Only fair. Definitely not her best work. Single-handledly conquers terrorists taking over nuclear power station.

Patricia Cornwall has shined again, with her seventh novel of Dr. Kay Scarpetta, solving another great mystery. From the first chapter, the reader is enticed with a juicy murder, some creepy characters, betrayal, and corruption of the most high. It's a must-read!.........Covering for a doctor in a small fishing village, known as Chesapeake, chief medical examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is awakened by a strange phone call. Refusing to give a name, the caller tells her that there has been a homicide, at the Inactive Naval Ship Yard, and she is needed at the crime scene immediately. Approaching all obstacles from the military, Kay still had jurisdiction, and she was not leaving without a body. Putting on a diving suit, plus ignoring all insults from the men in question, Kay went down into the water to retrieve the victim. To her surprise, however, she wasn't prepared in what she was seeing, as she looked into the dead eyes of Ted Eddings. Infamous as an investigative reporter, Kay not only liked the man, but she had the highest respect for him as well. So, why was Ted in a diving suit, snagged on an old sub, in a military ship yard? As the body was brought back to the morgue, she was joined by her old friend, homicide detective, Pete Marino, and he too was suspicious of Eddings death, especially after Kay told him, he died of cyanide poisoning. When threats are made by the military, including a seedy detective, Kay decides to return to her home in Virginia, where she and Marino can continue their investigation. At Ted's apartment though, more mysteries start to surface, when they discover armour-piercing bullets, commonly known as "cop killers", bullets only law enforcement would have, including the military. What was Ted Eddings into? Was it a story? Or something worse? When someone close to Kay is violently murdered, while driving her car, they do the only thing they can do. They call profiler, SS FBI agent, Benton Wesley. As acting consultants themselves for the FBI, Marino, Kay, and Benton, are once again reunited as a team but before they probe any deeper, Kay is shocked by revelations she has unraveled on her own but before she can tell anyone, all the clues slowly start to surface, scaring her into oblivion. A crazy egotistical holy man, a creepy bible, uranium, cyanide, the military, a "cop killer" encased into a man's brain, betrayal, corruption, and an evil killer that will stop at nothing until he gets to his prey. Can Kay get to Wesley and Marino in time, before thousands die? She has to try, there's no turning back, not now. Three things she's positive about. Who to stop, who to warn with her gaze, and who's arms to run into. Now, only to get there in time, before the clock runs out. It's now or never!........great thriller by Miss Cornwall...I loved it!.... ( )

Another ok book in the series, only this ones plot is a bit more muddled. But I’m glad I’m done, I can take all the ones I’ve read back to the used bookstore and clear some room off my shelves... ( )

Kay Scarpetta returns for her seventh outing, and finds herself called out on New Year’s Eve to a naval base where the body of a diver has been found deep in a harbour used as a parking lot for old naval vessels awaiting decommissioning. She has been covering for one of her regional deputies who has returned to their native Britain following the death of their mother. Because of the nature of the site, naval officers are officiating at the locus, and she finds the local police decidedly unhelpful and obstructive.

It turns out that she knows the dead person, as they had been a journalist and had frequently dealt with her office. While many of her relations with the media had been difficult, with a tendency to misrepresent her and her work, this journalist had been reliable and conscientious in his reporting.

The naval officers are keen to have the death signed off as an unfortunate drowning, but Dr Scarpetta is not convinced. Her autopsy reveals that he had in fact been murdered, and that cyanide had been introduced into his air supply. This revelation is not welcomed, and she finds herself subjected to personal and official attacks. As usual, she finds herself working closely with her exceptionally irritating niece Lucy, the jaded senior Homicide Detective, Pete Marino, and leading FBI profiler Benton Wesley. Readers of the previous books in this series will be aware of the complications that dealing with all of them can entail. Oh, and there is a local cult-driven commune that has been making ever more threatening pronouncements, and they seem to be involved somehow in the journalists’ death.

While the storyline is fairly gripping, I think that Patricia Cornwell might well have jumped her personal shark here, taking what had been a robust, engaging and essentially plausible series and leading it into more fanciful, and deeply unbelievable waters. It was still an entertaining novel, but vastly removed from the excellent books with which the series opened. ( )

I love the Kay Scarpetta series and have read every book except #7 & 8—which I recently found and added to my library—and couldn't wait to devour. Cause of Death is a story that starts with a mysterious drowning and slowly explodes into a high-octane-powered medical/police thriller, never letting up until the explosive conclusion where Kay faces fanatical terrorists—alone. I love how Patricia Cornwell creates complex characters and uses dialog to move the story along. Her knowledge of medical procedures and how she weaves trivial tidbits into her plot surpasses the best forensic storytellers. Having already read the entire series, I have the advantage of knowing the direction Kay's relationships with Lucy, Pete, and Wesley take. Still, it was nice to read about them again at the beginning. I can't wait to read #8. ( )