Trace

First read: March 2006
Re-Read: July-August 2017

The plot: Cornwell weaves two separate plots together in Trace. The first is from the perspective of Kay Scarpetta as she is called back to her old office in Virginia to help out on a case that the current chief medical examiner doesn't want to deal with. A fourteen year old girl named Gilly Paulsson is found dead in her bed with no obvious signs for the cause of death.

The second plot is from the perspective of Kay's niece Lucy, who has called Benton to help with an attack that occurred at her home, where her work colleague/lover Henri was assaulted by an intruder.

I really enjoyed re-reading Trace. The third person/present tense style of writing was a little disconcerting at first, but I show more quickly got used to it and began to enjoy the story. I liked the way the plotlines tied together and I still really enjoy reading about the lives of Kay Scarpetta, Benton, Lucy and Marino and everything they go through.

Rating: 4/5 stars show less

The thirteenth book of Cornwell’s series about pathologist Kay Scarpetta, no longer Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and her second using third-person POV narratives. It follows straight from the previous book, Blow Fly, and in fact continues a story arc begun in earlier novels. Hairy wolfman killer is in the wind after escaping from prison (apparently not that difficult, even for someone as distinctive in appearance). Meanwhile, his brother is holed up in the bayous, and responsible for a string of disappearances that no one seems particularly interested in, at least no one in the police departments there.

Scarpetta is called back to Richmond to help investigate the mysterious death of a teenage girl. Scarpetta show more soon comes to despise her replacement as chief medical examiner, and also discovers the girl was murdered. And one narrative is from the killer’s POV, revealing he is an ex-employee of the Scarpetta’s from years before. He’s fastened onto Lucy as a way of having revenge on Scarpetta, and has been stalking her. Unfortunately for him, Lucy is not to be trifled with.

After eleven books written from Scarpetta’s POV as first-person narratives, Blow Fly came as a surprise. Nor was it, I think, entirely successful. Trace makes a better fist of it, but the plot still feels like it’s treading water. The teenage girl’s murder is an interesting forensic puzzle, and cleverly resolved. But the rest feels like pieces being moved around just to clean up a couple of untidy narrative threads from earlier books.

Blow Fly marked a definite change in the series, and Traces continues that: Scarpetta as freelance consultant, Lucy closer to vigilante than private detective, serial killers with beefs against Scarpetta conspiring somewhere in the background… The narrative style works better than Blow Fly, but the whole series is in danger of flying off the rails as its characters become even more super-competent. Still, plenty more books to go before I’m caught up, so we shall see… show less

It’s been years since I’ve picked up a Kay Scarpetta novel, but Patricia Cornwell has the fantastic knack for keeping the characters familiar, no matter how much time has passed or what events have taken place in the intervening books. Things happen in one book that change who the characters are in the following books, how they think and behave, but it’s easy to fall right back into their lives. Cornwell fills in the necessary information without tedious spoon-feeding.

In Trace, Kay Scarpetta is called back to Richmond, VA after 5 years to assist in an investigation; for which the current Chief Medical Examiner is none-too-happy about. The teen death that Kay is investigating has unusual ties to the accidental death of a show more construction worker at the demolition site of Kay’s former coroner office. And then evidence ties the suspect, a former employee of Kay’s, to a stalking case Lucy (Kay’s niece) is investigating in Florida; her own stalker.

Like every Scarpetta novel, I enjoyed the mystery involved in this one. Unlike others I have read, this one had more emotion; Kay hating the new Chief Medical Examiner, Marino desiring Kay and despising himself for it, and Lucy bitter for choices she has made. I wish there had been more suspense, more twisting turns, and more leading clues. I was left unsatisfied. I feel as if several threads were left unexplained. Like why was everyone getting sick? Or what does the reoccurring eye drawing mean? I’m okay with things not always being neat and tidy. But if it was a theme that was important enough to reoccur, then I would like to understand why.
Overall though, it was an entertaining and quick read. I think I’ll pick up another one. Made me miss Kay Scarpetta’s adventures. show less

This was my first Scarpetta novel, so I must admit to having to Wikipedia to resort to some context, which, in itself was mildly annoying - I never knew what was new and what was implied knowledge... this combined with Lucy's over-the-top personality, the complicated relationship with Benton, and the extremely complicated story and I had a hard time getting into the story.
This said, I really liked Scarpetta's personality, her relationship with Marino, the decor and the scientific appeal to the story...
I think that going back to the beginning would give me a better appreciation for the series; worth a try!

Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta is called back to her old stomping grounds of Richmond, Virginia to consult on the mysterious death of a 14 year old girl. Joined by her good friend, Marino, the two set out to uncover the truth despite their presence not being completely welcome by the new chief medical examiner of the state. Meanwhile, Kay’s niece Lucy is working on her own investigation with the help of Benton and Rudy, trying to unravel the motive and identity of a possible stalker who attempted to murder someone in Lucy’s employ.

Like her previous book in the series, Trace has not been too popular among the circle of readers I associate with. And so it was with a bit of reluctance that I picked up the latest installment in the show more series to read. About 120 or so pages into the book, I finally was hooked into the story. I enjoyed the book overall, but like Blow Fly, was disappointed with the ending. It seemed anticlimactic. Whereas in Blow Fly I was able to convince myself that the story was much more about the relationships of the characters, I am not able to do that with Trace. Ms. Cornwell spends a lot of time creating and weaving the story together and yet when it comes time to reach the conclusion, it feels almost as if the reader is left out in the cold. With a snap of the finger, the case is resolved, the killer caught and little explanation is made as to how the characters made that final leap other than a quick sentence or two after the fact. It leaves me feeling like I must have missed something. She left a lot of loose ends as well, with very little explanation for much of what happened or was happening. The character development was poor. I will definitely think twice before reading another book by Patricia Cornwell. Her last three books have been really disappointing. show less

This was not Cornwell's best work. It was very interesting with Dr. Kay Scarpetta as usual, but she returned to Richmond to help with a case but is not very welcome there. She doesn't get much information and I'm really surprised she stayed but when she did the autopsy. she realized the poor young girl was murdered and Dr. Scarpetta will not stop until she finds the murderer. But toward the end after the big build up, the end just felt rushed and thrown together. Like she needed to finish things before a deadline. Give us some credit and follow through with a more thorough ending.

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 show more 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. show less