It was a beautiful day to grow up.

Body Bags, a mystery written by Christopher Golden, opens with a killer line: Amanda Green died for a cigarette. Within a matter of pages, Amanda is a goner, having been at the wrong place at the wrong time. It just goes to prove what I've been saying all of my life: Smoking kills. Don't smoke.

But this book is not all about vices. It is about solving the crime, bringing the guilty ones to justice, and taking the most dangerous journey of all: growing up.

The Body of Evidence novels written by Christopher Golden and Rick Hautala are intelligent and intriguing forensic mysteries. They offer realistic characters, captivating clues, and detailed autopsies and investigations. The line is made up of ten books, starting with Body Bags, first published by Pocket Books in 1999.

After the tragic prologue, the first chapter introduces us to Jenna Blake, the character who is the core of every novel in the series. The series begins as she travels to college, where she will be a freshman. She considered following in her mother's footsteps and work in medicine until she realized that the sight of blood made her feel out of sorts. Her father, a criminology professor, recommends that she take a job with a medical examiner. The interview takes place during an autopsy. As she settles into school and the M.E.'s office, Jenna soon finds that she has not only the stomach for the job, but the smarts. Ultimately, it is her attention to detail and her insatiable thirst for knowledge as well as her previously unrecognized capacity for daring that solves the troubling case.

The first chapter begins with the line, "It was a beautiful day to grow up." I proudly display this quote at the Bildungsroman website as well as in the sidebar of this blog.

This series is recommended to adults and to teenagers. Readers will find Jenna visiting crime scenes and autopsy rooms nearly as often as she's in her dorm. Her relatives, friends, and studies factor into the books just as much as serial killers and detectives. There's just as much here for a fifty-year-old as for a fifteen-year-old. Throughout the series, Christopher Golden - and, later, collaborator Rick Hautala - created characters who are believable but anything but cookie-cutter. They are all adults, though some are younger than others. Some are parents, some are students, some are detectives, some are doctors, but all are vital to the progress of the stories and of each other. Instead of being full of teen angst or taking on the obvious issue of the week/episode/book, the younger characters are simply dealing with life and getting through things both one day at a time and one leap at a time.

As I wrote in my article entitled Judging the Cover, the book covers in this series never have models and never show a girl dressed in hip clothes. Depicted instead are toe tags, X-rays, bones, eyes, markings and tools used within the story. The covers are dominantly grey, with each book having a different bold accent color. All have a trademark striped pattern down the left edge that repeats itself on the chapter breaks within.

The quality of Body Bags is above and beyond most suspense novels - and it continues throughout the series, versus other series which lose the moomentum after a few books, or series in which the books become carbon copies.

If you watch(ed) television series such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or Profiler, then you need to read these books right now. In fact, the first six books were released before CSI was even on the air, but the ninth and tenth books had a little cover tagline: "If you like CSI, you'll love Body of Evidence." It's true - and it's true in the reverse. CSI would benefit from a BoE crossover. Greg and Dyson could have a funny scene, and Slick could exchange notes with Grissom and Dr. Robbins.

For the record, Jenna is far cooler than Sara Sidle.

I highly recommend that you read the Body of Evidence books in order:
- Body Bags
- Thief of Hearts
- Soul Survivor
- Meets the Eye
- Head Games
- Skin Deep
- Burning Bones
- Brain Trust
- Last Breath
- Throat Culture

Related Posts: Author Spotlight: Christopher Golden, Where to Start: Reading Christopher Golden

This is the first of three entries I posted today regarding the Body of Evidence book series as part of the Recommendations Under the Radar project. (Read more about this below.) Part One gives the basic premise of the series and the first book, Body Bags. I compared notes with Jackie from the Interactive Reader blog in Part Two. Author Christopher Golden himself dropped by for an exclusive interview in Part Three.

Recommendations Under the Radar (or Radar Recommendations) is a literature blog project headed up by Colleen of Chasing Ray as a way to encourage readers to pick up some amazing books that deserve your immediate attention. People will be recommending books all week long, ranging from classic books for children to contemporary fiction for adults to inspiring non-fiction pieces.

Check out the other titles being recommended today!
Chasing Ray: Dorothy
Bildungsroman: The Body of Evidence series by Christopher Golden and Rick Hautala (Post One, Post Two, and Post Three)
Interactive Reader: The Body of Evidence series by Christopher Golden and Rick Hautala
Finding Wonderland: The Curved Saber: The Adventure of Khlit the Cossack by Harold Lamb
Not Your Mother's Bookclub: An interview with Robert Sharenow, author of My Mother the Cheerleader
lectitans: The Angel of the Opera: Sherlock Meets the Phantom of the Opera by Sam Siciliano
Bookshelves of Doom: The God Beneathe the Sea, Black Jack, and Jack Holburn by Leon Garfield
Writing and Ruminating: An interview with Tony Mitton and a review of Plum
The YA YA YAs: I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Lee Wilson
Chicken Spaghetti: The Illustrator's Notebook by Mohieddin Ellabad
Semicolon: Various picture books

When Little Willow from Bildungsroman and Jackie from Interactive Reader discovered they had both selected the Body of Evidence series by Christopher Golden and Rick Hautala for Radar Recommendations, they decided to compare notes on the books. This led to a survey of sorts.

Favorite main character?
LW: Jenna!
Jackie: No choice.

Favorite supporting character?
LW: I'd love to list all of them. Slick is smart, Al is sweet, Melody, Hunter, Danny . . .
Jackie: Oh, Danny. Definitely Danny. But the great thing about this series is that ALL of the supporting characters are fully presented. You kinda like them all.
LW: Agreed.

Favorite book in the series?
LW: Body Bags, then Thief of Hearts and Skin Deep.
Jackie: Soul Survivor, I think. It's a hard question. Maybe Last Breath.

Why did you pick them up?
LW: I started working for Christopher Golden in 1998. I redesigned his website, then started maintaining the site and doing online publicity for his books. Thus, I was there when Body Bags was in the works, and I was beyond thrilled that he was finally writing books for the teen fiction section. Ask Chris. When he told me he was writing a new series that was about murder, forensics, and college, I pretty much screamed.

Jackie: I was in Library School and my YA Lit professor, Holly Ward-Lamb (who is magnificently awesome, BTW), required us to read one book from a paperback series. She was very concerned that her students didn't get elitist about literature, and that we read at least SOME of what the kids actually read, so I tried Body Bags upon her recommendation. I was hooked.

Why did you keep reading the series?
LW: Because Golden Books are the Best Ever. Truly. I
was a reader before I was a friend of his. That is how
I came to know him. I admire his writing. The entire
Body of Evidence series is well-plotted and
well-written. Each book stands alone, yet is part of
the bigger picture -- just as a series should be!

Jackie: Because they are Freakin' Awesome. And I say that as a person who has never met or received monetary compensation from the author. ;)

LW: Hey, now. I'm not partial or anything. :)

Had you read Christopher Golden books before?
LW: Yes, since 1997. See above.
Jackie: Nope. Body Bags was the first.
LW: I hadn't read Rick Hautala's books before he joined the series. I then read his novel The White Room, which was written under the pseudonym A. J. Matthews.

Do you like murder mysteries?
LW: Yes! I love mysteries when they are done well. I also love procedural television series like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. To quote one of my current stage roles, "What I say is, let justice be done!"

Jackie: Nope. They are usually WAY too predictable and repetitive. What? The bad guy lost? Shocking. (Not that I'd have it any other way.)

Do the books feel accurate?
LW: Definitely. The research is evident.
Jackie: Beats me. I'm not a Science Nerdfighter. But from a literature standpoint, everything hung together.

The books get pretty gruesome, what with the autopsies and the murders. Do you have a strong stomach?
LW: Yes.
Jackie: Ironclad.

Did you read the series in order?
LW: Yes.
Jackie: Blasphemy. As if there's another way.
(LW cheers. She obviously feels the same.)

Does the series feel like it's done?
LW: No! It should never be over!
(LW is in denial.)
Jackie: Not really. I think that Jenna's a character that could always be picked up again, even 10 years later. She's strong enough that her story will always be interesting.

If more books were written and released, would you read them?
LW: Yes, immediately.
Jackie: What she said.

Are there more stories to tell?
LW: I think so. I think Jenna has a promising future
in front of her.
Jackie: Uh, what I said.

This is the second of three entries I posted today regarding the Body of Evidence book series as part of the Recommendations Under the Radar project. Part One gives the basic premise of the series and the first book, Body Bags. I compared notes with Jackie from the Interactive Reader blog in Part Two. (Jackie's post is over here.) Author Christopher Golden himself dropped by for an exclusive interview in Part Three.

While Jackie and I were comparing notes and completing the Body of Evidence survey, I took the opportunity to ask author Christopher Golden for the inside scoop on the series.

Favorite main character?

Jenna, of course!

Favorite supporting character?

Slick. I love them all, but Slick is so much fun to write.

Favorite book in the series?

Probably Thief of Hearts, though I'm also quite partial to Last Breath and Skin Deep.

What inspired the series?

My editor at the time called me up and said, "Three words: Scully in college." I took it from there.

What prompted you to (FINALLY!) write a teen fiction series?

I'd actually written two YA horror novels in the mid nineties. They were fairly mediocre, but I'd always wanted to do it again. I like to think I have a fairly decent handle still on what it felt like to be in high school.

When and how did Rick Hautala come on board?

I'd agreed to write a second series for Pocket and thought it would be easier--and energizing--to collaborate with someone on the series. I'd known Rick for many years, since before I wrote my first novel, and I think we gelled really well. Though his name isn't on the cover, the first book he co-wrote with me was SKIN DEEP. They'd already done the cover before he came on board, believe it or not.

How much research did you do to ensure the stories' authenticity?

I talked to everyone. Doctors, medical examiners, FBI, Coast Guard, cops...you name it, I talked to them. Where the weird science was concerned, I let myself improvise. But most of the real medical stuff comes directly from first hand conversations.

Would you ever write more BoE books?

In a heartbeat. I'm just waiting for the opportunity.

Are there more stories to tell?

Thousands.

To learn more about author Christopher Golden and his vast library of books, please visit http://www.christophergolden.com

This is the last of three entries I posted today regarding the Body of Evidence book series as part of the Recommendations Under the Radar project. Part One gives the basic premise of the series and the first book, Body Bags. I compared notes with Jackie from the Interactive Reader blog in Part Two. Author Christopher Golden himself dropped by for an exclusive interview in Part Three.

Though this is the final post in this crazy Monday trilogy, this will hardly be the last time that I talk about the books!