Böcker av Jefferson Bass

Forged in the crucible of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was a top-secret military installation?the linchpin of the Manhattan Project. Brilliant careers were born and dark secrets buried in the desperate race to build the Bomb. Those secrets begin to emerge when the body of a renowned physicist is discovered facedown in a frozen swimming pool.Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton, founder of the Body Farm, is shocked when an autopsy reveals the cause of Dr. Leonard Novak's death: a deadly radioactive pellet inside the elderly scientist's body. Who would commit such a horrific crime? Is it related to Novak's role in creating America's deadliest weapon? The answers may lie with the victim's aging ex-wife, Beatrice, a captivating yet utterly unreliable storyteller. Careening between history and fantasy, dementia and lucidity, Beatrice draws Brockton into a maze of memories, leading him to darker truths than he could have imagined.

It seems a routine case for Dr. Bill Brockton, the exhumation of a body to obtain a bone sample for a DNA paternity test. But a shocking discovery awaits Brockton and his colleagues when the coffin is opened: the corpse inside has been horribly violated. The grisly find embroils the Body Farm's founder in a dangerous investigation into a flourishing black market in body parts, as Brockton is recruited for an FBI sting to bring down a postmortem chop shop?using corpses from the Body Farm as bait.But as he descends deeper into a ghoulish empire on the trail of a ruthless grave robber, Brockton faces a devastating choice that could compromise the investigation and place him in even graver peril. And for the sake of a damaged friend?a medical examiner who has lost his hands?Brockton may be forced to risk his principles, his freedom . . . and even his life.

The secrets about violent murder are investigated at . . . The Body FarmA burned car sits on a Tennessee hilltop, a woman's charred body in the driver's seat. Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton's job is to discover the truth hidden in the fire-desecrated corpse. Was the woman's death accidental . . . or was she incinerated to cover up her murder?But his research into the effect of flame on flesh and bone is about to collide with reality like a lit match meeting spilled gasoline. The arrival of a mysterious package?a set of suspiciously unnatural cremated remains?is pulling Brockton toward a nightmare too macabre to imagine. And an old nemesis is waiting in the shadows to put him to the ultimate test, one that could reduce Brockton's life to smoldering ruins.

While helping to excavate a newly unearthed chamber beneath the spectacular Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France, Miranda Lovelady?protégée of Dr. Bill Brockton?makes a startling discovery: a stone chest bearing an inscription declaring it holds the bones of Jesus of Nazareth. The find could rock the Church to its very foundations, and it draws Brockton from the Body Farm to determine the truth, using modern forensic science.But when Brockton and Miranda link the bones to the haunting image on the famous Shroud of Turin, their investigation sparks a deadly tug of war between scientists, the Vatican, and Apocalypse-obsessed fanatics?and a newly slain corpse soon appears on hallowed ground. Suddenly the search for answers to a mystery born in an ancient era has taken on a frightening urgency . . . as a crazed zealot waits in the shadows, determined to trigger the end of time.

Anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton founded Tennessee's world-famous Body Farm?a small piece of land where corpses are left to decay in order to gain important forensic information. Now, in the wake of a shocking crime in nearby Chattanooga, he's called upon by Jess Carter?the rising star of the state's medical examiners?to help her unravel a murderous puzzle. But afterre-creating the death scene at the Body Farm, Brockton discovers his career, reputation, and life are in dire jeopardy when a second, unexplained corpse appears in the grisly setting.Accused of a horrific crime?transformed overnight from a respected professor to a hated and feared pariah?Bill Brockton will need every ounce of his formidable forensic skills to escape the ingeniously woven net that's tightening around him . . . and to prove the seemingly impossible: his own innocence.

Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton has spent twenty-five years solving brutal murders?but none so horrific and merciless as his latest case: A ravaged set of skeletal remains found chained to a tree on a remote mountainside. But the shocking crime is only the beginning. Mid-case, the unthinkable happens: The deadliest criminal Brockton has ever foiled?the sadistic serial killer Nick Satterfield?escapes from prison, bent on vengeance.But simply killing Brockton isn't enough. Satterfield wants to make him suffer first, by destroying everything Brockton holds dear: his son, daughter-in-law, grandsons; even -Miranda, his longtime graduate assistant, now on the verge of completing her Ph.D. and launching a forensic career of her own.The dangers from all directions force Brockton to question two things on which he's based his entire career?the justice system and the quality of mercy?and to wonder: can the two coexist? If not, which will Brockton choose in his ultimate moment of truth?