Mystery Book Reviews

Book Review: The Bone Yard

By Sandy Amazeen Mar 15, 2011, 22:21 GMT

In this latest thriller from New York Times bestselling author Jefferson Bass, Dr. Bill Brockton discovers the dark side of the Sunshine state when he\'s called in to investigate human remains found on the grounds of a boys\' reform school in Florida The Bone Yard The onset of summer brings predictably steamy weather to the Body Farm, Dr. Bill Brockton\'s human-decomposition research facility ...more

In charge of the Tennessee forensic research facility known as the Body Farm, Dr. Bill Brockton reluctantly leaves his work to assist visiting Florida forensic analyst, Angie St. Claire in her quest to ferret out the truth behind her sister’s alleged suicide death. St. Claire strongly suspects her brother-in-law of murder and needs Brockton’s expertise to prove it. No sooner then they arrive in Florida then Jasper, a family dog begins bringing his owners human bones garnered from his nocturnal wanderings. In an effort to trace where Jasper is getting the remains, he is fitted with a GPS collar. Local law enforcement makes a failed attempt to ensure that Jasper’s route remains a mystery thus the unmarked graves of adolescent boys buried near a reform school comes to light. An old diary kept by one of the boys brings to light the evil perpetrated all those years ago.

The mystery surrounding St. Claire’s sister takes a back seat to the real life story of physical and sexual abuse carried out on boys at a Florida reform school that burned to the ground in the 1960’s. This uneven story is heavy on forensic science at the expense of warmth or much genuine emotion as the characters work to keep their distance from the events they are investigating. Those episodes where grief and anger do leak through come across rough and contrived which is too bad as the plot had the potential to be so much better from the team of Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson.