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A review by caitlinxmartin
The Bone Yard by Jefferson Bass
4.0
To be completely honest I started reading these books because they are co-written by Dr. Bill Bass, the founder of the famous Body Farm and the University of Tennessee. I have degrees in biological anthropology plus I love crime stuff and Dr. Bass is an amazing man. Along with his co-writer, Jon Jefferson, the Body Farm series truly brings an accurate picture of forensic anthropology to life. This is not glamorous work with fancy labs and stilettos. This is work done in various conditions in and out of the field. It's understanding the archeological parts of it, much of which require stoop labor as you very carefully uncover truths. It's messy, smelly, and dirty, and if you travel the accommodations mostly suck.
Combine all this realistic science with great plotting and storytelling and you get a great thriller. These books are compulsively readable. This one, the latest in the series, is set around discoveries of reform school abuses. The events in the book are loosely based on the scandals at the Florida School for Boys' and the ever-growing number of children and teenagers who are killed at various boot camps.
The Bone Yard is a must-read for anyone who cares about how we treat our children and what we do in our prisons. What does it mean to be living in a country where the prison population is about 2.5 million? The US has the largest population of imprisoned or jailed people in the world. What exactly do we expect to gain from all of this? Is this solving our problems or making them worse? And, if we are willing to let children and teenagers be emotionally, mentally, physically, and sexual abused within systems that are designed to help them turn away from a life of crime and violence, then who are we?
Great combination of science, real life, and murders and bad guys, you won't be able to put this one down.
Combine all this realistic science with great plotting and storytelling and you get a great thriller. These books are compulsively readable. This one, the latest in the series, is set around discoveries of reform school abuses. The events in the book are loosely based on the scandals at the Florida School for Boys' and the ever-growing number of children and teenagers who are killed at various boot camps.
The Bone Yard is a must-read for anyone who cares about how we treat our children and what we do in our prisons. What does it mean to be living in a country where the prison population is about 2.5 million? The US has the largest population of imprisoned or jailed people in the world. What exactly do we expect to gain from all of this? Is this solving our problems or making them worse? And, if we are willing to let children and teenagers be emotionally, mentally, physically, and sexual abused within systems that are designed to help them turn away from a life of crime and violence, then who are we?
Great combination of science, real life, and murders and bad guys, you won't be able to put this one down.