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 has been in a facility for the criminally insane in New York City for the last five years, and her trial on multiple murder charges is but a month away.Before Kay and Benton can fully absorb either the message or its ramifications, Kay is called by the ATF to the property of media mogul Kenneth Sparkes. There his home and outbuildings have been destroyed by fire, a virtual inferno. His stables, along with over 20 high-dollar horses, have been consumed also. And Kenneth Sparkes is missing.Then four events occur within hours of each other. First, Kay discovers the badly burned body of a female in what appears to be the point of origin of the fire at the Sparkes home. Secondly, Carrie Grethen manages to escape that maximum security mental facility in NYC.Next, Carrie sends a well-written and detailed letter to all the major newspapers on the East Coast. In that letter, she slanders Kay and Benton, accusing them of framing her for the murders. She exposes their affair and she exposes Lucy’s sexual orientation, accusing her of seduction for criminal purposes. Then she begs the masses to see that she is freed and that Kay, Benton and Lucy are made to pay.And, finally, the FBI summons Benton to New York. He was the lead profiler on Carrie’s case all those years ago but he is now retired and no longer with the Bureau.And when the dust settles from these events and their consequences, when Carrie Grethen deals her ultimate blow, everything the major characters – and the readers – have come to count on will be gone.At the very end of Cornwell’s previous novel in the Scarpetta series, “Unnatural Exposure,” one particular scene with Kay and Benton stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. The subject matter of the scene came out of nowhere and seemingly had no real connection to the novel’s storyline. That scene felt very wrong and then punched my memory back to an earlier scene with Benton that had puzzled me also.Then it hit me. Cornwell was telegraphing a major curve in her arc for the series. And, if my intuition was correct, she was either going to end the series with the next book or she was going to restructure the line-up of major characters. Well, she didn’t end the series!With that final scene in mind, I began this book. By the end of the first chapter, I knew how it was going to happen and had confirmed, in my mind, who it was going to happen to. The only thing for it now was to turn the pages one by one, verifying the clues, waiting for the final blow and just wanting Cornwell to get it over with.In trying to wrench her story arc in that different direction, Cornwell really makes a mess of it. First, it’s difficult to tell exactly how much time has passed since the conclusion of the previous novel. Secondly, Benton has retired from the FBI and we don’t know why. And Lucy has been drummed out of the FBI and we don’t know why that happened either. We just know that Benton is still relatively young, with his own consulting business, and that Lucy is now with the ATF.And, as we read, the red herrings that Cornwell tosses into the soup become increasingly obvious. We know that Kay Scarpetta will not be spared all the blows, but she will remain. She is, after all, the “I” in the first person POV. But those herrings are heavily and repeatedly directed toward only two of the three remaining main characters. Then, at the beginning of the dreaded scene that we have been moving inexorably toward, Cornwell writes every character but Kay totally out of character. The dialogue and action Cornwell writes for all but Kay comes off like something you’d see and hear in a third rate daytime drama. However, that cheesy, juvenile dialogue made me realize one thing. There had been three people “missing in action,” so to speak, that day, not just one.The Scarpetta series is, and has always been, dark and gritty and never with a happy ending. The murder is always solved, but the killers are not always caught and justice is not always served. Like revenge, the entries in this series are best served cold, spacing them a month or so apart and interspersing them with lighter fare or something from a different genre.This book started with ashes and it ended with ashes. And if my suspicions are correct about the import of that unusual scene in “Unnatural Exposure,” we’re not done here. The truth will out; it always does. And a Phoenix will rise from these ashes.
Hmm … well … Cornwell and Scarpetta are such a curate’s egg for me. The books are readable and so far I’ve always finished them but, for me, they could be much better. My biggest problem is that Scarpetta doesn’t grow; she’s stuck in her ways and terrified of change … as such she gets damned boring! Lucy’s new boss Teun McGovern says this of her in this book, “You’re awfully straight and narrow, aren’t you, Kay?” and so she is. Cornwell makes her say in response to this that this isn’t how she sees herself … no surprises there then! Later, Lucy is teaching Scarpetta to fly a chopper and she has to learn to go with the wind, the air, rather than try to correct them and she says to herself, - this was hard for me. I liked to make things better. - Yes, very true, she does and thereby stem so many of her difficulties. I really wish she could grow.One thing in this book really got through. I lived ponies and horses all my childhood until my late twenties. At one point Scarpetta goes to see a farrier and there begins my problem with Cornwell’s research! Scarpetta tells us – farrier which was a modern name for an old-world blacksmith – No! you silly woman. Farrier is the name of a horse-doctor who, as part of his work, shoes horses. A farrier combines some blacksmith's skills (fabricating, adapting, and adjusting metal shoes) with some veterinarian's skills (knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the lower limb) to care for horses' feet. The word farrier comes from the Middle French ferrier meaning blacksmith and from the Latin word ferrum for iron. It has been in use in Europe for centuries. A blacksmith is one who works metal, makes gates, hinges, metal tyres for wheels and rings for barrels, cannon, jewellery, belt-buckles; and sometimes she or he is a farrier as well – but not that often. Things get worse!She goes on to say – he snatched a curved knife out of a pocket in his apron and began trimming the frog until the marbled white hoof showed underneath. – Yelp! Yikes! He’s killing the horse! The frog is an important part of the horse's circulatory system — it pumps blood up the horse's leg each time the frog makes contact with the ground. The blood flows down the horse's leg into the digital cushion, a fibrous part of the inner hoof located just above the frog which contains a network of blood vessels. The horse's weight then compresses the frog on the ground, squeezing the blood out of the digital cushion, and pushing it back up the horse's legs. If the farrier cut the frog to the bone a) the horse would leap away from him in extreme pain and b) if he was able to cut to the bone the horse would likely bleed out and die. Do your damned research woman!She finishes this ghastly fiasco with the words – Marino clung to the wall as he walked behind a horse that was at least fourteen hands high. – Well … gosh … that’s effing enormous! A hand = four inches therefore 14 hands = 56 inches, that’s four foot six inches in old money! Children and small people (like me) ride ponies (not horses – a horse is 15 hand and over!) and as she describes Marino’s height he’d easily be able to tuck this one under his armpit!All this is not helping me get a good feel in reading the book. I keep getting annoyed. Her writing in this one isn't as good as some of the others, presumably she gets ups and downs like most people (except Scarpetta!). As Cornwell says - and most writers know - there's a lot of herself in Scarpetta. It's worth reading for the main tragedy which will make more sense of the later books (I hope). I'm also not convinced about this apparently indestructible baddy ... I've a feeling that may become dull and lead me to skip those bits.The real tragedy of the story comes about 2/3rd through and as usual Cornwell gives you hints of this well before. It’s quite well done but not up to her usual standard. I’m not saying what it is at it’d be a real spoiler. It does give me some problems with later books though as I’m trying to work out how it was done and how it was possible … and why. I’m not sure Cornwell ever gives us all this, at least as yet. Am going to read Scarpetta and The Scarpetta Factor to see if she does.As you can see, despite her occasional real idiocy and the fact that she seems unable to allow, or enable, Scarpetta to grow up, I still read her *smile*. Perhaps my annoyance with her is that she’s good but could be so much better. Sigh! Maybe she will …
What do You think about Point Of Origin (2015)?
Initially slow going, but the pace picked up. I'm still getting tired of the interplay between Kay and her niece, Lucy. Kay's thoughts and actions are not what I'm expecting from an older, well educated role model. Her niece is on her own and quite capable and Kay seems to cling to her more than necessary. But the plot of the story was gripping at times and even though I'd read the series out of order and already knew about the death of one of her friends, I didn't know the circumstances and this was the book where it happened. Yes, I shed a few tears. I have the next one in audio so I'm looking forward to listening.
—Sharon
Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner and consulting forensic pathologist for the fedreral law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to an isolated farmhouse in Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body which tells a story of violent and grisly murder. The fire has come at the same time as Carrie Grethen, a killer who nearly destroyed the lives of scarpetta and those closest to her, has escaped from a forensic psychiatric hospital. Her whereabouts are unknown, but Carrie has begun to communicate with Scarpetta......
—Penny
(2.6)Full disclosure: These books diminished in quality but I was stuck w/a 4 e-book bundle of stories 11-14 so I'm determined to get there and get my money's worth.My problem w/these books and those like them is the dichotomy that the better the characterizations the more I feel sorry for the main character and her never ending sea of trouble and anguish. The type of crime stories just treadmill on and on and the poor character has to suffer through many near death experiences, the violent deaths of loved ones, and in Scarpetta's case a litany of gruesome autopsies. On the other hand if the reader doesn't care much for the character I guess there's entertainment to be found, but if I don't care about the characters what's the point of any clever plot.Specifically, Point of Origin borrows far too much from the Hannibal Lector trope and at times seems to sink deeper into the overwrought fantasies of Batman and Joker. Cornwell has talent and her books are better than they have been but she can't transcend the restraints of her genre like Ellroy or Mosely can.
—Dev
