
Their hero, Dr. Bill Broxton is a forensic anthropologist working at the Body Farm, when he's called out to Cooke County, East Tennessee to a cave where the thirty year old remains of a young woman have been found, transformed into an almost perfect mummy by the conditions in the cave.
Cooke County has always been a law unto itself, and from the moment the corpse is found, Broxton finds the local law enforcers making his life harder. He comes face to face with illegal practices, generation old resentments and conflicting loyalties.
Meanwhile he's also struggling with the guilt he feels over his wife's death, two years earlier.
This was a fascinating read and a good mystery, although all the technical forensic detail did interrupt the smooth reading for me every now and again.