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 example of what not to do. For example, the author wants her main character, Andy Brazil, to be an intrepid reporter/volunteer cop who is irresistible to men and women alike. But the Andy she shows us is a petulant, whining adolescent whose favorite lament is, "It's not fair!" The two female leads, Police Chief Judy Hammer and Deputy Chief Virginia West, are not quite as annoying as Brazil, but they are wish-fulfillment characters--smart, driven, and almost god-like in their abilities. Too bad for them that in Cornwell's world, strong capable women are surrounded by weak, envious men who can't deal with their authority. In fact, aside from Brazil there is not a male character in the novel who is not secretly working to sabotage the police chief and her deputy. Indeed, not many of the female characters are on their side either because Ms. Cornwell apparently believes there are only two kinds of women: strong capable executives or "spineless, spiteful women" who only exist for the men they have leached onto. The mystery, such as it is, is forgotten for long stretches of the novel while we focus on West's cat, Niles, and what he is thinking and planning. No, really--we get the cat's POV for long stretches of time. In fact, the cat is able to figure out some of the mystery and convey the information to his owner via feline charades…with props. No, really. But that is no lamer than the way the mystery is actually solved: the police reporter approaches ONE person on the street, asks who is committing the murders, and instantly finds out the serial killer's identity. Too bad the police didn't do that before five men were brutally murdered. The book is riddled with offensive stereotypes--such as a southerner named Bubba who drives his King Cab to the convenience store for Red Man, PBRs, and Playboy--and the author substitutes phrases like "NRA redneck" and "ruthless Republican" for actual character development. The world of Charlotte she portrays bears little resemblance to reality, and the portrayal of the bank president who controls the town is particularly absurd. All in all, this dreadful book--my first by Patricia Cornwell--will also be my last.
I have lived in the Charlotte area for 40 years, and you have no idea how much I wanted to like this book. At first it was entertaining to read where the characters were, but by one hundred pages in, Charlotte stopped being interesting as a character in and of itself (read the book, and see what I mean) and became merely annoying. Mysteries set in New York do not feel obligated to have the characters mention the Statue of Liberty every three pages to give you the flavor of the mise-en-scene; not a page of Hornet's Nest goes by without Cornwell dragging a local reference into it. The mystery itself is an afterthought, to put it mildly. Characters behave incredibly on virtually every page, and the low point is reached when we suddenly switch to the point of view of one of the character's cats. I am not kidding you. The cat tries to give its owner important clues that it is receiving from flashing lights atop a skyscraper in Uptown. I am not kidding you. I like hommages to Rita Mae Brown as much as the next guy (which is to say not at all), but at least the cat is a major character in the series. Matters are not helped by the dozens of unimportant characters who float throughout the novel and get detailed descriptions and attention, never to be heard of again. This isn't Dickens. None of them are interesting enough to do anything but divert whatever narrative tension there is into dead-ends.There is also a murky sexuality that runs through the book that is merely distracting. No one is getting any, to put it bluntly, and everyone is pretty damn frustrated by that. On the other hand, when it comes to simple frustration, they got nuthin' on the reader of Hornet's Nest.
What do You think about Hornet's Nest (1998)?
Considering all the hype around Patricia Cornwell and I never read her before, I thought I would try her. Maybe it just wasn't the right book to try as my first one? There are things about this book that I really liked, I loved West and Hammer and Brazil grew one me, I loved that the city felt like a character in it's own right. Niles was cute, but the thing with the getting signals from the bank building was kind of weird and lame...did they tack on the murder thing at the end? no really, did s
—Donna
For me, a big "thumbs down" for this Patricia Cornwall novel. It felt like she had taken a vacation, and assigned someone else to write this story, because it was nothing like what I was used to from her.I thought there was a lot of "nonsense" that really had nothing to do with the story at all, or not so much that it needed to be discussed at such length. Most of the time, I was scratching my head, trying to make sense of the story, and that was from the very beginning. I really struggled to finish this book, but I stuck with it, constantly hoping everything would start to make sense. Well, a few things added up, but for me, it was a major disappointment.
—Sandra Knapp
Andy Brazil is a young journalist who has always wanted to be a cop like his father. He eventually, after proving himself as a hard-working intelligent writer, gets an assignment to do ride-alongs with the local police in Charlotte. Unfortunately for him, he gets paired up with Deputy Chief of Police, Virginia West who has been burned by journalists in the past and is not too happy for him to join their squad. Meanwhile, on the crime side of things, the Black Widow is plaguing business men visiting Charlotte, or actually killing them and spray painting them orange. So here's a perfect crime for West and Brazil to solve. Now to the review. Not much good to say about this to be honest. I haven't read Patricia Cornwell in a number of years but I remember enjoying her books about Kay Scarpetta. This particular book, kept me occupied while reading but that's about it. Much of the book annoyed me. The characters, although appearing quite deep, on further reading you realise that they're not deep just described a lot. In other words, you think you know the characters but it's just a lot of waffle on the author's part. We know that West's cat is sentient and solving her murders in his head. Yeah that confused me too, the bit where the cat was trying to talk to West and give her clues to help her with the case. Very random, bit hallucination-like and a little bit frustrating to read when it doesn't have anything to do with the story. Both West and Brazil have been through a lot in their lives....we are told. But do we really care? I didn't. The murders take a back seat role a lot of the time to very mundane, ordinary, inconsequential bits of information. I think that Cornwell was trying to introduce a new series of books, to move away from Scarpetta, and was trying to establish a relationship between Brazil and West and also between them and the reader, but it didn't work, and it won't be a book I'll be keeping on my shelf after my next clear out. For a crime solving novel, it was ok, but just don't expect too much from it and you should be fine...and skip the bit with the cat.
—Laini
