Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton has spent 25 years solving brutal murders, but none so bizarre and merciless as his latest case. A ravaged set of skeletal remains is found chained to a tree on a remote mountainside. As Brockton and his assistant, Miranda, dig deeper, they uncover warning signs of a deadly eruption of hatred and violence. But the shocking case is only the beginning of Brockton’s trials. Mid-case, the unthinkable happens: The deadliest criminal Brockton has ever foiled --- the sadistic serial killer Nick Satterfield --- escapes from prison, bent on vengeance. But simply killing Brockton isn’t enough. Satterfield wants to make him suffer first, by destroying everything he holds dear.

It’s been 10 years since Dr. Bill Brockton created the Body Farm --- the world’s first postmortem research facility dedicated to advancing the frontiers of forensic science --- and the researcher is at the pinnacle of his career. Calling him in for a number of high-profile cases, the FBI now wants him to identify the charred remains of a maverick millionaire, killed in a fiery plane crash. But a storm is about to hit Brockton with cataclysmic force.

On a sweltering hillside in Knoxville, Dr. Bill Brockton launches an unusual research facility. Brockton is determined to revolutionize the study of forensics to help law enforcement solve homicides --- but the scientist's plans are derailed by a chilling murder that leaves him reeling from a sense of déjà vu. As the body count rises, the victims' fatal injuries grow more and more distinctive --- a spiral of death that holds dark implications for Brockton himself.

When Miranda Lovelady, Dr. Bill Brockton’s protégé, uncovers a stone chest during an excavation beneath the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France, she is shocked to find an inscription claiming the chest holds the bones of none other than Jesus of Nazarus. Though she and Dr. Brockton are skeptical, evidence for authenticity appears to be strong.

When a Florida forensic analyst asks Bill Brockton, a researcher on human decomposition, to investigate her sister’s death, he gets more than he bargained for. Bones turn up in the panhandle, leading them to ruins of a reformatory, where they find several shallow graves. They soon discover that the ghosts of the past can have a deadly effect on the present.