Body Bags

Body of Evidence Series #1

By: Christopher Golden

Narrated by: Julie Dretzin

"The first day at college, my professor dropped dead. The second day, I assisted at his autopsy. Let's hope I don't have to go through four years of this …"

When Jenna Blake starts her freshman year at Somerset University, she's not only living on her own for the first time, she's moving closer to the father she never really knew. It's an exciting time, filled with new faces and new challenges, not to mention parties and boys and … corpses?

Jenna is torn about her future. She'd like to be a doctor like her mother, but she can't stand the sight of blood. Her father, a criminology professor, thinks he has the answer—and sends her to interview for a job with the Medical Examiner—an interview that takes place in the middle of an autopsy!

When a congressional aide goes violently insane, and then drops dead, the pathology team at Somerset Medical Center discover that his brain was ravaged with disease—and loaded with insect larvae. When Jenna takes on her new job, she is drawn into a web of terrifying disease, dangerous politics, and intriguing mystery. And when one of her professors ends up dead, she starts making connections even the police haven't seen … which will bring her face to face with a pair of killers, one medical, and one all too human.

Need more Evidence? Listen to other titles in the Body of Evidence series.©1999 Christopher Golden (P)2001 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Blake is marked by a killer whose technique demonstrates Golden's sense of the truly morbid and [a] knack for uncomfortably realistic medical dialogue. The college atmosphere lends itself to the unpredictable plot, and Golden does well in developing the personalities of minor characters." (Publishers Weekly)

My new Kay Scarpetta

I feel like I'm in on the beginning of the new Kay Scarpetta!
I'm getting the next book now with my fingers crossed.

A Lovely Mystery

I have reread the novel—Body Bags: Body Of Evidence Series #1. The book is about Jenna Blake. She’s a college freshman who wants to be a doctor. The only problem? She doesn’t like blood. Instead, she finds another option: to observe the medical examiner at the campus hospital. Unfortunately, the observation ends up connecting her to a deadly political plot that can put her very family at stake. Let’s just say, you won’t want to hear anything to do about bugs after reading this story. It’s a delicious mystery that I wasn’t able to keep my eyes off of. I listened to this on audiobook, but there is one problem—audible only has book one, three, and I think four. There are seven books to the series. I’m not sure what happened, but it would have been great to have all of the series on audible (or in audio format!)

good first

loved the book. can't wait for more. unusual setting and plot . please write more

GREAT BOOK

The storyline was good. Very suspenseful. I got into each character and found it easy to imagine them. It was hard for me to turn it off. The narration great. I really enjoyed this one.

Strange but worth readiing

If you could sum up Body Bags in three words, what would they be?

Oddly Entertaining Read

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jenna Blake because she was the main character and made the book exciting.

What does Julie Dretzin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Julie Dretzin brings the characters to life as if you are watching a movie with separate characters, even though it was only one Narrator.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My main reaction was wow I am really surprised that I actually really enjoyed listening to this book.

Any additional comments?

after finding out this was the 1st book of a series and wanting to read the rest of the series only to find the only other books I found were series # 5 & # 6, were did # 3 & # 4 go? very upsetting.

I think I liked it better as a teen

I think I liked it better when I was a teenager. Though it was still a good nostalgic read.

For a 2010 Forensic, cop, & college combo

The science was great. Narration was professional level. Characters were as you'd expect a few 18-19 year old freshmen in college I guess? We are talking about female students. Father as a Prof wasn't really all too odd. Mom is an M.D. & well the usual battle ensues about career. Meanwhile in the dorms a really cool MYSTERY is wide opened & stuff is getting terribly real in the world of infectious disease medicine. Would you mind just reading? It's not long & I've seen worse on Forensic tv these days.

The story line

The voice reading. Needs more inflection and excitement. Would like to hear more pitch and rise and fall of the voice.

Lots of inane talk and no action

So disappointed, too much talk and mostly about the freshman college life of several silly teens.
How was this written by Christopher Golden?
UGH.

Give it a skip

Never has such a promising idea (weaponized, brain-eating tropical insect larva) been rendered so utterly dull and suspense-free. If you can find one real moment of horror or suspense in the entire book, you should win a prize.