Predator

Patricia Cornwell has done such damage to all of her main characters that I think she must really hate them. They aren't evolving, they're corroding! Kay has become a wimp, Pete and Lucy have become caricatures of their former personas, and Benton has even less humanity than before. to top it off they ALL whine. I don't know where Cornwell is going with this, but I hope she will restore them to their former happy, likable, if somewhat neurotic selves. I don't like the change in Scarpetta's personality. Also the novel ends abruptly.

Now I’m around halfway into this series (twenty-eight novels to date), it’s probably a little too late to wonder why I continue to read them. True, I like series, I like TV series about forensic pathology (fictional ones), and I’m a sucker for crime novels that show some real science (and real computing). Cornwell does all three. Unfortunately, her central characters seem to be becoming more super-competent with each new novel, just as her villains are becoming even more super-villainous.

The French mobster family seems to have been defeated, but now there’s another psychopath after Scarpetta. Or perhaps not. Lucy has been diagnosed with a brain tumour, a visiting fellow at the forensic academy Scarpetta runs in Florida is show more undermining her, and poisoning her relationship with Marino, and a series of unexplained deaths nearby appear to have something to do with it all.

Except they don’t. There’s a new psychopath in town, and this time she has multiple personality disorder - so she’s all the bad guys rolled into one! There are a couple of clever forensic deductions made, but not as many as in earlier novels. In fact, it all feels a bit vague - a possible villain who turns out to be a red herring, and an actual villain whose links to all of the major characters is a little forced and whose motivation is actually not related to the main characters’ history.

I’m not sure I really like these novels - or at least I’d not call myself a fan - but I read them the way I watch episodes of a crime or police procedural TV series. My expectations are low, but I’m invested in the characters, and as long as the stories have a beginning, middle and end, then I’m happy. I’ve been watching a lot of Rizzoli & Isles of late and, like the Scarpetta series, each “season” seems to have a secret villain bent on destroying one or more of the central cast. It’s almost like it’s a formula…

I live in hope that a novel series will show a little more creativity than a TV series, and while it’s true, I think, that Cornwell has indeed done that, I’m not so sure that her “creativity” has improved the series. But I have 14 books to go, and it’s not unreasonable to hope things will improve. Writers do indeed get better the more they write, usually… show less

Scarpetta has a mole in her Academy, and doesn't even suspect it, she only knows that the people around her who she trusts the most are not behaving in their normal way. On top of that she is trying to sort out some very twisted murders and feels that she is being led by the nose.
I took the liberty of sitting and reading this all in one day. It is that kind of writing, the pace is fast, the mystery good as well as the writing. However, I probably won't read any more Cornwell books. Her stories are grittier and harder to read than I enjoy. For those who like such stories, this would be a great book.

Maybe because this was a bridged version, but I found the ending crazy -- suddenly the 'bad guy' is caught and the case is solved and you find out how all the pieces fit together as the characters recall the events instead of witnessing them unfold. Poor storytelling, I think.
This book doesn't work too well in audio form because there are too many POVs and the dialogues lack tags, so it was difficult to figure out what was going on at times.
Okay as a thriller/mystery, but not great on the literary front.

Credit where credit is due: I hate books written in the present tense AND I went into this book expecting a forensic mystery.

That being said, the pacing was terrible, the book was so overstuffed that at one point, in the middle of discussing a crime scene we get step by step details of the main character cooking a risotto and the most minute of characters (characters who were mentioned on less than two pages) were given names and personalities. The ending was the most trite thing imaginable and several plot holes were left unfilled.

By far, the best thing about this book was the forensics -- full of luminol and superglue fuming; however, forensics took a far back seat to the life details of every minor character.

7/10
The central mysteries are baffling and the solution, unveiled rather abruptly, is surprising at first but less so upon reflection. Yet there are so many loose ends left hanging!
Unfortunately, the downsides of this book dampened my appreciation of the mysteries and their solution. Too many of the major continuing characters have become more than unlikable—it’s getting hard to even care about them. Marino’s depression and the side effects of antidepressants, Lucy’s medical problem and the side effects of her medication, as well as the consequences of her medical issue itself, Benton’s inaccessibility and obsession with his cases, and Kay’s frustration with everyone around her—it’s all a bit much. Doesn’t anyone ever show more talk to anyone else? Apparently not. Too many secrets festering in the dark, and I don’t mean just with the murderers and their victims. show less

I got this one on CD's to find out whether I like Patricia Cornwell/Kay Scarpetta any more than I used to...and no, I don't. The problem with Cornwell and this book is that there is no one to like. It's not just that all her characters have flaws; they are mostly despictable. Not people you want to hang around with. They seem to have no graces nor virtues except efficiency (eventually). And on this CD, the reading of Marino's character was awful. He sounded like a teen age biker wannabe. Tough guy, right? I will give my points for plot, because you do want to know what's going to happen next (nothing good) and how the whole thing is going to get resolved. With a twist, but no happy endings here.
But if there are no good guys, why do you show more care? show less