Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Freezing, by Clea Koff

I give Koff credit for good intentions, but the execution is wide by a mile.  The premise is interesting -- two forensic anthropologists start a non-profit to develop physical profiles of missing people from information provided by families to help law enforcement identify the missing people from among John/Jane Does or living people who don't know who they are.   Koff actually started such a non-profit.   The characters, Jayne Hall and Steelie Land (the anthropologists) and Scott Houston and Eric Ramos (FBI agents), are developed in sort of an unexpected way.  But the serial killer plot is utterly ridiculous.  Koff has received bad advice from someone on what to explain -- who doesn't know what BOLO stands for? -- and what parts of the science to gloss over.  She has the pedagogical level set too low for my taste.  Her autobiographical book, Bone Woman, might be worth looking into.

1 comment:

  1. I liked Jayne and no nonsense Steelie (who had some pretty good lines) and was glad they were friends. Agree that serial killer plot seemed farfetched, which was a shame since the science of physical anthropology could have made this a fascinating read.

    CathyW

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