Death's Acre - Inside the legendary 'Body Farm' (Paperback, New ed)

Reviews

Reviewed by Sandra S. - 2 February 2005

The idea of a 'Body Farm' that affectively 'plants' dead bodies to record their decomposition rates is an intruiging one and when I first saw the book, I thought it would be most interesting (particularly since I am a bit odd). Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. Instead of reviewing in detail what happens to the corpse after death, there is far too much 'self-congratulating' going on about how brilliant Mr/Dr/Prof Bass is (not to forget his students). Some of the science also seems a little suspect to me - I fail to see how a relatively small research facility with unnaturally high populations of carrion feeding insects, for example, can be used to estimate insect activity at remote sites where there are not hundreds of bodies emmitting yummy smells. In short... too little of the gross stuff and too much of the "I am the most brilliant professor and all my students are geniuses".