Jefferson Bass Books in Order
Jefferson Bass has written 15 books, published between 2003 and 2016. The first book is Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Body Farm (2003) and the newest is Without Mercy (2016). Publication order is the reading order below. 10 of the 15 books listed here are in the Body Farm series, which has its own page: Body Farm books in order.
- Books
- 15
- Published
- 2003–2016
- Confirmed
- 15 of 15 titles
- Pages on record
- 3,873 in 12 of 15 books
- Reading time
- 65–97 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 3,873 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 12 of 15 titles with a page count on record.
Forensic anthropology is Jefferson Bass's material: the Body Farm novels put Bill Brockton, a forensic anthropologist in Tennessee, onto criminal cases. The catalogue holds 16 titles, from Human Osteology (1971) and Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Body Farm (2003) to the novels Carved in Bone (2006), The Devil's Bones (2008), The Bone Thief (2010) and Without Mercy. The catalogue is listed as likely complete.
How many Jefferson Bass books are there?
Jefferson Bass has 15 books, released between 2003 and 2016. 10 of them belong to the Body Farm series.
Jefferson Bass Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 15 Jefferson Bass books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Body FarmJefferson Bass Non-Fiction #22003 · 320 pages · confirmed 3/420033203/4
- 220063433/4
- 320073613/4
- 420073043/4
- 520083203/4
- 620093523/4
- 720103593/4
- 820113083/4
- 92012–3/4
- 102012–3/4
- 1120131123/4
- 1220133683/4
- 132015–3/4
- 1420153843/4
- 1520163423/4
Jefferson Bass series and characters in order
The character linked below has its own reading-order page.
- Body Farm books in order 12 books
Jefferson Bass books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. A group whose heading is a link has its own reading-order page; the other groups have no page of their own on this site.
Body Farm books in order
10 books by Jefferson BassJefferson Bass Non-Fiction
3 books3 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.
Body Farm Short Stories/Novellas
2 books2 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.
Jefferson Bass Books in Chronological Order
By publication date, the Jefferson Bass books run from Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Body Farm (2003) to Without Mercy (2016), the sequence in the table above. No separate story order is recorded for Jefferson Bass in the book listings this catalogue merges, so publication order is the only order on record.
Do you have to read Jefferson Bass books in order?
You only need to read Jefferson Bass books in order within the Body Farm series, which holds 10 of the 15 Jefferson Bass books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.
Where to start with Jefferson Bass
Start with Carved in Bone (2006), the first Body Farm book. The earliest catalogued title overall is Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Body Farm (2003).
What is the newest Jefferson Bass book?
Without Mercy (2016) is the newest Jefferson Bass book released so far.
Is there a new Jefferson Bass book coming?
No next Jefferson Bass book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Jefferson Bass at a glance
- No recent titles
- The newest Jefferson Bass title on record dates from 2016, 10 years ago. No later title is catalogued.
- Release pace
- Jefferson Bass books have appeared about one a year on average.
- Length
- 3,873 pages across the 12 of 15 books with a recorded length, a median of 342 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Jefferson Bass books, 9 of 15, were published in the 2010s.
What the Jefferson Bass books are about
13 of the 15 Jefferson Bass books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: forensic anthropologists is tagged on 10 of 13. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Forensic anthropologists 10 of 13 books
- Mystery & detective 7 of 13 books
- Bill Brockton (Fictitious character) 6 of 13 books
- Crime laboratories 6 of 13 books
- Crime 4 of 13 books
- Suspense 4 of 13 books
- Thrillers 4 of 13 books
- Identification 3 of 13 books
- Tennessee 3 of 13 books
- Anthropologists 2 of 13 books
- Forensic anthropology 2 of 13 books
- Human body 2 of 13 books