Cruel and Unusual

This is one of Cornwell’s many books in the Kay Scarpetta series—the fourth of 29. Scarpetta is a forensic pathologist in Virginia (and later in the series Florida). In this one, she starts out with a routine examination of the body of an executed murderer, but things spiral quickly: other murders happen, in ways that echo the crimes of the executed guy, and bizarrely a lot of the forensic evidence points to him. But he’s dead. So he can’t have done them. So who did? Unless he’s still alive. Etc.

These early Scarpetta books now read like the blueprints for TV series in the CSI mould. There’s a lot of really detailed and really realistic forensics, body part names and exit wounds and all. The detail is not just in the show more forensics, and at times it becomes too much. A decent amount of the plot involves messing about with computers, and we arguably don’t really need quite so much explanation of exactly how to navigate Unix operating systems and terminal networks. It’s never quite overwhelming, but it’s dense at times.

Oddly, up against this concrete realism, there’s a fair amount of magic happening, partly in the content and partly in the plotting. So far as content goes, the forensic stuff that Scarpetta does is augmented by what she can call in from her FBI contacts, who use their mystical powers to divine all sorts of things about down jackets and their precise composition and such. There’s a faintly conservative streak detectable here. The FBI are all-powerful and infinitely just. The police and the law generally are entirely for the good, save the odd deviant. It’s an almost touching faith.

As for plotting magic: the core mystery and thrill is knotty, puzzling, and satisfying, if ultimately resolved bathetically. But a lot of the peripherals strain credulity. For one thing, Scarpetta seems to get far more involved in actual police work than a pathologist should. Perhaps things were really that loose in the 1990s. Perhaps not. For another, more incredible thing, the only person who can possibly deal with all the computer stuff is Scarpetta’s teenage niece, who’s summoned from Florida and effectively brought onto the case. Right, so the Feds and similar can find out where exactly a feather came from, but need geeky teen relatives to work out who accessed a terminal and messed around with the files. It’s a pretty transparent way to reintroduce and bed in characters who are intended to stick around for the long haul of a series. Besides the plot strain, this bloats the book somewhat. You might think that it’s better for having some human-relation byplay between niece and aunt; you might think it would be better without it and 100 pages shorter (435 in paperback, mine, though a generous point size).

Overall, the book stands up still where a lot of its contemporary peers don’t any longer: it delivers some tension and some mystery and some satisfying detail without feeling painfully dated. A decent read. show less

Patricia Cornwell’s early novels featuring Dr Klay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Virginia, were great commercial and critical successes. They combined detailed insight into forensic procedures with well-constructed plots and highly plausible characters. This was the first on them that I read, shortly after it was published in the early 1990s, and I was sufficiently impressed to go back and read the preceding volumes in the series, and then to await its successors.

With the benefit of hindsight, I view this as perhaps the last of the good books in the series – hereafter, I think that the quirks of some of the characters began to predominate, to the detriment of the books as a whole.

Reading it again nearly thirty show more years later, this still seems a good plausible novel – even the advances in the various avenues of technology that feature don’t detract from the impact of the novel. show less

There is no doubt Patricia Cornwell knows her stuff. She worked in a medical examiner's office for 6 years, and I'm sure when Cruel and Unusual was written she had some amazing insight into the world of forensic science. I'm sure this made the novel a riveting read and her knowledge on the topic must have put the book over the top for many readers during the time. Unfortunately, that was in 1993. We now live in the "CSI" world, where forensic science can be found in just about every media outlet imaginable.

That alone doesn't make Cruel and Unusual a bad novel. Quite the opposite, you would think that would make it more desirable for many people. I agree, and the forensic science is certainly interesting, the problem is the book feels show more like it is entirely hinged on this single aspect, and this alone is not enough to make a novel worth reading.

I didn't like the characters much, Kay was flat as the spider I squooshed with the book a couple days ago and her niece was obnoxious until the very end. The story meandered more than I liked, I wondered several times why I was still reading it, and the ending just sucked, plain and simple. It took me 8 days to read this simple little mystery because I just wasn't enjoying it, and kept finding exuses to not read it.

I'm not sure why so many people like these books. Maybe I enjoyed it less because I didn't read the first few books. Regardless, I can say with confidence I won't bother with them, or the subsequent installments, and I'm happy to dust my hands off and finally be on my way! 2 stars. show less

This was my first foray into the world of Kay Scarpetta and her medical examiner world. I admit I don't read a lot of suspense books as they've never really been my genre. Though I'll be honest, this book felt incomplete. It had a great build up, had you wanting to turn the page to find the next clue. Rarely did we stumble across a completely useless red herring (which I don't think we had space to find). However, it didn't feel like it had a true climax, a true denouement to the book. It just stopped.

The writing was good and makes it worth sticking in my collection. But I just couldn't find a satisfaction with the ending. Instead I feel compelled to find if the plot line is completed in the next book.

Re-read: Oct-Nov 2015
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The plot: Kay is dealing with three separate cases - the autopsy of an executed prisoner, the murder of a young boy, and the apparent suicide of a middle aged woman who was a self-professed psychic. When another murder occurs Kay becomes convinced that all of these cases are linked to each other.

While I enjoyed this book a lot, I felt it wasn't as strong as the previous novels in the series. Kay is still a wonderful, strong female character with an interesting job and I like her relationships with Marino, Lucy and Benton. However I felt like there was a story missing in between this novel and the last one as there have been a major development in Kay's personal life that was almost completely show more skimmed over. I also felt that the way the killer was found was a little rushed at the end.

Overall while this was an entertaining, page-turning book, it doesn't quite match up to the high standard of the rest of the series. show less

WARNING: If you intend to read this as a part of the Scarpetta series and haven't read the previous three books, you might not want to read this review.

Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta's duties include autopsies of inmates executed by the state of Virginia. Her latest proves to be a little unusual. Then, when other people connected to the case start dying and the fingerprint of the executed man shows up at the scene, Kay's office is called into question. She's trying to solve several murders, as well as clear her name.
I liked Kay a little bit more in this book. She's not all meloncholy and pining over Mark, because he's dead (a fact revealed in the first chapter that made me feel like I must have missed something, or skipped one of show more the books in the series. I didn't; this information is just dropped on us rather unceremoniously). I like her relationship with her niece, Lucy, who is becoming quite the computer genius. I liked detective Marino more, too. He seems to have really shaped up since his wife left him (something that totally did happen in the last book). He's less overtly racist, sexist and crude.
The mystery concerning these murders and their link to the executed man is fascinating, with just the right amount of technical detail and a very realistic timeline. I will continue to read this series. show less

The best of the Kay Scarpetta books I've read yet!

'Cruel and Unusual' is Cornwell at her finest. The mystery this time is a real puzzle, the death of a young boy with chunks cut out of his skin, found covered with the fingerprints of a man who has been serving over 10 years in prison, and is executed the day of the crime.

In this book, the reader really gets to know the characters Scarpetta, Wesley and Marino, and tension and suspense builds up throughout, due to paranoia, politics, and pretty damn good writing! This was a very difficult one to put down, and leaves the reader on a cliffhanger, itching to read the next novel.