Blow Fly

The twelfth book in the series featuring Dr Kay Scarpetta. Unlike the preceding books, this one is written in third-person POV, with lots of chapters written from different characters’ viewpoints. Scarpetta has resigned as Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia, is now freelance and lives in Florida.

Her niece Lucy, and an ex-FBI colleague who has since joined the Last Precinct (Lucy’s private security company), have tracked down Rocco Caggiano (mob lawyer and Marino’s estranged son) to a hotel in Poland. They kill him. In Texas, serial killer Jean-Baptiste Chandonne, the one covered in hair like Cousin It, is on death row. His twin brother, Jay Talley, ex-FBI, ex-Interpol, and also a serial killer, is in show more Louisiana, killing women. But the police there are so inept and corrupt, they’re clueless.

The Baton Rouge coroner asks for Scarpetta’s help in solving a cold case, the wife of a local millionaire, who allegedly died of an accidental drug overdose. Then it turns out someone everyone thought was dead is actually still alive and secretly manipulating everyone in order to have his revenge on the Chandonne family. It all links together.

It is, frankly, stretching it a bit to consider everything in the preceding eleven books to have all been part of some complicated story-arc involving a French gangster family, but Cornwell tries her best to stitch it all together. I’m reminded of Asimov’s attempt to turn his robot and Foundation stories into one big future history, which may have been more ambitious but was just as hard to swallow.

The change from first-person to third-person is initially a bit weird, but you soon get used to it. Unfortunately, Cornwell hops about a lot, and each hop is a fresh chapter. So there are a *lot* of chapters, most of which are very short. Also, the story jumps about a great deal - Florida, Poland, Texas, Louisiana… It makes it feel a bit disjointed. And it doesn’t help that the manipulator steps out of the shadows at the end and kills all the baddies.

I like Scarpetta as a character, and if she often seemed implausibly overset by difficulties and enemy machinations, she was also a leader in her field and it showed. The whole Chandonne thing never really seemed believable – the way past events slotted into it was too neat and convenient. Hopefully, now the main actors in it are dead, Cornwell can move onto something else. I mean, clearly she moved onto *something*, as there are a further ten books in the series. I guess I’ll find out what. show less

I started liking this book when she for once seemed to be steering away from the usual overdescription of wonderful dwellings, cars etc, but sadly she reverted to type. And the story also was unusual and kept me reading, but with a deeply disappointing end, where it appears that the author got fed up with writing it and brings it to a very sudden and unsatisfactory conclusion - while, of course, leaving a thread hanging on which to hook another novel.

Six years ago Benton Wesley was tortured and murdered. Since then life has become exceedingly difficult for Kay Scarpetta. Serial Killer Jean Baptiste Chardonne, the unwanted son of a crime cartel family, tried to make Kay one of his victims. When he was caught, he tried to turn the situation around and Kay was forced to go before a grand jury to defend her reputation and honor. Her one time lover Jay Talley, Jean-Baptist's fraternal twin, used her to find out if Benton told her anything about the Chardonne crime cartel.
Unable to live in her precious Virginia home, Kay moved to Del Rey Beach, Florida working as a free lance consultant. Talley and his lover are fugitives living in the bayou near Baton Rouge where ten women in fourteen show more months have disappeared. Jean-Baptiste is days away from state execution and wants to see Scarpetta. Marino's son is a lawyer for the Chardonne family and is a threat to all of Kay's friends. All those people are being played by one of the world's most intelligent puppet masters.

Patricia Cornwell is crafty in her use of the English language. She is able to play on the emotions of her readers. She has the rare skill of inducing discomfort in her readers' minds. "Blowfly" was written at the time that she seemed to have more compasion for her characters. Her more recent endeavous almost reads like she hates them. show less

First Read: March 2006
Re-read: May 2017

When I first read Blow Fly I hated the switch to third person that Cornwell uses in this book for the first time. I disliked the multiple POVs and felt that the whole plot was disjointed as a result. On a second read I found the multiple narrators less of an issue - because I was expecting it this time round - and it was interesting to see how the other characters in Kay's world viewed her and their places in her life. I enjoyed the interconnected plots and how Blow Fly ties up a lot of loose threads from previous books whilst opening a new storyline for the next book. I also love the fact that Benton is back and alive and Kay now knows about him!

Rating: 4/5 stars

I thought the shift in writing style was due to the different nature of the last book but it continues in this book. Not only that, the characters make some decisions that shocked me somewhat, and the reactions of the other characters to the actions also surprised me. It’s all got morally “grey” and fuzzy round the edges. Also very very dark, and there is a distinct diversion from plausibility in places. Still - gripping and now I have to find out what happens next.

It has been a long while since I visited the world of Kay Scarpetta. In this installment of the series, Kay Scarpetta is a forensic pathologist, former Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia. She is called in to consult on the death of a wealthy woman who died of a drug overdose. Kay soon discovers that her death is tied into the organized crime family, the Chandonnes, with whom Kay has had intimate dealings with before. Jean-Baptiste Chandonne, the Wolf Man, sits on death row and is demanding an audience with Kay, wanting to share family secrets that could lead to the undoing of his family. Jay Talley, the fraternal twin of Jean-Baptiste, and his girlfriend, Bev Kiffin, are hiding out in the bayou where a rash of serial murders are show more occurring.

I found this book to be different from her previous ones in the series, the focus less about the crime and more about the loss, deception and relationships of the characters. In a way, it was a refreshing change from the dark and tension filled books Ms. Cornwell has given us in the past. I did like Blow Fly over all, although I admit that I missed the tension build up from her previous books--I just didn't feel it this time--and the ending disappointed me. In a way, it fit with the perspective that Ms. Cornwell was focusing not so much on the serial killings and Jean-Baptiste (those were mere subplots it seemed, quickly handled and disregarded in the end) and more so on the relationships. However, Ms. Cornwell spent so much time "in the heads" of all these characters that the ending felt rushed and was not very satisfying. show less

I almost didn't read the book because of the reviews but I hate to miss a book when reading a series. I'm glad I didn't listen to them. Great book...I couldn't put it down. It is a different delivery method for Patricia Cornwell but overall it kept the information portion of the book exciting. It answers a lot of questions about things that happened in the past novels. If you are not reading the series don't waste your time you won't understand anything that happened but if you are reading the series I recommend refreshing your memory on some of the earlier novels before reading blowfly.