Mmm a strange one. These characters were so annoying I wanted to slap them. I felt I was back in high school when everyone was being insulted by everyone else or thought they were! What grown adult acts like such a child looking for insults in every personal transaction? Grow up you people!! ...
Cornwell is definitely a good writer. This is another good murder mystery from her. At the beginning of the book, I got the feeling (once again, with Cornwell's books) that I had been dropped down in the middle of a whirlpool, with events happening one after the other, all around me. Like no o...
Not a good one. Just read last 3 chapters. Don't bother. Skipped through long dull passages.
Another cop out ending. What is the deal? Why does the reader have to learn what happened at the climax second hand ? That sucks. Also, the book seemed a bit disjointed and honestly, not that good. After 22 books, what else can Kay Scarpetta actually do that she hasn't done before? Answer: not...
Slightly better than the last four or five novels in the Scarpetta series. At one time, I purchased a Patricia Cornwell book as soon as it hit the shelf, but as you can see, I've put off reading this one for 3 or 4 years because the last few were so disappointing. It was almost as if another auth...
New Years Resolution Book #12. I'm a big fan of crime and for me there used to be nothing better than Patricia Cornwell. The first 10 books were fantastic - page turners yes but well crafted with real characters too. And then she took a break, and then she came back, and the new ones for me va...
Ugh. What is WRONG with Patricia Cornwell? This book stinks. And in the spirit of throwing myself on a grenade (reading it so you don't have to) I will review this one.First of all, Cornwell continues her de-evolution of her characters that started somewhere about "The Body Farm." She totally jum...
Trace by Patricia Cornwell is a Scarpetta Novel. Patricia Cornwell writes this story in three settings like: South Florida; Richmond, Virginia; and also in Aspen. The story mostly takes place in Richmond, Virginia, in modern time. It’s written in third-person omniscient, but the story mainly rev...
Carrie Grethen is back – as in on the very first page, back. She has sent Kay Scarpetta a letter, scrawled in red, full of disjointed phrasing. But as Benton Wesley studies the letter, he realizes that those disjointed ramblings are really challenges, threats and promises. At this point, Carrie h...
A torso has been found in a Virginia landfill – just the torso, no legs, no arms, no head. This is the fifth one to be found in a landfill in several months and the tenth to be found internationally with the same MO. Only it’s not exactly the same MO. This time the appendages are severed through ...
Disclaimer: I've only read about half so if you're able to give convincing reasons why my rating is absolutely unjustified and the second half will get so much better I will try to read the second half, too. Until then let my just say:Oh what a pile of pretentious crap.I honestly don't know where...
On New Year’s Eve in 1995, Ted Eddings is murdered. It would not be the last death of the year in Virginia, but it would certainly be the most important. Eddings was an AP reporter with a charming demeanor and was one of the few media people Kay Scarpetta allowed even close to the inner areas of ...
I read 'Point of Origin', 'Black Notice', and 'The Last Precinct' in quick succession as they are very much interlinked and there is a definite sense of continuity between them. I then picked up 'Blow Fly' a short time later...In all honesty, I haven't finished the book yet. It's possible that I...
This book is a sequel to Hornet’s Nest and it would be best to read them in order of publication. But if you don’t want read both, Southern Cross makes sense on its own and would be the one to go for. Hornet’s nest is good, but Southern Cross is better. It features the same three main characters,...
I just finished reading these novels and boy what a ride. I've read many of Cornwell's Scarpetta novels but never four in a row. I've never read them in order so these books put some order to the events I've read. The characters in the Scarpetta series never seem to have a relatively normal life...
You can translate this review on: http://labibliotecadidrusie.blogspot.it/Voto: 6/10Ho letto diversi racconti con protagonista Kay Scarpetta, non in ordine temporale, e devo ammettere che preferisco i primi, tra cui questo.Siamo nei lontani anni '90, dove i pc erano più o meno all'inizio (si parl...
Cornwell brings Dr. Kay Scarpetta back in the critically acclaimed series to test her wiles in a new and disturbing manner. When a murdered author is found in her home, investigators are left with little to know insight, which bothers Scarpetta almost as much as the slaying itself. Questions grow...
Kay Scarpetta has not handled Benton Wesley’s death well. She has worked herself into the ground. She has distanced herself from her friends and employees. She has even started smoking again. She is mired in guilt and regret over every unkind word she ever spoke to Benton. No, Kay Scarpetta is no...
If you're looking for a good Kay Scarpetta adventure, skip this book. While the spirited Quincy-like ME appears in this novel, she's just a bit player. Part of the Andy Brazil series, Isle of Dogs turned out, for me anyway, to be a bust. (FYI, Hornet's Nest and Southern Cross were this book's pre...
I'm sure I've read a book that is worse than this one, but I can't think of it at the moment. From the stereotypes, to the extraneous details, to the adolescent situations, this book has all the hallmarks of an amateur author's first draft. It could be used--and probably is--as a Writing 101 exam...
For a crime novel, this novel was remarkably uninteresting. I read a lot of crime and mystery novels, and I was extremely disappointed with The Front. While the main character, Win, is a good character, I found the other characters to be rather predictable and dull. Stump was a great character, a...
Patricia Cornwell's legendary crime fiction creation, Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, has logged a host of fans among mystery readers and, within the bounds of her fictional world, an equally impressive tally of individuals intent on causing her grievous physical or psychological...
It’s half past noon. I put on booties, a face shield, and gloves. Lucy and Benton do the same but I know when he doesn’t plan to stay long. He’ll learn what he can from Gail Shipton’s body and then he’s got Bureau swords to clash with and maybe something more. I can always...
In Benton’s former life, he could get a coveted table at Rao’s because he was FBI and had special status with the family who has owned the famous, if not notorious, Italian restaurant for a hundred years. It was a hangout for the mob, and there is no telling who dines there now. Celebrities frequ...
During her marriage to a printer’s machinist named William Nichols, she had given birth to five children, the oldest twenty-one, the youngest eight or nine at the time of her murder.For the past seven years or so, she and William had been separated because of her drinking and quarrelsome ways. Hi...
"I asked you here because I'm taking a gamble. I need your help." "Right! You need me to help by leaving town and keeping the hell out of it . ." I was slowly shaking my head. She looked surprised. "Do you know Benton Wesley?" "The profiler," she replied hesitantly. "I know who he is." I glanced ...
“Okay,” she lies. She was a coward. She was selfish. “You don’t sound okay,” Benton says to her. “What happened to Johnny isn’t your fault.” “I ran away from it. I didn’t do a damn thing.” “Why don’t you spend some time with us. Kay’s going to be up here for a week. We’d ...
He and two of my residents were working on the burned woman’s body, defleshing her as best they could with plastic spatulas, because anything harder might scratch the bones.Chuck was sweating beneath his surgical cap and mask as he scraped tissue from the skull, his brown eyes rather glazed behin...
I thought about my office upstairs as I went out and pushed a button on the wall. The great door screeched open. Marino, in uniform, stood on its other side with two patrolmen and a detective. They ran past me to the autopsy suite, holsters unsnapped. I followed them and set my revolver on the co...