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 parla di 486!) e i cellulari non esistevano ancora. Perfino il lumalite, che ora si vede in moltissimi telefilm, aveva appena fatto la sua comparsa.Nonostante quest'ambientazione 'preistorica', ho trovato la storia carina e ben orchestrata, anche se con elementi talmente comuni a tutti gli altri romanzi che alla fine mi sono diventati noiosi.Prima di tutto ce l'hanno sempre tutti con Kay Scarpetta. Ogni volta c'è qualcuno che vuole screditarla, sottometterla o addirittura farla fuori. Una porta sfiga peggio della signora Fletcher, con la differenza che Kay si porta sfiga da sola.Poi c'è sempre il fantastico trio che l'adora nonostante lei sia un filo rincoglionita in certe cose (non nel suo lavoro, lì è brava) e anche piuttosto rompiballe, che pensa a salvarle la pelle, sempre facendole mille raccomandazioni a cui lei puntualmente disobbedisce mettendosi ancora più nei guai.Per finire è troppo protagonista, tanto da oscurare un po' la vicenda che, almeno in questo caso, si risolve con un effetto a sorpresa che mi ha fatto storcere un po' il naso: il colpevole che salta fuori all'improvviso senza che si sia mai visto prima nel corso del libro.Per il resto una storia carina, come dicevo, che scorre e si legge bene.Abbastanza accurato l'approfondimento psicologico dei personaggi, soprattutto del cattivo di turno.Kay è una donna ancora tosta (in libri più recenti perde un po' di smalto) e forte, con un carattere deciso, anche se mostra la sua debolezza e quanto sia facile ferirla.Lucy è ancora una ragazzina diciassettenne ribelle e già genio dei computer. Una di quelle persone che non è facile amare e che non apprezzano nessuno perché difficilmente incontrano qualcuno loro pari.Pete Marino si mantiene sempre uguale: grosso, scontroso e menefreghista verso la propria salute. Attendo che gli venga un infarto ad ogni libro, ma anche lui è bello resistente. Ammetto che non mi è mai piaciuto granchè.Ultimo degno di menzione è Benton Wesley che ancora vive con la moglie e contribuisce con le proprie conoscenze a stabilire che il killer non è come tutti gli altri e che con lui le teorie non servono (cosa che dice in tutti i libri. mi viene sempre da pensare: sei inutile! In realtà ha alcune buone intuizioni).Lo stile è scorrevole e piacevole, si lascia leggere bene. Carine le descrizioni, i paragoni e le metafore. Ciò che mi piace poco, è il modo di 'istruire' il lettore: lunghi dialoghi in cui i personaggi stessi spiegano cosa è accaduto. Avrei preferito 'vederlo' durante il racconto.
I feel like I zoned out on this one a lot. Mostly because the audio copy I had was bad, so I'd get an echo etc. I also don't think I liked the narrator at all. It felt like she was explaining things to a child most of the time. But, I liked her better than the first narrator. Plus, this book was ENTIRELY telling not showing.I really, really did not like the fact that Mark James was killed off page. Yes, it became more important to the plot towards the later part of the book, but it was just a casual mention of 'oh, he died.' WHAT? Well eff you. Oh, and she quit smoking off page as well. That one is more forgivable. Lucy grew up. She is now 17. Amazing how Kay and the other adults haven't aged at all. Umm, by the way Patricia, even in the 90's it was illegal for a 17 year old to operate a firearm without parental supervision. So she wouldn't have been able to go to a firing range. And driving around with a gun casually on the seat next to her to avoid the 'concealed' status? Umm... still not legal for her to even HAVE the gun.Kay also felt antagonistic for no reason other than to create plot drama. She was hiding her finances even from her lawyer? There was absolutely no reason for that at all. So it was a weak reason to create on the page drama leading up to literally, a courtroom drama scene.And oh my god is it dated. "You can't put a smell in a test tube." <- That right there just proved how far we've come in technology, as yes, we can. A modern forensics lab would easily have been able to take a certain coat and scarf and swab it for trace and would have been able to match the smell/liquid to commercially available products.(view spoiler)[The killer didn't matter in the end, though I'm sure he'll be back. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Cruel & Unusual (1994)?
I am currently reading the entire Scarpetta series in order, and I have to say that this is my favorite so far. There were so many twists and turns in this book that really kept me thinking. I really enjoyed that part of it. There were a couple disappointments in this book. First, I hate that Dr. Scarpetta's lover, Mark, had been killed somewhere in between the last book and this one. Although this is a crime/murder book, I enjoyed the brief moments of romance. Second, although they knew who the
—Lindsay Foster
This is another novel true to form for Kay Scarpetta. I found the manner of the initial incident very interesting, it worked to set into motion a set of possibilities that didn't seem possible at first, but tied together in a very nice pattern.In fact, my main critique for the novel is not the plot, or the science involved, it is actually Kay's relationship with her niece Lucy, and moreover, the niece herself. Lucy is meant to be an early teen at this point, I'm not sure exactly what age, I probably missed it in the midst of other things. However, she's consistently displayed as both aloft and hyper-intelligent while having the emotional range of understanding of a teaspoon. In short, it's aggravating. I'm not sure whether that's the author's idea with the character, to show over the coming novels a progression, but I really do wish that Lucy would gain a level of understanding of Dr Scarpetta's work as it is shown that she does with computers. Hopefully that will improve in the later books, and if not, I suppose that Kay Scarpetta will be enough to keep me coming back for a while.
—Simone
This is the fourth novel in the Kay Scarpetta series, starring our favorite Medical Examiner, and I think this is a very good addition to the series. (I will note that it ends on a to-be-continued note; if you know what happens in future books, please do not let me know.)Published in 1993, this book is set in December and January; we know not the year, but Lucy (Scarpetta’s niece) is now seventeen, with no appreciable aging on the part of Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, or Pete Marino. One of the duties of the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Virginia is to autopsy death row inmates who have just been executed; the inmate in this case, Ronnie Joe Waddell, had killed a woman in a very heinous manner. While waiting to hear if the governor will pardon the inmate at the eleventh hour, Scarpetta is asked to consult on a case of a thirteen year old boy who went missing, then was found by a dumpster. The next morning, after Waddell’s execution, she finds that the boy (not yet dead, but shot in the head, and in a vegetative state) was apparently posed by the dumpster the same way that Waddell had posed the woman he killed. When someone else is found dead, Waddell’s prints are found at the scene, making Scarpetta wonder if the man who was executed was indeed Waddell. Things quickly become more complicated, to the point that Scarpetta is implicated in incompetence in her office, payoffs, and murder.I enjoyed this book, and with the ending want to read the next book in the series soon; but I will be reading other books in the meantime, so Kay Scarpetta will probably wait until early February for me to get back to her.
—Kathryn
