Jefferson Bass Books in Order

Jefferson Bass is the co-authored name of forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass and journalist and documentary filmmaker Jon Jefferson. Their New York Times bestselling Body Farm series follows Dr. Bill Brockton, a forensic anthropologist in Tennessee who studies human remains and uses the results to help solve murders.

Bill Bass created the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Research Facility, better known as the Body Farm, where researchers began studying donated human remains in 1981. Brockton’s work is based directly on that world. He and his team examine bones and bodies in different stages of decomposition, looking for clues to a victim’s identity and how long the remains have been there. Bass provides the forensic knowledge and experience from real cases, and Jefferson takes that material and creates the novels.

This page lists all Jefferson Bass books in order, including the Body Farm novels, the series novella and short story, their nonfiction books about the real Body Farm, and Jon Jefferson’s separate crime and thriller writing.

Where to Start with Jefferson Bass

• Start with Carved in Bone, the first Body Farm novel. It introduces forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton and his work in Tennessee.
• Publication order is the best way to read the Body Farm series. Each book brings Brockton a new investigation, while his personal life and work continue to change from one novel to the next.
• The two prequels give an alternate starting route. First-time readers can begin with Carved in Bone, which introduces Brockton and the Body Farm as readers originally encountered them. Readers who prefer chronological order can start with Jordan’s Stormy Banks, set in 1990, followed by Cut to the Bone, set in 1992, before continuing with Carved in Bone.
• For the real story behind the Body Farm, start with Death’s Acre. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson explain how the facility began and describe real cases from Bass’s forensic career.

The Body Farm Series (Books in Order)

Dr. Bill Brockton is a forensic anthropologist who leads the Anthropology Department at the University of Tennessee and the outdoor research facility called the Body Farm where he and his students study donated human bodies as they decompose. Here he can learn happens to the remains after death. It also gives police another way to estimate the time and the way someone died.

When a badly burned or decomposed body is found, or when parts are missing, Brockton is called in to examine the bones, teeth, and changes that happen after death. Helped by his graduate assistant Miranda Lovelady, he tries to figure out who the person was, when they died, and what happened to them. Most of the books are set around Tennessee, while The Inquisitor’s Key takes the investigation to Avignon, France.

1. Carved in Bone, 2006
2. Flesh and Bone, 2007
3. The Devil’s Bones, 2008
4. Bones of Betrayal, 2009
5. The Bone Thief, 2010
6. The Bone Yard, 2011
7. Madonna and Corpse, 2012 (short story)
8. The Inquisitor’s Key, 2012
9. Jordan’s Stormy Banks, 2013 (novella)
10. Cut to the Bone, 2013
11. The Breaking Point, 2015
12. Without Mercy, 2016

Reading notes:

• The Inquisitor’s Key was published in the UK as The Bones of Avignon. These are two titles for the same novel.
• Jordan’s Stormy Banks, set in 1990, and Cut to the Bone, set in 1992, are prequels. The list keeps them in their original publication positions; the chronological alternative is explained in the Where to Start section above.

Body Farm book reviewed on Mystery Sequels:

• Cut to the Bone by Jefferson Bass

Nonfiction Books by Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson

Outside the Body Farm series, Jon Jefferson has published a standalone thriller under his own name and contributed two stories to the same crime anthology.

• Death’s Acre, 2003 (Bass recounts how he created the Body Farm and how its decomposition research helped with real forensic investigations.)
• Beyond the Body Farm, 2007 (Bass looks beyond the research facility to cases he worked on and developments that changed forensic anthropology.)
• Identity Crisis, 2015 (This book revisits the disappearance of Leoma Patterson and the disputed identification of remains believed to be hers.)

Other Fiction Books by Jon Jefferson

• Wave of Terror, 2018 (standalone thriller)
• Cold-Blooded: Killer Nashville Noir, 2015 (anthology, includes In Plain Sight by Jefferson Bass, and Giving Blood by Jon Jefferson.)

About Jefferson Bass

John Jefferson and Bill Bass started their collaboration in 2002 when Jefferson made two National Geographic documentaries about the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Research Facility where dr. Bill Bass, the forensic anthropologist who had created the facility was working.

Official website: jeffersonbass.com

Bill Bass received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Virginia, followed by a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Kentucky and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. After teaching at the universities of Nebraska and Kansas, he started working at the University of Tennessee in 1971 as head of the anthropology department and Tennessee’s first state forensic anthropologist.

One of Bass’s biggest mistakes helped change the direction of his research. In 1977, he examined a body found in a disturbed grave and estimated that the man had been dead for less than a year. As it turned out, the body belonged to Colonel William Shy, who had been embalmed and buried in an iron casket, hence the well-preserved body.

Bill Bass estimated the time of death to months to a year, but the man had actually died 113 years earlier, during the Civil War, and the suspected murderers turned out to be grave robbers.

He then began studying human decomposition more closely. In 1981, with his students he started work with donated bodies at the Anthropology Research Facility, later known as the Body Farm. He established the university’s Forensic Anthropology Center in 1987, which brought together the research facility, body donation program, skeletal collections and forensic training.

Jon Jefferson had already worked as a journalist and science writer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he wrote about subjects including genetics, energy and nuclear safety. His articles were published in The New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science, and his work was also broadcast on National Public Radio. He later wrote and produced documentaries for National Geographic, the History Channel, The Learning Channel and A&E.

After the National Geographic documentaries, Bass asked Jefferson to help him write about his career. Death’s Acre was published in 2003, a non-fiction book which recounts Bass’s career, forensic cases, and the development of the research facility. They continued it with Beyond the Body Farm and Identity Crisis. Jon Jefferson then suggested writing novels based on Bass’s forensic world, with a fictional anthropologist named Bill Brockton at its center. Carved in Bone started the Body Farm series in 2006.

Bill Brockton has traits from both writers. Bass and Jefferson describe him as an amalgam of the two: Bass contributes the forensic cases and scientific knowledge, while Jefferson writes the novels and develops their plots and characters. Together they published ten Body Farm novels, shorter stories and nonfiction books. Jon Jefferson also writes under his own name, including the standalone thriller Wave of Terror.

Major Awards and Honors

• Bill Bass – National Professor of the Year, Council for Advancement and Support of Education (1985)
• Bill Bass – Distinguished Fellow, American Academy of Forensic Sciences (1994)
• Bill Bass – Guest of Honor, Killer Nashville (2008)

Readers Also Like