2005

OK. Cornwell spins a good yard and the Scarpetta series has held up well over the years. That's a given. The particulars of this entry find Scarpetta and Marino returning to Richmond to help solve the death of a thirteen year old girl. The sub plots with Benton and Lucy eventually get woven together in a less than climactic finale. In fact the blase, wind-down nature of this book is not satisfying at all; it left me wondering if Cornwell just ran out of gas on this one. An OK read if nothing else is pressing on your "to-be-read" shelf. ( )

I love Patricia Cornwell's books. Reading her comforts me even though the topic is violence and death. This book was just as engaging as most of her books but it ended with a lot unanswered. I'm not used to that with Cornwell. She set up several scenarios involving the parents of a murdered little girl, made us wonder in what way they contributed to her death, and then just dropped the possibility. It was a couple of days after I finished the book when I realized I felt cheated. Wait a minute - you didn't finish! I even hoped that maybe she had decided to continue the story in her next book. I've never known her to do that but I felt like she had pulled an end of season cliffhanger and maybe she was following the formula of other recent writers (think children and teen authors) who keep you hanging from book to book but continue the story. It's not unusual to buy a book from the bookstore with pages missing. But, unfortunately, I don't think that's what happened here. I know I'm using a lot of words to describe my disappointment - I wish she had used a few more. At over 500 pages she certainly could have tied up the stories of two of the more compelling characters. ( )

I've gone back over the information several times and think Cornwell's leap to solution is a bit facile, given the information at hand. I also find it unbelieveable that someone in their late 20s would remember an exactly moment as a child which resulted in major events more than decade later. I enjoy Cornwell's books -- they're good reads, with good writing and interesting subjects -- but they're getting a bit formulaic. ( )

This is much better than Blow Fly, with one exception. Cornwell has skipped yet another 5 years and not provided any key details.

Part of the book focuses on Marino more than Scarpetta, which is intriguing but still there is the annoying time gap.

I hope Cornwell's back on the right track here and continues to be less angry in her writing as well as attempting to provide some back story in future installments.

In the meantime, I 'm glad to have Scarpetta back. ( )

Kay Scarpetta is called to Richmond, VA from Florida to consult on a 14 year old girls murder. A serial killer goes after her niece Lucy. ( )

A decent mystery, but I thought that the ending was a bit abrupt. ( )

Typical Scarpetta mystery. Not her best. Not her worst. Most of her main characters are still unlikable, except for Pete Marino. That guy is growing on me.
( )

This novel trips over the surface of the story, the characters, the mystery itself. There is just enough information about each of the characters to give an outline of each, but the omissions do not enlighten in the way, say, Carol O'Connell's do. The main characters are not imperiled enough to create real suspense. The murderer is introduced early and it is obvious that he is such; he does not possess a particularly interesting pathology and presents no challenge to his pursuers.
Skip it. ( )

Bored by page 100. Same old ...
Couldn't be bothered to read further - too many other good books to read. ( )

Not bad, but there's only so much that can be done with one character and it shows here. It all starts to feel rather same old, same old. ( )

another Scarpetta novel! great!!!

you know, i don't know if the problem is mine or cornwell's, but i just don't seem to be enjoying these books much anymore. the plot seems thin in this, the characterization falls apart more than it comes together, and the resolution is anything but satisfying. the one thing that stands out is the inner voice of kay, which seems more brittle and defensive than ever. weird, i know. ( )

just very OK -- the best of the recent ones (BlowFly, Trace and Predator, that is) but thats still not saying much. ( )

I think this is the 13th book in the Scarpetta series.

For Doctor Kay Scarpetta, it has been five long years since she left Richmond, Virginia. Fired from her job as Chief Medical Examiner and run out of town on the proverbial rail, the phone call from her replacement, Dr. Marcus, asking for help is a bit of a shock. He has a case involving a dead 14-year-old girl with no obvious signs as to why she died. Political pressure has been brought to bear on him and he decided to call the one person nobody wanted around five years ago.

Despite her strong misgivings, Dr. Scarpetta agrees to help and travels to Richmond with Pete Marino. While some things have changed, many have not, and she soon has good reason to regret coming back to Richmond. She also regrets the fact that she isn't on vacation as planned in Aspen, Colorado with Benton.

Benton cancelled it at the last minute telling her that she couldn't come. She doesn't know why and all Benton will tell her is that he is working. Scarpetta has no idea that Benton has his hands full with Henri, Lucy's employee, friend and lover, who was recently attacked in Lucy's home. Henri is in Aspen, ostensibly to recover, while Lucy and Rudy work the case in Florida. Lucy has become the target of a deranged psychopath and Henri's damaged psyche may hold the clues to find the man.

Guilt has always been a heavy theme in Cornwell's work almost to the point of being a secondary character. This is certainly true in this novel with its twin themes of guilt and regret where both storylines slowly weave together. And while guilt and regret continue throughout the work, by the end one gets a sense of hope as things seem to be getting better not only in this book but across the mini story arch of the last several books in this long running series.

So too is the overall read, especially as compared to the chaotic mess of the last novel titled "Blow Fly." I think that that her in-depth review of the Jack the Ripper mystery was a huge strain on her and this was reflected in the last few novels. With this one, it finally feels like she is starting to come back aroundto her previous standards.

This work is much more focused and resolved and does not fly off in so many unnecessary tangents as did the last book. Those that expect a more complex final twist may be a bit disappointed as it is readily evident about the midway point who the killer is, though those involved seem to have no clue despite seeing the same clues as the reader.

Hopefully, as symbolized in the book, the author has come through her own rough patch writing wise, and will once again return to the form that made her books compelling and worth reading in the first place. ( )

What can I say, I really like Cornwell... ( )

Plot didn't really move until the last 25% of book, as a result this book was really slow and hard to stick with ( )

Another disappointing delivery from Cornwell that puts Scarpetta and her niece and the center of the story. Where is the Cornwell of old that wrote about cases that Scarpetta solved without being personally involved in?? ( )