Clea Koff

(2012) Fairly good procedural that involves 2 anthropologists who are engaged by the FBI to identify frozen body parts, the result of a serial killer who was an ex-agent.(Booklist) This impressive mystery debut rests on a fascinating real-life premise. Forensic anthropologists Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander run a nonprofit resource center, Agency 32/1, dedicated to identifying nameless bodies and thereby providing closure for those who have been waiting years to learn what happened to their missing loved ones. When various unidentified body parts fall from a van on an L.A. freeway, an FBI agent working off the books asks Jayne and Steelie for help. So begins a hunt for a serial killer the FBI doesn't want to admit exists. Koff, a forensic anthropologist who worked to identify bodies in Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo (and is the author of the acclaimed memoir, The Bone Woman, 2004), brings a wealth of expertise to this remarkably detailed exploration of a heartbreakingly sad but strangely humanizing calling that places its practitioners ?halfway between the living and the dead, helping to work a link that transcended time and space.? Koff's narrative skills need a bit more sharpening, but that will surely come as this series develops. One of the most promising new crime series to appear this year.¥ Bill Ott(Kirkus) A macabre car accident kicks off a forensic investigation that leads from the West Coast to the East and beyond.No matter how drunk you are, nothing sobers you up like the sight of body parts falling out of the van you just hit. When forensic anthropologists Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander, missing-persons profilers and partners in Agency 32/1, are called to the scene by Scott Houston, the old friend who's recently been moved from Atlanta to the Los Angeles FBI, they make an even more gruesome discovery. The body parts in question not only belong to several different women, but they're just thawing; the van driver, whoever it was, must have been keeping them in a freezer. With that, the search is on for a coast-to-coast murderer who may just be the same man Houston failed to catch in Atlanta, a practiced killer of prostitutes. Soon enough Houston and his partner Eric Ramos find the van in nearby Maricopa County, but not, courtesy of a whopping coincidence, the killer they're seeking. It looks as if all roads may lead to Atlanta after allÂ¥unless they lead back even further, to the wake of the Rwanda genocide a decade ago.Forensic anthropologist and memoirist Koff (The Bone Woman, 2005) isn't much of a stylist, but if you thrill when you hear that ?this is where Steelie does the odontograms and the biometrics and we digitize relevant photos,? the promised series may be your meat.… (altro)

I was expecting to invalidate a lot of the complaints about Clea Koff's book, but I was more and more disappointed as the book progressed. Gone was the wisdom of her experience, missing was the self-discovery and introspection, only barely existent was her experience of the people around her who had survived the horrors, and the writing that replaced what had begun to glimmer in the first few chapters was that of a hardened, unhappy woman who seemed stressed out and angry at her coworkers.

This does not mean that the book was completely worthless to me, and for that reason I give it three stars. I think it is an extremely important book, one that examines one step of the process by which someone guilty of genocide comes to justice, and one that pays ample tribute to the remains of the people who cry out for justice.

I hope Clea has found more peace, both with her coworkers and with herself, in the four years since the last part of the book. I did feel as though I was there, experiencing every part of it with her, and she did an ample job of keeping the jargon of her profession to a manageable level -- which was something that had worried me prior to reading the book. She really is a wonderful writer on the face of it, but just needed to focus a bit less on the problems that happened within each mission.… (altro)

This really is an extraordinary book but needs to be taken for what it is and not for what the reader thinks it should be; the key lies in the subtitle, "A Forensic Anthropologist's Search..." "The Bone Woman" is not about exhuming mass graves and forensic analysis, though plenty of that is in here. Nor is it specifically about investigating crimes against humanity, though that also figures strongly in the overall reach. It's about what it takes, what it means, and the cost exacted on a person doing these jobs. In Koff's own words,

"I knew that, despite the importance of the work we were doing a toll would be exacted by this life. I didn't know what kind of toll, or when it would happen, or how long I would last." (p. 150)

In today's world of autocratic flexing, demographic divisiveness, conflict, and war in Ukraine, this dive into the casualties of "cleansings" is very relevant, and the faces of the families, survivors, and overtaxed aid workers need to be seen. That is what Koff's true quest, her 'mitzvah,' is in writing this book; she speaks of her "double vision" when describing how she perceives the bodies and associated materials as both clinical evidence for legal justice and as loved ones of the living, sometimes unaware of their deaths. Koff means to bring those faces, the dead and the living, out of the shadows and into the light.… (altro)

This is a memoir of Koffs missions as a forensic anthropologist in Rwanada, Bosnia, Croatian and Kosovo. The experiences as related by Koff are interesting, showing the reader how forensic anthropology field work takes place, how the sites are stakes out and bodies recovered, her relationship with her team mates and the survivors of genocide. There is, however, minimal actual forensic anthropology "how to" information provided in the book. This book is important to raise awareness of atrocities and genocide, but I felt Koff spent so much time complaining about her situation - the lack of equipment, disagreements with co-workder, lack of running water or fancy food - that the original purpose of the book to bring awareness to genocides and helping skeletons speak simply got lost in the background. I would also have provided more context if Koff had included a more detailed background to the genocides that she did, and if she had included something about how her end-results were going to be used or what effect her work had. She couldn't know all of this at time of publication, but something is better than nothing.

This book wasn't bad - it does showcase the life of a forensic anthropologist on some of her international missions. There were happy moments and poignant moments. A worthwhile read.


… (altro)