Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, MD and Detective/Lieutenant Marino team together to solve the brutal stabbing death of a local author. Other murders ensue and the plot thickens.
I have gone back to read this book after reading over 10 other Scarpetta novels. The plot is much tighter than her later novels. The characters are not as drab and as depressing in much later novels. Scarpetta smokes and it's really annoying as Cornwell tends to fill a lot of her pages with this activity. Marino isn't as nasty and is less subterfuge with his emotions. No Lucy either. Things are better before things got too complex. ( )

This book isn't going to win any awards but it is a quick read that kept me fully engaged throughout. ( )

I picked up this book having never read any Patricia Cornwell before after remembering that I'd seen it high up on a 'best crime novels' list. I enjoyed the book a lot, but don't think I'd rank it as one of my top crime novels of all time.

I found the characters engaging on the whole, although Marino's dialogue grated on my nerves after a while ('squirrel'? Really? Perhaps I'm just not up to date with my americanisms...). I also enjoyed the plot, which whilst not 'head under bedclothes scary' as the cover claimed, was pretty gripping.

Whilst I won't be rushing out to buy any more Cornwell just now, I will probably read more of her stuff in future and would definitely recommend her to anyone who enjoys a good crime novel. ( )

Not one of Cornwell's best. The story takes a long time to get going and the ending all seems to come at once in the last dozen or so pages. A reasonable read, but there are other Scarpetta books which are better. ( )

2002