A review by juksu
Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science by William M. Bass

adventurous dark informative mysterious fast-paced

3.75

forensics + dead bodies + bite sized mysteries = I like this book. It offers several snapshots of forensics techniquesaand technology through cases spanning several decades. Very neat work from Dr. Bass, a trailblazer in forensic anthropology. It led me down some interesting rabbit holes, including the master's thesis of one of his former students, William Rodriguez, who not only did great forensic anthropology work but ALSO was a medical examiner/witness in the Adnan Syed case.... 

(P. S. Looking into the University of Tennessee's repatriation efforts helped ease my mind a little about the good doctor's early career work with Indigenous bodies 😬) 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence

Minor: Suicide

Describes anthropological categories / sorting ie Negroid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid; a bit reductive but uhhh still part of the field... mm...