I'm rewatching Bones and reading this book makes me really realize how easy everything is on TV when it comes to identifying bodies. Cold cases in real life aren't that easy to solve.

Nothing is easy in this book when it comes to identifying the remains of "Leoma Patterson". There isn't much left of her body, only the skull, and some bones and trying to figure out if the bones belong to Leoma or not took years instead of days. It was intriguing to read and also sometimes mind-boggling. I'm no scientist so some of the explanations, like how to determine if the DNA is a match or not will I just have to take the experts word for it.

I have wanted to read "Jefferson Bass" (pseudonym Jon Jefferson, writer, and Dr. Bill Bass) fiction book series "Body Farm," but after reading this book I'm even more inclined to read the books!

I received this copy from Witness Impulse through Edelweiss in return for an honest review! ( )

A good review of DNA testing over time as Bill works to identify the twenty year old body of a murder victim. ( )

Not much mystery and no crime.
You get what you pay for. ( )

Identity Crisis: The Murder, The Mystery, and the Missing DNA by Jefferson Bass is a 2015 Witness Impulse publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fascinating true story that follows a puzzling case in which a family in Tennessee is uncertain if their grandmother, who was allegedly murdered, was properly identified. After an exhumation, DNA analysis came back with shocking results, which led to a facial reconstruction, and even more DNA work, which only brought with it more questions than answers.

This story chronicles the saga that took over two years of forensic testing, with either puzzling results or no results, but that finally, with an incredible stroke of luck, put an end to the lingering doubts this family had about whether or not the woman buried under the name of Leoma Patterson was actually her. It was a long, tedious process which shows how Television dramas can lead the public to expect miracles where none exist. In this case things worked out and the family is satisfied they got the correct answers. However, it took years of ups and downs and many disappointments along the way before the case was finally put to rest, so to speak.

While the book is only a little over a hundred pages in length, there were some moments when the author got a little off topic, and if this were a novel, I might go so far as to call it an “information dump”.

However, the details of how all this came about was very interesting and absorbing. The facial reconstruction was probably the most interesting of all the forensic sciences that were employed in this case. It's incredible when you think about it, even if DNA and forensics don't always hold all the pieces to a puzzle, it has come a long way in a short time and is a huge help in crime solving, even if it takes a little bit longer than 45 minutes to wrap up a case.

If you enjoy novels like Kathy Reichs forensic mysteries or the television show “Bones” you will probably enjoy this one.

4 stars ( )