The wooden dialogue, totally cliche black-or-white characters and obvious self-insertion overrode any attempt at plot. ( )

Awesome, awesome, awesome....what more can I say. The dialogue was believable and the emotions were real. Yes, the end was predictable, but the action and suspense throughout the novel had me on the edge of my seat not wanting to put the book down! ( )

It took me awhile to get into this. The author was going for realism and early on I found myself bogged down with jargon and struggling to remember who was who, or even who was speaking during conversations, which seems to have been left intentionally vague for effect. On page 66 someone addressed a Kay and I wondered “who’s Kay?” (Kay is the main character). I got into it eventually and enjoyed it well enough, though I found parts of it far-fetched, especially that the house was never fully searched when Emily went missing so her body lay undiscovered in the basement for six days. I may try more PC but I probably won’t read any more in this series. ( )

This was Becky's book club book ( )

I have enjoyed rereading Patricia Cornwell’s novels featuring Dr Kay Scarpetta, nearly thirty years after I read them for the first time. This was an interesting one as I think it marked the point at which, first time around, I started tio feel that Cornwell was possible losing her grip.

I had found her four previous novels to be very good, with a pleasing blend of cleverly-constructed plots peopled by plausible and often empathetic characters. While this was still a strong novel, the plot was neither as believable nor as watertight as in the earlier books.

As the novel opens, Dr Scarpetta is at Quantico, FBI headquarters, having just commenced a role as a consultant to the Bureau, working alongside the suave, sophisticated Special Agent Benton Wesley and the significantly less polished Police Captain Pete Marino as part of the ViCAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Programme). They meet for a case conference to discuss the discovery of the body of a young girl, from whose body strips of flesh have been removed. This is reminiscent of a recent case that the three of them had worked in which the perpetrator was identified, but not arrested. They believe that he may have struck again. The investigation proceeds, with leads being inconclusive.

Meanwhile, Dr Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy Farinelli, who has emerged through the earlier books as a technological wizard, has been inducted into formal training at Quantico, and is working on certain classified projects. However, while Scarpetta and Co are away investigating this latest murder, Lucy’s behaviour becomes erratic, and various allegations are made against her, leading to her suspension.

I felt that Cornwell failed to make the various threads of this hydra-headed plot cohere, and the behaviour of the main protagonists degenerates into the frankly unbelievable. That was my judgement when I first read this book, and it remains the same now. ( )