Flesh and Blood

Hm, well this book was entertaining but not satisfying. I've read all of Cornwell's Scarpetta novels. They've always given me an unsettling feeling in my stomach -- not because of the violence but because of her main characters' personalities: Kay is always getting upset that Lucy and Benton don't tell her things; Lucy is always having personal issues with her love interests, and these personal issues end up having dire consequences; Marino is always hot-tempered and doesn't know how to hold his tongue; Benton is always keeping secrets from Kay because of his job; etc, etc, etc. I find Cornwell like an addictive drug - I don't particularly like her novels because the characters bother me so much, but the more of her novels I read, the show more more I feel a need to keep reading them. I have no idea why.

I never like how politics and bureaucracy always play a HUGE role in Cornwell's novels. There's always antagonism between the FBI and local police (which is actually expected and realistic), but the antagonism this time has gone so far as to be ridiculous. Additionally, there's always some person in law enforcement who does something underhanded - not necessarily against the law but not by the book either - and it always gets taken care of in far too pat a way.

I wanted more of a mystery to figure out. They mystery was there, but it was completely overshadowed by police politics, scene reconstruction, scattered plot elements that finally pulled together in the end but in a wholly unsatisfying way.

And when we finally find out who's behind all the killings? Very disappointing. And ultimately unresolved, no less! Ugh. show less

One of the problems with formulas, particularly when it comes to book series, and especially series that have been going for longer than the author likely originally expected… I mean, I don’t know how many Scarpetta novels Cornwell set out to write, but twenty-two must be more than she ever envisaged – and the series is currently up to twenty-nine books. She’s maintained an impressive inventiveness in the murders, and the solving of them, over the books I’ve read so far…

But because of the formula, the books demand a villain against whom Scarpetta can pit her expertise and wits, and they’re usually genius-level psychopaths who enjoy planning and executing complicated murders. And good villains are hard to give up, so they show more have a tendency to come back from the dead. Cornwell has already done this once. And she does it here again.

It’s Scarpetta’s birthday and she’s due to go on vacation in Florida with her husband, FBI profiler Benton Wesley. But then, a college music teacher is shot in his driveway by a sniper. Scarpetta has history with the victim. Whose death has similarities to two other murders. Then more deaths – accidental, homicide mistaken for accidental, and actual homicide – seem to be connected… and somewhere in the centre of all this is Scarpetta. So once again, the death and mayhem is all intended to destroy her or her reputation.

Lucy is also involved, and she seems to have a good idea who the killer is. As does Benton. Scarpetta does not figure it out until near the end (long-time readers of the series will probably work it out before Scarpetta). The killer has been hired as a fixer by a corrupt congressman with a sociopathic son, but the fixer seems to have jumped the rails. Americans like their corrupt public officials – they even put one in the White House. Twice.

The ending hews close to the formula – Scarpetta becomes the killer’s target, although not this time because she sets things up so that’s the case: the killer wants her dead for reasons of their own. Of course, the killer fails – there are another seven books in the series to go, after all. But Flesh and Blood does end with one of the most ambiguous cliff-hangers I have ever read.

On the whole, one of the better of the recent Scarpetta novels, so it seems the series is improving. And I’m really looking forward to the television adaptation, starring Nicole Kidman, I believe, in the title role. show less

Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner, has her holiday interrupted when a man is shot dead minutes from her own home. After careful examination, it seems that the person is connected to her: although it's a loose connection it's one that keeps rearing its head, especially when another body is found and connections are made to two other murders.

I do like Cornwell as a writer, but I'm starting to dislike Kay Scarpetta as a character. If Cornwell had made up a new forensic pathologist and FBI agent for every book she had written I can't imagine it would have made a difference to me with reading them: she writes very well and always holds my attention. She is highly intelligent and, from her previous jobs, knows what she's talking about. show more The storyline is apt and usually involves real-life events, which are always interesting to learn about. Very rarely does she veer off-course for some tangent that is irrelevant. Patricia Cornwell is a superb writer.

Scarpetta's constantly being interrupted. It's like she's the only person in the world who can work out how somebody died. Everyone else is incompetent. Nobody is telling her anything. Even her beautiful husband (for whom I have the most absurd soft-spot for ever) always keeps things from her. Another day, another psycho who has it in for her. It's getting boring, though I enjoyed that Marino told her that when they first met he thought she was cold and impersonal (slightly paraphrasing as I don't recall the precise words). I kind of feel like that's how the books are becoming.

Having said that I do love Benton Wesley far too much and Cornwell's writing is sublime. She can keep the suspense like no other and, although it is often mindless drivel spurting out of the brain of Kay Scarpetta, it is still bloody good and much better than some other people. It's more of a 2.5 out of 5 but that's more than I'd give to anyone else. show less

Good read, predictable if you've read the entire series in order, but not boring. My concern is that I saw shades of the angry Cornwell from the middle of the series and I hope that it was actually part of a particular character and not a resurrection of that style of writing. This was one of the few occasions with a series that I was glad I did not have the next book in the house, otherwise I would have started it right then.

Patricia Cornwell’s Flesh and Blood is the twenty-second novel in her series focusing on Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. The story begins with Scarpetta discovering seven polished pennies on her garden wall, all dated 1981. While pondering this, she’s called to the scene of a nearby murder where an acquaintance of hers was shot by a sniper. The mystery compounds as the manner of death ties to two other sniper killings in New Jersey. Meanwhile, back at the Cambridge Forensic Center, other recent deaths are not what they seem. As Scarpetta begins pulling at the strings, she finds that insurance company TPB Insurers links some of the cases.

The company has been harassing Scarpetta for some time since they don’t like that her show more conclusions would require them to pay out on decedents’ policies. Cornwell summarizes Scarpetta’s philosophy, writing, “I can’t undo death but I can make it less unfair” (pg. 36). This way of looking at things runs through most of Scarpetta’s actions and she worries that it is what attracted the killer’s attention. The further Scarpetta digs, the more it becomes clear that she stands at the nexus of this series of crimes. Worse, from the dates on the pennies to the specifics of the crimes, her niece Lucy Farinelli looks more and more like the only viable suspect. Her husband, FBI agent Benton Wesley, and her friend, Detective Pete Marino, become increasingly evasive as the evidence piles up, leading Scarpetta to believe that federal agents are closely scrutinizing Lucy. Scarpetta must decide how best to investigate this crime even if it means finding the guilty among her closest friends and relatives.

Though this is the twenty-second novel in the series, Cornwell catches up the reader on most of the necessary details from the earlier books. While long-time readers might find Flesh and Blood more fulfilling, those looking for a good thriller will be able to enjoy the novel without prior familiarity of the preceding books. In the interest of full disclosure, I won this book from William Morrow through a Member Giveaway on LibraryThing in January 2016. I received it from the publisher in April 2019. show less

This review originally appeared on my blog at www.gimmethatbook.com.

Thanks to the folks at publisher HarperCollins for providing this review copy!

I was dubious about reading this 22nd Scarpetta novel, as the last few were meandering, self absorbed, and boring. Thank goodness Cornwell seems to be back to letting action tell the tale, rather than have Kay muse constantly about how people treat her and how everything is a mystery. There is some of that here; Benton and Lucy seem uncommunicative at times, Marino is still angry, and Kay obsesses over how Marino describes her as cold and impersonal:

“You and me both,” Marino says as if something else is on his mind. “People shouldn’t get away with shit, I don’t care who they show more are.”

“Cold and impersonal,” I consider as if I’m amused but I’m not.

“I said sort of.”

“You’ve waited all this time to tell me that?”

“I’ve said it before including behind your back. You’re different now.”

“I was that bad back then?”

“Yeah and I was an asshole,” he says. “We deserved each other.”

Benton and Kay are hours away from flying to Florida for a week of vacation to celebrate Kay’s birthday when she is called to the scene of a shooting. As she investigates further she realizes that this may be linked to other shootings, as the victims are all somehow connected to her. There is a sleazy insurance investigator that is stalking Scarpetta, a 14 year old drowning victim that needs to be autopsied, and bizarre behavior from a congressman’s trouble son. Eventually all this comes together to implicate Lucy as the sniper–she has the ways and means, and may be going off the deep end. It’s up to her own flesh and blood, Scarpetta, to get to the bottom of everything.

The book is certainly better than the last few, but not as good as the first 8 or so. That being said, there is plenty of forensic science, autopy action, and a long and complicated section on guns, bullets, ammunition loads, and computerized scopes that can give minimally experienced shooters an edge on accuracy.

I want to say that I figured out fairly early on who they were alluding to as the killer, but I won’t spoil it here. Suffice it to say that there was plenty of things to keep me interested, as all the subplots got wrapped up and the tension built. The last few pages fly along as Benton and Scarpetta go on a dive to recover evidence. Just as I was relaxing and enjoying the last page—-BOOM! It ends on a cliffhanger; very out of character for Cornwell. Not my favorite type of ending, but this is a good way to ensure that people will be salivating for your next book.

Overall, I did enjoy it, as the characters seemed to be more of their normal selves. For the Greyhound lovers, Sock is still Scarpetta’s faithful companion, and I enjoyed how she and Benton seemed at ease and still in love in the beginning of the book. Let’s hope Cornwell keeps the good stuff coming. show less

I can't quite pinpoint what it was about this book, but there was something that bothered me more than usual about this latest Scarpetta Series book (which I think have been pretty bad over the last few years). This one started out by confusing me with what was happening. I felt like I had suddenly tuned into a conversation between a party of people that I knew nothing about. The events being discussed in the first several chapters had me confused and wondering how it related to what would be happening throughout the rest of the book. *Start rant. To skip over, go to paragraph four.*

Thankfully after the first few chapters, it started to get a little more interesting because there had a been a murder and Scarpetta with her trusty husband show more Benton Wesley, her conniving niece Lucy, and volatile cop friend Marino jump in to try to save the day and figure out "who done it". This is where things started to yet again go south. I think Patricia Cornwell needs to get everyone out of the routine of lying, withholding information, and giving too much information. The earlier books were so good because you knew who to trust and they were truly about finding the bad guy. The latest books (this one included) are too much about trying to figure out Scarpetta's closest relations through her point of view. For instance: "Why is Benton not telling me things?" (Seriously, it's because it's part of his FBI job and if you can't get over his withholding of information, then maybe you shouldn't be with him.) "Why is Lucy being so distant and why does she keep lying/not telling me things?" (Because Lucy first makes sure that she is correct and that the timing is right for everything that she does and says. Scarpetta (and Benton for that matter) has analyzed Lucy for years and it's pretty obvious that Lucy's affinity for doing/telling things only when they benefit her will never change.) "Why is Marino such a loud mouthed ass?" (Clearly Marino has been an ass since book one and since Scarpetta has married Benton, Marino has felt the need to one up and attempt to humiliate Benton as much as he can, which unfortunately pisses off multiple people and agencies in the process.)

So, since we have gotten all the negative emotions that Scarpetta has throughout this book (their answers contrived from the earlier books in the series) we should be able to actually have a normal plot right? Right! Except, by this point, the book would be down to about 150 pages. Then Cornwell has the gall to not even wrap up the book sufficiently, which then forces you to buy whatever the next Scarpetta book will be in this never ending, downward-spiraling series that has become more about the dysfunctional relationships between the characters than about catching the "bad guys" and hearing about the tactics and tools used to catch them. *End Rant*

Overall though, it was very interesting the way multiple murders wove together by the end of the story and I definitely did not see "it coming" so to speak. I am getting a little sick of dysfunction between the main characters (Kay, Benton, Lucy, and Marino) and think the series would get better gain if we could focus on what the series started with - who is the bad guy and how are we going to catch them? Please get it together Cornwell, I'm not sure I can stand more books like these last few. show less