"Dog days and the fresh bodies are arriving once again." So begins the fall term at South Carolina Medical College, where Dr. Jacob Thacker is on probation for Xanax abuse. His interim career--working public relations for the dean--takes an unnerving detour into the past when the bones of African American slaves, over a century old, are unearthed on campus. Out of the college's dark past, these bones threaten to rise and condemn the present. In...