From Potter's Field

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Marino and of course, FBI Agent Benton Wesley investigate the death of a frozen naked woman propped openly in Central Park. Their path leads them to the parents of a psychotic serial killer, one of whom can see nothing wrong about her son and the other parent who would only see his if pointing a shotgun at the son's face. The woman's identity is a shock.

The plot here is sometimes scatty and random. I tend not to like books full of random killings, without rhyme or reason. Here the "randomness" is chilling, and Tenple Gault is a super villain, who curdles the blood. He is just so...hateable. You loathe him absolutely. Especially when you find out how he treats his sister. You just hate him even more.

First read: 2005
Re-read: March 2016
Rating: 4/5 stars

The plot: Temple Gault, the killer that got away in ‘Cruel and Unusual’ is back and killing again. Scarpetta and her team must track him down once and for all before he kills anyone else.

What I liked:
- Kay’s struggle with her emotions when it comes to Benton, Lucy and the other members of her family make her seem very real and relatable.
- Marino’s protective feelings for Kay seem genuine and I liked seeing a nicer side to him here.
- Cornwell builds so much tension throughout the story; it seems like Gault is almost omnipotent and unbeatable while Kay feels more and more trapped by him.
- The scene where Kay meets Gault’s parents is well-written; both his mother and father show more have struggled so hard with what their son has become and they are dealing with in very different ways. They were very tragic figures and Cornwell did a good job at showing us that they were also victims of Gault in their own way.
- The final New York scene is clever and I like that Lucy’s skills are also needed to help beat Gault (along with police in New York); it isn’t just Scarpetta against the killer.

What I didn’t like:
- Near the start of the book Scarpetta says that she has been chasing Gault for ‘several years.’ I am really confused as to how time passes in this series. If we add up the amount of time that has passed between Post-Mortem to now, it must be about twelve years yet no one has aged except Lucy who has gone from being thirteen in P-M to being in her early twenties by FPF. Everyone else, including Scarpetta, is still in their mid-forties.
- I agree with some of the other reviewers here that the final confrontation with Gault was way too short. In less than a paragraph he is stabbed and killed. After such a long build-up I felt like we should’ve seen more of an interaction between Kay and Gault. show less

I cannot help but think that this style of thriller--it is not really a mystery--errs by being over done. I perversely begin to almost root for Temple Gault. He is almost too mythical. Real killers are evil, but also banal and shabby. Some shabbiness comes through in his drug addiction, but he is just too clever. Stories with real insight into police and ME procedure and real insight into the psychopathic criminal mind are much more satisfying.

Another great book from Madame Medical Investigator Author Patricia Cornwell. Always well-researched, this time the book causes Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Marino and of course, FBI Agent Benton Wesley to investigate the death of a frozen naked woman propped openly in Central Park. Their path leads them to the parents of a psychotic serial killer, one of whom can see nothing wrong about her son and the other parent who would only see his if pointing a shotgun at the son's face. The woman's identity is a shock, as is Scarpetta's handiness with a side-arm. A must-read!

Despite a somewhat abrupt and rushed ending after three novels of drawn out suspense, Cornwell does not let up in 'From Potter's Field.' Excellently told and paced well, Cornwell's 6th book in the Scarpetta series is a rollercoaster adventure which follows Scarpetta, Marino and Wesley as they try to catch the serial killer Temple Gault, who is haunting the country.

Only 9 stars because of the ending, but also because the depiction of Gault at times is contradictory, meaning that the reader is left feeling slightly confused about him. Despite being the calculated criminal mastermind we are led to believe he is, moving around the country with ease: leaving no trace evidence, hacking into the FBI's computer system and speaking fluent show more Italian; we are led to believe he is also hooked on crack and desperate for money, meaning that he is reckless, against premeditative. You'd think after three novels following him, he'd be an easy character to grasp, but I found myself feeling like I was reading about 2 serial killers, with very different personalities. show less

So glad to be done with this extended Temple Gault plot, and it will be interesting to see if Cornwell reverts to a one-mystery-per-book format in the next one. The most fascinating part of this was Kay's interrogation of Gault's parents, and it was over too soon. The rest of the book was made up with extensive travelling back and forth between New York, Virginia and South Carolina. The relationships between Kay and her niece Lucy as well as between Kay and Wesley are not developed or resolved much at all.
I expected the final confrontation with Gault to be climactic, and it was, but there was little denouement or resolution to the tale; Gault's reasons, motivations, most of his history are not explored. Although the chase of him was show more pretty suspenseful and detailed, I don't feel very satisfied with the case as a whole. Hopefully, though, now that he's been caught, we can get back to the basics of Kay's expertise and finding killers because of clues a Medical Examiner would find on the body. show less

Although I started this book several months ago, I only finished it 2-3 days ago. I am concurrently reading the Scarpetta Series by Patricia Cornwell and the Temperance Brennan Series by Kathy Reichs and found myself overwhelmed with medical terminology.
Needles to say that I was a bit out of my league and needed a break. So, for the last 2-3 months, I've read neither series. I am glad to have finished this book though.


*Spoiler Alert*

I enjoyed the story overall. I did find it somewhat slow in comparison to previous instalments in the series. I believe there could have been more action and perhaps a better ending. I found the ending to be rather anticlimactic. I was expecting more, maybe a shootout or something. I do t know, it just made show more Gault seem rather childish and I never perceived him to be that way.

Anyways, rant over. It was a good book, even if not my fave in the series so far. Not one I would re-read, but worth finishing that particular story line all the same. If you're reading the series, don't miss it, it's important. show less