I want to still love Patricia Cornwell, but her books have become a little boring. It's a struggle to get through them. I want more stuff like her earlier books - let's talk DNA, blood stains and patterns, and give a little more interesting plot line than a gone-bad FBI.
Please Patricia, make your books interesting again!

I've found that the characters in the Kay Scarpetta stories are becoming more disconnected. The story is more about the battles between each other rather than solving the murder mystery. The characters are not likeable like they use to be. They're getting more and more dysfunctional.

Liked the story
A bit too predictable for me
3★: liked & might re-read

Boring. Couldn't even finish it.

I will keep reading Cornwell in the hopes she gets back to the Scarpetta series I loved. Everything seems too disconnected. Never know going in how Kaye, Benton, Marino, and Lucy are getting along. Would be nice with a little more consistency. This book takes place over just a day or two? it has too much happening. I keep wondering if I missed a book or just can't remember what has happened recently.

Three-minus.

Good points: As a writer, Cornwell has never been better. It's the writing that kept me reading, not the plot (which is a mess), or the characters.

Irritations: At least 100 extra pages of repetitious blah-blah about the past, Scarpetta's perspectives on various characters, unnecessary, adds-nothing technological details. And on and on. Just because you can write well doesn't mean you shouldn't edit. A leaner story would have made this a good Cornwell book.

What's more--I thought the inclusion of the real tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut was a cheap lure, and Cornwell really had to stretch credulity to suggest there was a connection between her fictional case and the real story in the headlines.

Cornwell writes books like this once in a while--they have a "phoned-in" air about them where she seems to be casting about for the next big plot hook to sustain interest in Scarpetta and her cast of characters. You can only kill people off--then bring them back--or suggest they're traitors, or make them go crazy so many times. Perhaps the story arc has run its course and Scarpetta should be put out to pasture.

I'm not really sure why I still read the Kay Scarpetta novels; maybe I'm hoping (apparently foolishly) that Cornwell's writing style will return to what it once was. As it is now, I'm not much interested in Kay, Benton, Lucy, Marino, Kay's sister & mother, Bryce, Anne, the criminals, corrupt FBI & DOJ officials...nobody. Just - blah. That's all I can say about this effort. Blah.

I don't know why I keep reading her novels or why her novels end up so long when they cover a TV episode's worth of time each (that is, each recent Scarpetta novel seems to generally cover no more than a week of in-book time). Airplane reading only for me.

I have read over twenty of Patricia Cornwell's novels, most of them in the Scarpetta series. It finally struck me during this book what terribly unlikable characters these are. Benton, Lucy, and Kay are dreadful and condescending and apparently Cornwell chooses to believe Marino has had zero personal growth in decades.

In addition, I felt like this book was missing information. I re-listened to several portions of CDs thinking that I had missed something, when the information just appeared? Overall disappointing. Feel free to skip as part of the series.

This might be my last Scarpetta novel.

Interminable. Horrendous. Boring. Annoying. This series is nothing like the old Scarpettas, where she would actually talk more about the crazed killer and spend time tracking him or her down. These new books are full of internal monologues where Kay wonders what Lucy is doing, what Benson is dealing with, why Marino is the way he is, and lots of dialog where everyone speaks disingenuously and never shares their deepest thoughts.

Lucy trusted someone and was let down again. Benson is having trouble with his job. Kay is conflicted and can't share her thoughts. Marino is a caricature of his former self. Bryce is an annoying chatterbox that I'm having trouble believing works for Scarpetta. She would never suffer a fool like that gladly.

I'm sure there was an actual plot, but it took forever to get to amongst all the bloviation. I can't even give this book a single star, because I felt like I got nothing out of it. The characters should be familiar but they are not...and the only bright thing is that I didn't spend a penny for this book. I borrowed it. Perhaps Cornwell should take some time off and try to focus herself better. I suggest she re read her first 4 novels and try to re create that magic, because it's not evident at all any more.