Rating: 
Summary: Plant the Dead and Knowledge Will Bloom
Review: As a teacher of the earth sciences, I am acutely aware of how hard it is to study processes in nature. The life and death of a star or the formation of a mature ocean from a rift valley take too long for a single scientist to watch the entire process. In order to watch the before, during, and after of a large earthquake, a scientist must guess the location of a large quake to get all the equipment in place in order to see the entire process [Parkfield, California finally paid off, but look how long it took!]. Forensic scientists have a different problem - humans have a multitude of issues concerning dead bodies. This is probably part of the reason why the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility - the infamous "Body Farm" founded by Dr. Bill Bass - remains unique.
In Death's Acre, Dr. Bill Bass and his co-writer Jon Jefferson combine a heavy dose of Body Farm decomposition research with a memoir of Dr. Bass and the ARF, which makes this a book for the non-squeamish. All aspects of the dead and decomposing are handled in a serious and straightforward manner - no tabloid writing here - but once again, first and foremost, this book involves dead bodies. The narrative thread starts in 1957, the year in which Bill Bass starts down the road from anonymous anthropology student to famous forensic scientist, with the emergency archeology done to acquire knowledge of an ancient native American culture from an area about to be drowned by a reservoir. The book continues through his years as an anthropology professor sought out by the police to help with their confusing corpses. Along the way we learn the rationale for a research facility into the decomposition of the human body [including a screw up with a dead Civil War soldier]. Ultimately, we get the history of the Body Farm.
If you are looking for a good science autobiography with a heavy dose of science, this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book solely about the ARF or a book of forensic case histories, you should look for a different book. I think one audience for this book would be MATURE teenagers who are thinking about careers in the forensic sciences [the book IS inspiring and IS NOT lurid]. I have always wanted to be cremated [cemeteries have never made sense to me], but now I think I'll donate my body to the ARF in the name of science.
Rating: 
Summary: "Gross" Anatomy that Puts Killers Behind Bars. A page-turner
Review: As someone who has had a lifelong fascination with death, decomposition, murder, funerary and burial practices, and all manner of morbid stuff, I was eager to read "Death's Acre." I had read a little about the Body Farm previously, so I couldn't wait to get the whole story from the man who started it all, Bill Bass.
I expected the book to focus very narrowly on the Body Farm itself, but that isn't the case. The reader does get information about Bass's background and how he got into anthropology -- and then forensics -- in the first place. This moves into logical background about Bass's initial work with corpses and the eventual founding of the Body Farm. I thought it was interesting that the Farm got started not only as a much-needed research facility for learning about an uncharted area of science, but it also seemed to have been started because Bass was running out of place to store messy dead bodies (a broom closet at the university and even the trunk of his beloved Mustang proved to be not the best places after all!).
The book then gets into some of the difficulties the Farm has had -- protests about its location, protests about the use of unclaimed cadavers (particularly those of U.S. veterans) and some of the projects it has hosted (including an adipocere formation experiment and an experiment suggested by crime author Patricia Cornwell).
But most of what comprises this book are stories about Bass's career -- his failures and successes. The failures (most notably the Shy case) point up the need for a facility like the Body Farm, and the successes point to the value of the data gathered at the site. All the workers at the Body Farm -- living and dead -- are doing a great deal to aid forensic science. In the future, justice for murder victims will be served more swiftly and accurately because of the work done at the Body Farm.
Avid readers of true crime will enjoy the specialized "professional" view of cases that may already be familiar to them. I was familiar with the Madison Rutherford and Perry/Rubinstein cases, but getting the technical details from Bass (shaped for maximum readability by his capable co-author Jon Jefferson) gave the stories a new dimension. Especially fascinating was the description of the study Bass's student made of the effects of differents types of saws upon bone, which helped lead to a conviction in the death of Leslie Mahaffey, one of the victims of the diabolical Paul Bernardo, the male half of the Canadian "Barbie and Ken" husband-and-wife murder team. There's also an inside look at the infamous Tri-State Crematory case from 2002.
There's a lot of eye-popping detail in this book, some of it horrifying, some of it poignant, some of it -- dare I say -- hilarious. See if you can keep yourself from laughing when you find out why Bass had to buy his first wife two new kitchen stoves, or why he had to buy his third wife a new blender.
Even when the tone of the book becomes humorous, Bass is always professional and respectful. Bass sees himself as a scientist, first and foremost, and his ultimate goal is to use his science to bring criminals to justice. He's humble, big-hearted, and always willing to learn from anybody -- be it a colleague, one of his own students, or the voiceless dead who speak to him with their inert, shattered bones.
Rating:
Summary: If you like murder mysteries, this is a must read!
Review: Death's Acre is an engaging read. It is so beautifully crafted that the loving, kind, and humerous nature of Dr. Bill Bass shines through the myriad of anthropological detail. The cases Dr. Bass has been involved in, many of which you will have read about or heard in the news, will keep you as spell-bound as any Grisham or Cornwell novel, and they have the added advantage of being true. Dr. Bill Bass is the founder of the real Body Farm, an adjunct of the University of Tennessee, where in-depth studies are conducted on what happens to the the human body after death. Jon Jefferson has done a superb job. I was half expecting to be grossed out by the subject matter but instead I found myself engrossed with the life and thoughts of the gifted Dr. Bass and the writing of the equally gifted Jefferson. If you're in the least bit jaded with fictional murder stories or want to know more of what goes on behind the scenes of murder case, this book will intrigue you.
Rating:
Summary: Great book! Written for a wide audience. Easy read.
Review: Dr. Bass has created a very interesting and directly written book in Death's Acre. Written in an unconventional format this book tells the history of the Body Farm, contemporary forensic anthropology, and Dr. Bass himself. Interspersed in the historical chronologies are specific forensic cases relating to the events (conception of the Body Farm, etc.) or research they spawned (larval life cycles, etc.). The cases themselves are very compelling stories, but the wonder is that they all relate to events of modern forensic innovation and discovery. Dr. Bass was not the first Forensic Anthropologist, but between his research and his patronage, he has been a leading passenger and teacher in the modern age of discovery.
Rating:
Summary: Great book! Written for a wide audience. Easy read.
Review: Dr. Bass has created a very interesting and directly written book in Death's Acre. Written in an unconventional format this book tells the history of the Body Farm, contemporary forensic anthropology, and Dr. Bass himself. Interspersed in the historical chronologies are specific forensic cases relating to the events (conception of the Body Farm, etc.) or research they spawned (larval life cycles, etc.). The cases themselves are very compelling stories, but the wonder is that they all relate to events of modern forensic innovation and discovery. Dr. Bass was not the first Forensic Anthropologist, but between his research and his patronage, he has been a leading passenger and teacher in the modern age of discovery.
Rating:
Summary: The BEST book I've read in a long time!
Review: Excellent read - HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading Title
Review: I bought this book expecting it to be about The Body Farm. While it does contain a good bit of info and stories about the body farm, the main subject of the book is one of it's authors, Dr. William M. Bass, and his exploits in forensic science. While it made for an interesting story anyway, I didn't buy the book to hear about him, I bought it thinking it would be solely about the body farm, which it's not.
Rating:
Summary: The secrets of the dead, deciphered to save the living.
Review: I'm not a phenomenal writer, so please forgive me...
Dr. Bass is an incredible scientist who had a groundbreaking idea - LITERALLY! The Anthropology Research Facility, or Body Farm, is something that people either love or hate. However, no matter your personal, moral or ethical opinion, it must be recognized that the Body Farm has met and far exceeded any expectations, and solved more mysteries than ever expected.
Dr. Bass is a phenomenal storyteller with over 40 years of fascinating stories to tell. Forensics has long been a personal passion for me. I had no doubt that this book would serve me many short nights, as I would be unable to put it down. However, the true test of how good a book this is was to give it to my mother, who is not as excited by macabre murder mysteries as myself. Needless to say, she is now cursing me for giving her a book that she stays up all night to read!!!
Buy this book; you will enjoy it immensely - especially if you enjoy a good murder mystery. If nothing else, you will learn things that you never thought of, that will give you a whole new perspective on the secrets of the dead.
Rating:
Summary: very interesting work on forensics
Review: In all honesty, this book labours under a pretty distinct false pretence. Well, an implied one. From the blurb and the cover, you may infer this to be a book about the Anthropology Research Facility (or, to give it its more colourful soubriquet, the body farm) but it isn't really. The implied impression is misleading. Instead, it is really a biography of Dr Bill Bass who is, as the author info puts it, a "colossus of forensic anthropology". Among other topics, it charts his career in forensics, from when he first began excavating Arikara graves in South Dakota, to the present day. He presents us with some of his most striking cases, with several chapters almost turning into short forensic detective stories. As background along the way, we are also treated to a brief history of forensic anthropology. We see the development of the science, and how crucial techniques investigators now use in their work first came into being. The "body farm", of course, does feature, sometimes very heavily, but it is not really the focus of the book. Still, readers who pick this up solely for a book about the farm shouldn't be disappointed; we still discover plenty about it and its history, still get an insight into its workings, the methods of those who work there to investigate the processes at work on the body after death, and still get plenty of anecdotes about how the work at the body farm has helped in many forensic cases. There's a wealth of information, but there is a lot more about other general matters. "Death's Acre" is possibly the perfect book for anyone who is marginally interested in forensics. It doesn't glorify it by any means (anyway, is it possible to truly glorify decaying flesh?) or remove any of the unpleasantness, but it does present it in a riveting light. It treats its subject with respect, and goes into a detail that is fascinating but never brutal or exploitive. It is also a strangely warm book. There's a strong humanity which comes through from Dr Bass himself. He both loves his subject and hates that it is necessary. It is his personality which softens this book, gives it its compassion and humour and removes some of the harsh edge. Some may not welcome that, but I did. It may cover a sometimes unpleasant topic, but it is strangely comforting. Something else that makes this such an interesting and unthreatening read is the language. Techniques are explained well (even if the writing does feed off a truly American adulation of acronyms) and the science comes to life. There are a couple of downsides, though. At times, the descriptive writing is rather awkwardly melodramatic. Phrases are thrown in to add drama and instead had me rolling my eyes. "Dr Snow and I were located in Lexington, just thirty miles from the scene of that early-morning truck collision. Although I didn't know it at the time, I was about to collide head-on with my future," for example. This sort of overblown language just didn't sit right. For the most part, though, is well-told and entertaining to read, and I admit that I did think a one or two of the descriptions were rather inspired, as in the case of "a rattlesnake with a neck as thick as a grave-digger's wrist". I must also admit that by the finish the constant flow of unidentified bodies was growing tiresome. There are a quite of few of these sorts of cases covered in detail, and I got a little bored of our team of intrepid investigators receiving phone calls and tramping out to scenes, then having to undergo the arduous task of identifying skeletons again and again. It was interesting the first couple of times, but by the end I felt so acquainted with the process that I was keen to have a bash myself and get it over with. ("Ah, yes. The pubic symphysis has clearly ossified. From this I can conclude that our victim was...") Overall, though, this is warm, entertaining and informative trawl through the history and techniques of forensic anthropology, Dr Bill Bass's life, and the body farm. For those interested in the subject (and I imagine many who read crime fiction are) then this comes highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Real life Sherlock Holmes
Review: This book is a compilation of various cases worked upon by Dr Bill Bass in his career in forensic anthropology. The "Body Farm", where he performed experiements on decaying corpses, features prominently in the book. The thing that struck me about this book was the resemblance between a forensic investigation and a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Aside from using the tools of forensic science, the author often had to use powers of deduction to determine plausible explanations for bizarre scenarios. For example, if a victim had allegedly crashed his car and been incinerated in the resulting inferno, why did the evidence point to his head being upside down on the floor while the fire raged around him?
The book contains some very interesting material, even for someone like myself with no particular interest in forensic science. The language of the book is easy to read and the author avoids using technical jargon in order to not intimidate the reader. The book itself is well written and engaging. Each of the twenty chapters is a short story and this structure works very well.
Although the topic itself is inherently disturbing and at times chilling, the author avoids sensationalising the topics and describes his subject matter in a matter-of-fact way. His sense of humour comes through and he manages to integrate it into the novel without trivialising or demeaning his subjects. Thoroughly enjoyable read and highly recommended.
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