Dust by Patricia Cornwell

My latest is another from the Kay Scarpetta series.  This one takes place just after the Sandyhook massacre and Kay has just returned to Boston after working in assisting with the autopsies of the children.  She is spent, exhausted and sick but alas, another seemingly impossible murder lands on her doorstep.  Compound all that with the fact that the murder is pointing towards another serial kill, and her work is cut out for her and her team.

I have to say - I do love Patricia Cornwell but I'm wondering if she isn't getting to rote, too quick in producing her novels.  She certainly is thorough in her knowledge but is it reasonable that the events that take place, do so in a matter of hours?  I'm not so sure that's realistic...even for a work of fiction.  That being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and would continue to recommend the series to anyone who likes a who-done-it. 

Red Mist by Patricia Cornwell

Let me start by saying that I love Patricia Cornwell and though she may have gotten off track with her Scarpetta books (about 4 or 5 books ago) she is certainly back on track with her usual engrossing mysteries.

Red Mist (#19 in the Scarpetta series) is focused on the team (Kay, Benton, Lucy and Pete) attempting to piece together the mystery around former deputy chief, Jack Fielding’s murder six months earlier. Kay is lured into travelling to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information on Fielding as well as a string of other horrible killings (the murder of an Atlanta family years ago, a young woman on death row and more). Kay soon discovers, however, that the connection between Jack’s death and an attempt on her own life is something far more complex: A conspiracy on an international level that she must solve before more people are dead.

I really, really liked this book and was so happy that it kept me turning the pages. It wasn’t hard to follow and the mystery was new and exciting. I would definitely recommend this book and am psyched that her next Scarpetta is scheduled for release this October 16th!

Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell

Port Mortuary is the 18th book in Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series.  I've read all of them and reviewed on my blog three others (this being the 4th).  In Port Mortuary, Kay is now the chief medical examiner of the new Cambridge Forensic Center (CFC) in Massachusetts.  This center has been Kay's creation, dream, and brainchild for the past year or so.  Since it's creation and opening, however, she's not been there to see to it's smooth operation.  Instead, she's been "training" at a military base in Dover.  Upon her return to Boston, Kay becomes involved in the mysterious and sudden death of a man and the murder of a child (whose confessed killer seems to be innocent). Kay realizes almost immediately that the two cases are related and that the answers aren't as simple as everyone seems to be making them out to be. 

I liked this book and give it 3 1/2 stars.  It gets a solid "Good" from me.  What I liked about it was that the story, the mystery, the murder was intriguing and I wanted to find out "whodunit".  It kept me turning the pages.  I liked that Kay seemed to be getting back to her element by the end:  Wrapped up in solving the case through the science that she's based her life on.  What I didn't like was the enigma that Patricia Cornwell has turned Kay and Benton's relationship into. Anne told me while I was reading (without giving anything away) that she worried about Kay moving into that "dark place" again and I think she was absolutely right.  Anne said by the end that she didn't feel that way but I'm not sure that we've seen the end of Benton's secret keeping.  He seems to be getting involved again in blocking her out of big chunks of his life and I hate to see her put up with that.  In addition, there were many issues left unanswered from the last book regarding Lucy that were not dealt with at all in this book.  Granted this book only covered 2-3 days, and it leaves a huge page open for writing but I WANT ANSWERS!  Hee hee.  Truly though and in all happy seriousness, I think with every book that Patricia Cornwell writes, she gets closer and closer to what she was doing in books like Potter's Field and Postmortem.  She just needs to not get so wrapped up in the technical, irrelevant details and simply tell the story.

The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell

I know, I know...it's been a while since I've posted a recent read. One reason is, I read the recent release by Diana Gabaldon (Echo in the Bone) and it was nearly 900 pages and I took my sweet time reading it. I'm not planning on reviewing that because unless you've read the previous 6 books it won't make any sense to you and if you ever do decide to read this series (Outlander series and I seriously recommend it) I don't want to ruin anything for you.

So, I've finished the above. This book happens to be the 17th (I think) in her Kay Scarpetta series. It takes place, like the last one in NYC. Kay is working on the autopsy of a young woman who came into the morgue that day. The autopsy reveals a violent death but the body is telling a different story than what the police brought in with it. As a scientist, Kay is forced to believe what medical, factual evidence says to her no matter that her friends/family/police think she may be delving into a God-like mentality of herself. This in turn causes her to start questioning her knowledge and training. More intrigue enters the picture when a suspicious package is delivered to her apartment in NYC. As the contents of the package are revealed, Kay, her husband, Benton, her niece Lucy and her best friend Marino are forced to face the fact that something from their past is not just haunting them but is in fact stalking them.

I read this book fairly quickly because it was deeeeelicious. Patricia Cornwell has stepped back and returned to writing in a more personal way - giving her characters the attention and respect that they deserve. (For a couple novels - probably numbers 14 and 15, Cornwell disappointed). She's allowed, in the Scarpetta Factor for her "novel family" to continue to develop without turning into "people" they are not. If you are familiar with this series, I would certainly recommend it but if you haven't read any, start with #1 - Postmortem - you won't be disappointed!

Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell

I am now on to one of my Christmas books (from Jim) - Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell. This is the 16th "Kay Scarpetta" book in the series. The main character is a forensic pathologist currently in residence in Boston as Chief Medical Examiner in the Northeastern district. Her new husband, Benton, is working in the area as well as head of a psychiatric hospital. They also have an apartment in New York where they both have professional connections. This being said, Kay is suddenly called there by her husband to examine the injuries of a patient at Bellvue who has personally requested her. When she gets there, and the man finally talks, he explains that the injuries he's sustained came while a murder was committed (not by him - he says). What follows is more murders (of course) and Scarpetta with her "team" trying to figure out what's going on.

The last Cornwell book I read left me disappointed and I'm hoping that Cornwell gets back to her normal writing rather than trying to be "profound" and "literary". So far, I have to say, I'm completely into the book. I read three chapters late last night and really wanted to keep reading. I'm interested to see what she does with her main characters that she's turned into unsympathetic asses. I'm hoping she brings them back into my good graces. It's hard to read a book (series) when you don't like anyone you're reading about.
 
Update:  So, I finished Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell. Let me just say my faith has been restored. One of my favorite authors is back in my good graces (I'm sure she was worried). She has totally restored my love of her craft. Her book was everything I needed it to be. After reading it, I almost get the feeling that she wrote her last book in such a despicable manner as to reel me back in with this one. Seriously, I feel like her last book "Book of the Dead" was written in such a way, leaving me pissed off, so that I would be completely redeemed with this one and hooked once again with the characters and their outcome and happiness and well-being etc. Perfect. Read it. Get hooked again.

Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell

I just finished Patricia Cornwell's most recent book, Book of the Dead (her 15th novel staring Kay Scarpetta) and I have to say, I wasn't impressed. This has been my least favorite of the series (a series I have loved in the past and have anticipated every new release with bated breath). Reading it I felt confused and lost. It was as if Cornwell was trying to reinvent her writing. Every time I picked the book up to read, I had to re-read a few pages just to remind myself what was going on. Also, the characters that I had grown to "care" about from previous books had turned hateful and unsympathetic causing me not to care about their welfare. I hope Cornwell gets back on track and stops trying to be so "profound" and "literary" in her writing and returns to what has worked for her in the past.