About the author:
Born: Miami, Florida on June 9, 1956
Education: B.A. English-Davidson College, North Carolina
Website: http://www.patriciacornwell.com
Thriller Sub-genre: Forensic Thriller
Publisher: William Morrow
Future of the series: The next book in the series is entitled Livid with an expected release date of 10/25/22.
Over the last few years I have found that a lot of the fans of the series have become quite disenchanted with how the series has been going. I personally think it is time for a dramatic change in the series which means only one thing, it is Hasta la vista, baby time for one of the main characters. So, is it time for Lucy, Benton, or Marino to bite the dust? And if so, who? This, of course, would have to be a real death, not the kind of Benton Wesley sort of death (fans of the series, you know what I mean). I think it is time for a poll, so who would you pick to go into the great beyond?
Review of the latest in the series- Chaos
The Simon Review
I thought it would be fitting to choose Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta Series to debut the opening of my blog, as she is the first to make popular the forensic thriller. (Note, that I did not say that Cornwell wrote the first forensic thriller, that distinction should go to Arthur Conan Doyle with his Sherlock Holmes series, who was the first to use forensic techniques in a thriller.) The Kay Scarpetta books have been extremely popular, with most of the novels being consistently listed on the New York Times Best Seller Lists. Even though the novels continue to sell well, not everything is a bed of roses for the series. Many of her fans would admit that the series lost a lot of its luster half way into the series and most of the complaints are directed toward changes in the persona of the main characters and I would have to agree with them.
All the main characters; Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli have seen changes that have not necessarily been for the better. Scarpetta began the series as a tough, smoking, heavy drinking medical examiner that was tenacious in finding the truth no matter what the risk. However, as the series progressed, Scarpetta became more paranoid and depressed, which one would expect if they worked in a field where human beings are being brutally killed on a daily basis, but it becomes a little overwhelming for the reader. The darkness that overcomes Scarpetta also makes the character seem weaker and in the eyes of the reader, a strong protagonists is always more desirable. Also, the smoking and heavy drinking was replaced with yogurt and granola and with it a reason for Scarpetta to consistently harp on Pete Marino about his bad habits. Additionally, Scarpetta’s rise to fame as a CNN commentator is just plain wrong, I liked her better when she was only a medical examiner. My recommendation for Kay is to stop the nagging of Pete, Lucy and Benton and focus on catching the bad guy and stay a million miles away from CNN.
Pete Marino seems to have taken a beating worse than all the characters put together. Marino begins the series as a tough, stereotypical Jersey-type cop who has an antagonistic relationship with Scarpetta in the beginning of the first novel, only to conclude with Marino having a healthy respect for Scarpetta’s abilities and a developing relationship with her as a great crime-fighting duo. However, Marino’s respect for Scarpetta eventually turns to a “puppy love” infatuation and Marino becomes more a buffoon than the tough minded cop that he was in the beginning. Cornwell has Marino’s wife leave him for another man, places him in various relationships with vacuous bimbos, has him attempting rape with Scarpetta, gives him a slime-bag loser of a son that is killed off by Lucy and creates a love-hate relationship between him and all the other characters (well maybe a more of a hate relationship with Benton). My advice to Cornwell would be to stop beating up Marino and turn him back into the great crime fighting character that he was in the beginning.
Benton Wesley is a character that has become increasingly dispassionate as the series progresses. However, Cornwell seems to have picked up on this fact and has been trying to spark up Benton’s character in the latest novels. In general, I like Benton Wesley but many fans seem to find him a bit wooden.
That leaves me with Lucy Farinelli which is my least favorite character in the series mostly because Lucy’s character just seems too implausible. Lucy is a rich, beautiful, genius level computer geek that is a bad-ass, kick butt, FBI to ex-FBI agent who also happens to be a lesbian with bipolar tendencies. First of all, I know a lot of brilliant computer geeks and beautiful, bad-ass, kick- butt are adjectives that would never come to mind when describing them. Lucy is just way over the top and I am expecting at anytime for her to spontaneously combust.
Even with the character flaws, Cornwell writes a great fun series and I always look forward to the next book. I highly recommend it be added to your reading repertoire. One must definitely start the series from the beginning and follow them in order.
Simon’s pick:
Most Favorite Novel in the Series- Postmortem, because it is a classic and holds its place as a well loved novel.
Least Favorite Novel in the Series-Unnatural Exposure, because Scarpetta, along with Lucy’s technology skills, saves the world from a potential small pox outbreak, it just seems to me to be a bit too much. I like heroes, but when heroes become implausible saviors, I just tune out.
What about the science?
The fact that Kay Scarpetta is a medical examiner, Lucy Farinelli a computer genius, and Benton Wesley a profiler, most of the science based forensics is in the area of medical physiology and anatomy (Kay), psychology (Benton), and computer technology (Lucy). Though Cornwell does a fairly decent job when she writes about the medical aspects of forensics, she seems most comfortable in applying computer technology to her stories. Cornwell is a writer by training and experience and can’t compete with the likes of Kathy Reichs or Aaron Elkins when it comes to the technical aspects of her writings, but I think she does a pretty good job of trying to be accurate. My main complaint would be that Lucy’s ability as a computer guru is a little over the top, I don’t even think Bill Gates could keep up with Lucy.
The Scarpetta Technical Word in Review: Naphthyl acid phosphate– The male prostate gland secrets high amounts of the enzyme – acid phosphatase into semen. When naphthyl acid phosphate, in the presence of a dye called Brentamine Fast Blue (which is yellow to dark brown), reacts with the enzyme, acid phosphatase, a fluorescent purple color will form thus indicating the presence of semen.
Betty continued to work. This stage of testing was relatively simple. She took the swabs from the test tubes I’d sent to her, moistened them with water and smeared filter paper with them. Working in clusters, she first dripped napthyl acid phosphate and then added drops of fast-blue B salt, which caused the smear to pop up purple in a matter of seconds if seminal fluid was present.- Postmortem
Books in the Series by Order:
Vote for your favorite Forensic Thriller on the Forensic Fiction List on Goodreads Listopia.
Goodreads Forensic Fiction Best List
Most Favorite in the series: Cruel & Unusual with a score of 4.11
Least Favorite in the series: Port Mortuary with a score of 3.50
Based on overall ratings from Goodreads, Library Thing and Amazon (US & UK)
#1- Postmortem – 1990
Winner of the 1991 Anthony Award for Best First Novel
Winner of the 1991 Macavity Award for Best First Novel
Winner of the 1991 Edgar Award for Best First Novel
Winner of the 1990 John Creasy Memorial Award
Winner of the 1990 Prix du Roman d’Adventures Award
Winner of the 1991 CWA Daggar- New Blood Award
Listed #3 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #7 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thrillers Book List
First Line:
It was raining in Richmond on Friday, June 6.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta: Dr. Kay Scarpetta is the main protagonist and was educated as a medical doctor and as a lawyer. She is a medical examiner for part of the series and a forensic consultant for other parts of the series. She has a love for cooking Italian dishes.
Benton Wesley: Benton is a psychological profiler and begins the series as an agent for the FBI. He ultimately retires from the FBI, and works as a consultant at McClean Hospital in the Boston area and later at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Benton is married in the beginning of the series but eventually has an affair with Scarpetta. In time he divorces and marries Scarpetta.
Lucy Farinelli: Lucy is Scarpetta’s neice and begins the series as a prepubescent precocious computer whiz. Lucy looks up to Scarpetta as a mother figure and is eventually cuts ties from her real mother. Lucy’s interest in Scarpetta’s occupation leads Lucy to a career in law enforcement and ultimately becomes a computer specialist for the FBI. Eventually Lucy’s predisposition to hacking creates trouble for her and results in her removal from the FBI. Not to worry, Lucy’s larger than life abilities to conjure up state of the art computer programs and gadgets bring in copious amount of funds, making her a multi-millionaire if not billionaire. Lucy is a lesbian and has two prominent lovers within the series.
Pete Marino: Begins the series as a police homicide detective and later as a consultant and private investigator. Marino shares a love-hate relationship with Kay Scarpetta. Marino is depicted in the beginning of the series as the stereotypical Jersey type cop; which means he eats, drinks, smokes and cusses too much, overweight, balding etc.
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia
Under cover of night in Richmond, Virginia, a human monster strikes, leaving a gruesome trail of stranglings that has paralyzed the city. Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta suspects the worst: a deliberate campaign by a brilliant serial killer whose signature offers precious few clues. With an unerring eye, she calls on the latest advances in forensic research to unmask the madman. But this investigation will test Kay like no other, because it’s being sabotaged from within and someone wants her dead.
“In Cecile Tyler’s case, it was reported that her face was bleeding, that the bedspread was covered in blood. An exaggeration, at best. She had no lacerations, no injuries of this nature. There was a little bloody fluid coming out of her nose and mouth. A postmortem artifact.”
In 2013 SKD from Amazon left this two star review of Patricia Cornwell’s novel Postmortem which was written in 1990. Don’t you hate it when writers can’t predict the future.
There is a lot of detail regarding computer and DNA technology, which is now outdated. Unfortunately I couldn’t get past that.
Looking for a review of Postmortem? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.26 out of 5 stars based on 697 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.34 out of 5 stars based on 299 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.01 out of 5 stars based on 175,455 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.66 out of 5 stars based on 1,245 ratings
Total Score 4.01 (updated 10/31/17)
#2-Body of Evidence – 1991
Listed #11 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #103 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thrillers Book List
First Line:
Dear M,
Thirty days have passed in measured shades of sunlit color and changes in the wind.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, and Pete Marino
Mark James: FBI agent and Scarpetta’s ex-lover from when they attended law school together.
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia and Key West, Florida
After months of menacing phone calls and feeling that her every move is being watched, successful writer Beryl Madison flees Key West when a terrifying message is scratched on her car. But the very night she returns to Richmond, she deactivates her burglar alarm and opens her door to someone who nearly decapitates her. Why did she let him in, wonders Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta? And, why is Beryl’s latest manuscript missing? Pursuing the answers involves Scarpetta in the murder of another writer – Beryl’s jealous mentor. While she copes with a variety of personal and professional problems, Scarpetta’s high-tech forensic skills enable her to collect a body of evidence – clues that would mean little without her intelligence, compassion, and imagination – that leads her directly into a nightmare all her own.
Looking for a review of Body of Evidence? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.35 out of 5 stars based on 351 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.48 out of 5 stars based on 145 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.00 out of 5 stars based on 54,211 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.61 out of 5 stars based on 931 ratings
Total Score 4.00 (updated 10/31/17)
#3-All That Remains – 1992
Listed #21 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
First Line:
Saturday, the last day of August, I started work before dawn.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Mark James
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia
In Richmond, Virginia, young lovers are dying. So far, four couples in the area have disappeared, only to be found months later as mutilated corpses. When the daughter of the president’s newest drug czar vanishes along with her boyfriend, Dr. Kay Scarpetta knows time is short. Following a macabre trail of evidence that ties the present homicides to a grisly crime in the past, Kay must draw upon her own personal resources to track down a murderer who is as skilled at eliminating clues as Kay is at finding them….
“All that remains are his bones, Mr. Martin. When soft tissue is gone, gone with It any possible injury..”
Looking for a review of All That Remains? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.34 out of 5 stars based on 348 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.48 out of 5 stars based on 153 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.05 out of 5 stars based on 50,890 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.59 out of 5 stars based on 866 ratings
Total Score 4.05 (updated 10/31/17)
#4-Cruel and Unusual – 1993
Winner of the 1994 CWA Daggar Gold Award
Listed #12 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #127 out of 168 on Goodreads Best Science Thriller Book List
First Line:
It was two weeks before Christmas.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli
Temple Brook Gault: The murderer. Also goes by the name Hilton Sullivan
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia
When convicted killer Ronnie Joe Waddell is executed in Virginia’s electric chair, he becomes what should be a routine postmortem case for Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. But after Waddell’s execution, the murders continue, as everyone connected to him begins to die—including a member of Scarpetta’s staff.
Then, when crucial records disappear from her files, Scarpetta comes under fire for incompetence. Caught in a web of political intrigue, betrayed by those she trusted, Scarpetta must fight to free herself from murderous insinuations—and threats to her own life.
To save her career, Scarpetta soon finds herself retracing Waddell’s bloody footprints, following a trail that might lead to long-hidden secrets deep within the state government. Either the truth will set her free—or unleash upon her a punishment both cruel and unusual.
“You can understand better, perhaps, my passionate opposition to capital punishment, which is cruel and unusual..”
Looking for a review of Cruel and Unusual? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.33 out of 5 stars based on 305 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.55 out of 5 stars based on 126 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.11 out of 5 stars based on 87,862 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.64 out of 5 stars based on 844 ratings
Total Score 4.11 (updated 10/31/17)
#5-The Body Farm-1993
Listed #8 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #108 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thrillers Book List
Sample Audio Clip
First Line:
One the sixteenth day of October, shadowy deer crept to the edge of dark woods beyond my window as the sun peeked over the cover of night.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli
Temple Brook Gault
Carrie Grethen: Is Lucy’s first love interest who takes advantage of Lucy’s affection to gain access to classified information. She is later found to have an association with Gault.
The Setting
Black Mountain, North Carolina
When an eleven-year-old girl is found murdered, Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia, gets another chance at stopping one of the most heartless and horrifying serial killers of her career: the demented Temple Gault.
“His laboratory was called the The Body Farm, and I had been there many times.”
Looking for a review of The Body Farm? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.19 out of 5 stars out of 341 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.38 out of 5 stars based on 104 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.04 out of 5 stars based on 55,001 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.65 out of 5 stars based on 1,004 ratings
Total Score 4.03 (updated 10/31/17)
#6-From Potter’s Field – 1995
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 8/27/1995 – 2 weeks on bestseller list
Sample Audio Clip
First Line:
He walked with sure steps through snow, which was deep in Central Park, and it was late now, but he was not certain how late.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino, Lucy Farinelli, Temple Brook Gault and Carrie Grethen
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia
Upon examining a dead woman found in snowbound Central Park, Scarpetta immediately recognizes the grisly work of Temple Brooks Gault. She soon realizes that Gault’s murders are but a violent chain leading up to one ultimate kill—Scarpetta herself.
“Maybe he won’t. Maybe they’ll just say that Davila was a dirtbag who got whacked by another drug dealer. Jane ends up in a pine box in Potter’s Field. End of story. Central Park and the subway are safe again.”
Looking for a review of From Potter’s Field? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.07 out of 5 stars based on 290 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.57 out of 5 stars based on 93 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.02 out of 5 stars based on 44,562 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.58 out of 5 stars based on 808 ratings
Total Score 4.01 (updated 10/31/17)
#7-Cause of Death – 1996
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 7/21/1996 – 1 week on bestseller list
Listed #30 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
First Line:
On the last morning of Virginia’s bloodiest year since the Civil War, I built a fire and sat facing a window of darkness where at sunrise I knew I would find the sea.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia
It is New Year’s Eve, the last day of Virginia’s bloodiest year since the Civil War. Dr. Kay Scarpetta plunges into the murky depths of a ship graveyard to recover the very human remains of Ted Eddings, an investigative reporter. What kind of story was Eddings chasing below the icy surface of the Elizabeth River? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified? She soon discovers that Eddings’ murder is merely the first layer of something much deeper — a labyrinthine conspiracy that will put all of her criminal and forensic knowledge to the test like never before. For Scarpetta, the real challenge won’t be cataloging the growing number of dead bodies, but preventing herself and those she loves from becoming the next victims.
“Despite my suspicions about Eddings’ cause of death and the strange events surrounding it, at this moment we legally had no homicide.”
Looking for a review of Cause of Death? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.56 out of 5 stars based on 304 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.20 out of 5 stars based on 81 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.93 out of 5 stars based on 38,524 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.44 out of 5 stars based on 738 ratings
Total Score 3.92 (updated 10/31/17)
#8-Unnatural Exposure –1997
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 8/3/1997 – 1 week on bestseller list
Listed #18 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #136 out of 168 on Goodreads Best Science Thriller Book List
Listed #98 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thrillers Book List
First Line:
Night fell clean and cold in Dublin, and wind moaned beyond my room as if a million pipes played the air.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia
Virginia Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta has a bloody puzzle on her hands: five headless, limbless cadavers in Ireland, plus four similar victims in a landfill back home. Is a serial butcher loose in Virginia? That’s what the panicked public thinks, thanks to a local TV reporter who got the leaked news from her boyfriend, Scarpetta’s vile rival, Investigator Percy Ring. But the butchered bodies are so many red herrings intended to throw idiots like Ring off the track. Instead of a run-of-the-mill serial killer, we’re dealing with a shadowy figure who has plans involving mutant smallpox, mass murder, and messing with Scarpetta’s mind by e-mailing her gory photos of the murder scenes, along with cryptic AOL chat-room messages. The coolest innovation: Scarpetta’s gorgeous genius niece, Lucy, equips her with a DataGlove and a VPL Eyephone, and she takes a creepy virtual tour of the e-mailed crime scene.
“…could have been transmitted by unnatural exposure.”
“Deliberately, you’re saying.”
“I don’t know.”
“I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open…”
Looking for a review of Unnatural exposure? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.70 out of 5 stars based on 404 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.21 out of 5 stars based on 81 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.05 out of 5 stars based on 46,616 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.51 out of 5 stars based on 658 ratings
Total Score 4.04 (updated 10/31/17)
#9-Point of Origin – 1998
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 7/26/1998 – 1 week on bestseller list
Sample Audio Clip
First Line:
Hey DOC,
Tick Tock
Sawed bone and fire.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli
Newton Joyce: The murderer and accomplice to Carrie Grethen.
Carrie Grethen
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia
Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for the federal law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to a farmhouse in Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body which tells a story of a violent and grisly murder.
The fire has come at the same time as another even more incendiary horror: 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 is unknown, but her ultimate destination is not, for Carrie has begun to communicate with Scarpetta, conveying her deadly – if cryptic – plans for revenge.
“My guess is that if we’re dealing with the same offender, and the bathroom is the point of origin that all the fires have in common, then it is symbolic. Represents something to him, perhaps his own point of origin for his crimes.”
Looking for a review of Point of Origin? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.48 out of 5 stars based on 647 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.06 out of 5 stars based on 103 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.02 out of 5 stars based on 51,605 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.53 out of 5 stars based on 655 ratings
Total Score 4.01 (updated 10/31/17)
#9.5-Scarpetta’s Winter Table – 1998
On the day after Christmas, Scarpetta make her special pizza pie and Detective Pete Marino creates his “cause-of-death eggnog” (he uses corn liquor), while Lucy Farinelli (a special agent with ATF and Scarpetta’s only niece) goes on a long run in the snowy suburbs of Richmond, Virginia. The next day, Scarpetta flies to Miami to spend a few days with her querulous mother and Sindbad, her Siamese cat. In Richmond, Lucy entertains her friends, all from various federal law enforcement agencies; and Marino first apprehends and then befriends Jimmy Simpson, a ten-year-old boy who had been snowballing his house. In the final scene of the novelette, all the characters (including Jimmy’s mother, who seems to catch Marino’s eye) gather in Scarpetta’s warm house on a cold night to enjoy her famous stew.This book — a special “gift” from Cornwell to her readers — is the perfect holiday gift, and gives the reader insights into her best-known characters that cannot be found in any other work. It is illustrated with photographs that suggest the locales and activities of her characters, and it includes the ingredients for all the dishes described in the story.
Looking for a review of Scarpetta’s Winter Table? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.55 out of 5 stars based on 73 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.00 out of 5 stars based on 14 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.53 out of 5 stars based on 2,058 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.12 out of 5 stars based on 46 ratings
Total Score 3.53 (updated 10/31/17)
#10-Black Notice – 1999
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 8/22/1999 – 1 week on bestseller list
Sample Audio Clip
First Line:
My Dearest Kay,
I am sitting on the porch, staring out at Lake Michigan as a sharp wind reminds me I need to cut my hair.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli
Jaime Berger: A tough very attractive prosecutor that eventually develops a romantic relationship with Lucy
Le Loup Garou or Jean-Baptiste Chandonne: The “werewolf” is the brother of Thomas Chandonne, who is head of a crime family.
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia and France
An intriguing Dr Kay Scarpetta novel which will take Kay an ocean’s breadth away from home. The case begins when a cargo ship arriving at Richmond, Virginia’s Deep Water Terminal from Belgium is discovered to be transporting a locked, sealed container holding the decomposed remains of a stowaway. The post mortem performed by the Chief Medical Examiner, Kay Scarpetta, initially reveals neither a cause of death nor an identification. But the victim’s personal effects and an odd tattoo take Scarpetta on a hunt for information that leads to Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, where she receives critical instructions: go to the Paris morgue to receive secret evidence and then return to Virginia to carry out a mission. It is a mission that could ruin her career. In a story which crosses international borders, BLACK NOTICE puts Dr Kay Scarpetta directly in harm’s way and places her and those she holds dear at mortal risk.
“An unidentified body is a black notice”, I said. “Usually suspected fugitives with international ties.”
Looking for a review of Black Notice? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.20 out of 5 stars based on 806 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.83 out of 5 stars based on 157 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.85 out of 5 stars based on 29,891 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.43 out of 5 stars based on 642 ratings
Total Score 3.82 (updated 10/31/17)
#11-The Last Precinct – 2000
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 11/5/2000 – 1 week on bestseller list
Sample Audio Clip
First Line:
The cold dusk gives up its bruised color to complete darkness, and I am grateful that the draperies in my bedroom are heavy enough to absorb even the faintest hint of my silhouette as I move about packing my bags.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Lucy Farinelli and Jaime Berger
Jean-Baptiste Chandonne
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia and France
The Last Precinct finds Virginia’s Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta in the middle of a nightmare that began with Black Notice, and continues as she discovers the so-called Werewolf murders may have extended to New York City and into the darkest corners of her past. Scarpetta must struggle to make what she knows to be the truth prevail against mounting evidence to the contrary. By the end of the novel, it is clear that Scarpetta’s life can never be the same.
“Lucy said the name The Last Precinct started out as a joke. Where you go when there is nowhere left. And in Anna’s letter, she said Benton told her The Last Precinct is where he would end up. Cryptic. Riddles. Benton believed his future was somehow connected to what he was putting in that file. The Last Precinct was death, I then consider. Where was Benton going to end up? He was going to end up dead. Where else would he have end up?”
Looking for a review of The Last Precinct? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.30 out of 5 stars based on 541 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.72 out of 5 stars based on 162 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.83 out of 5 stars based on 28,955 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.28 out of 5 stars based on 593 ratings
Total Score 3.81 (updated 10/31/17)
#12-Blow Fly – 2003
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 11/2/2003 – 1 week on bestseller list
Sample Audio Clip
First Line:
Dr. Kay Scarpetta move the tiny glass vial close to candlelight, illuminating a maggot drifting in a poisonous bath of ethanol.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Jaime Berger, Lucy Farinelli and Jean-Baptiste Chandonne
Rocco Caggiano: Pete Marino’s son and lawyer to Jean-Baptiste Chandonne and is murdered by Lucy Farinelli in Poland.
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia and Miami, Florida
Fearing that she is about to be fired by the governor, hounded in the media and in the courtroom, Kay Scarpetta leaves Virginia for what she believes will turn out to be the warmth and solace of the Florida sun.
However, Scarpetta is soon deep into a case that has left colleagues in Louisiana profoundly disturbed. A woman is found dead in a seedy hotel, dressed to go out, keys in her hand. Her history of blackouts, and her violent outbursts while under their spell, offer more questions than clues about the cause of her death.
Then Scarpetta receives news that chills her to the core: from his cell on death row, Jean-Baptiste Chandonne – the vicious and unrepentant Wolfman, who pursued her to her very doorstep – demands to see her. Only to Scarpetta will he tell the secrets he knows the authorities desire. After all the death and destruction, what sort of endgame could this violent psychopath have in mind?
“Had the larva lived, it would have matured into a bluebottle Calliphora vicina, a blow fly. It might have laid its eggs in a dead human’s body mouth or eyes, or in a living person’s malodorous wounds.”
Looking for a review of Blow Fly? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 2.37 out of 5 stars based on 971 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 2.70 out of 5 stars based on 232 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars based on 31,867 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.12 out of 5 stars based on 664 ratings
Total Score 3.69 (updated 10/31/17)
#13-Trace – 2004
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 9/26/2004 – 1 week on bestseller list
First Line:
Yellow bulldozers hack earth and stone in an old city block that has seen more death than most modern wars, and Kay Scarpetta slows her rental SUV almost to a stop.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, Lucy Farinelli
The Setting
Richmond, Virginia; Miami, Florida; and Aspen, Colorado
Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing from South Florida, returns to the city that turned its back on her five years ago. Richmond, Virginia’s recently appointed chief medical examiner claims that he needs Scarpetta’s help to solve a perplexing crime. When she arrives, however, Scarpetta finds that nothing is as she expected: Her former lab is in the final stages of demolition; the inept chief isn’t the one who requested her after all; her old assistant chief has developed personal problems that he won’t reveal; and a glamorous FBI agent, whom Scarpetta dislikes instantly, meddles with the case.
Deprived of assistance from colleagues Benton and Lucy, who are embroiled in what appears to be an unrelated attempted rape by a stalker, Scarpetta is faced with investigating the death of a fourteen-year-old girl, working with the smallest pieces of evidence — traces that only the most thorough hunters can identify. She must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak — and to reveal the sad truth that may be more than even she can bear …
“We have a major problem with the evidence. The trace evidence recovered from Gilly Paulsson’s body seems identical to trace evidence recovered from the tractor driver, Mr. Whitbey. Now, I just don’t see how that’s possible unless there’s been some sort of cross-contamination.”
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Amazon Rating-US: 2.89 out of 5 stars based on 623 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.27 out of 5 stars based on 179 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.76 out of 5 stars based on 25,700 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.14 out of 5 stars based on 560 ratings
Total Score 3.72 (updated 10/31/17)
#14-Predator – 2005
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 11/13/2005 – 1 week on bestseller list
First Line:
It is Sunday afternoon and Dr. Kay Scarpetta is in her office at the National Forensic Academy in Hollywood, Florida, where clouds are building, promising another thunderstorm.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley and Lucy Farinelli
Rose: Scarpetta’s receptionist
The Setting
Florida and Boston, Massachusetts
Scarpetta, now freelancing with the National Forensic Academy in Florida, digs into a case more bizarre than any she has ever faced, one that has produced not only unusual physical evidence, but also tantalizing clues about the inner workings of an extremely cunning and criminal mind.
She and her team — Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and her niece, Lucy — track the odd connections between several horrific crimes and the people who are the likely suspects. As one psychopath, safely behind bars and the subject of a classified scientific study at a Harvard-affiliated psychiatric hospital, teases Scarpetta with tips that could be fact — or fantasy — the number of killers on the loose seems to multiply. Are these events related or merely random? And what can the study of one man’s brain tell them about the methods of a psychopath still lurking in the shadows?
“The case probably isn’t a candidate for the Prefrontal Determinants of Aggressive-Type Overt Responsivity research study known as PREDATOR, Scarpetta decides, vaguely aware of a motorcycle getting louder on the Academy grounds.”
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Amazon Rating-US: 2.29 out of 5 stars based on 631 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.07 out of 5 stars based on 167 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.67 out of 5 stars based on 23,960 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.14 out of 5 stars based on 553 ratings
Total Score 3.62 (updated 10/31/17)
#15-Book of the Dead – 2007
Winner of the 2008 National (UK) Book Award for Best Crime Thriller
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 11/11/2007 – 1 week on bestseller list
First Line:
Water splashing.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, Lucy Farinelli, and Rose
The Setting
Charleston, South Carolina
The “book of the dead” is the morgue log, a ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to take on a new meaning. Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it’s time for a change of pace, not only personally and professionally but geographically. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues-including Pete Marino and her niece, Lucy-offer expert crime-scene investigation and autopsy services to communities lacking local access to modern, competent death investigation technology.
It seems like an ideal situation, until the new battles start-with local politicians, with entrenched interests, with someone whose covert attempts at sabotage are clearly meant to run Scarpetta out of town. And that’s before the murders and other violent deaths even begin.
A young man from a well-known family jumps off a water tower. A woman is found ritualistically murdered in her multimillion-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is discovered dumped in a desolate marsh. Meanwhile, in distant New England, problems with a prominent patient at a Harvard-affiliated psychiatric hospital begin to hint at interconnections that are as hard to imagine as they are horrible.
Kay Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones confronting her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names-and the pen may be poised to write in her own.
“camera picks up on Lucious walking to the large black log on a countertop, the Book of the Dead, as Rose politely calls it. He starts signing in the body…”
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Learning English In Advanced Levels
Amazon Rating-US: 3.04 out of 5 stars based on 861 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 2.82 out of 5 stars based on 222 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.64 out of 5 stars based on 23,421 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.10 out of 5 stars based on 524 ratings
Total Score 3.60 (updated 10/31/17)
#16-Scarpetta – 2008
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 12/21/2008 – 1 week on bestseller list
First Line:
Brain tissue clung like wet, gray lint to the sleeves of Dr. Kay Scarpetta’s surgical gown, and the front of it was splashed with blood.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley and Lucy Farinelli
Jack Fielding: Scarpetta’s deputy chief medical examiner.
The Setting
New York City
Leaving behind her private forensic pathology practice in Charleston, South Carolina, Kay Scarpetta accepts an assignment in New York City, where the NYPD has asked her to examine an injured man on Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric prison ward. The handcuffed and chained patient, Oscar Bane, has specifically asked for her, and when she literally has her gloved hands on him, he begins to talk and the story he has to tell turns out to be one of the most bizarre she has ever heard.
The injuries, he says, were sustained in the course of a murder . . . that he did not commit. Is Bane a criminally insane stalker who has fixed on Scarpetta? Or is his paranoid tale true, and it is he who is being spied on, followed and stalked by the actual killer? The one thing Scarpetta knows for certain is that a woman has been tortured and murdered and more violent deaths will follow. Gradually, an inexplicable and horrifying truth emerges: Whoever is committing the crimes knows where his prey is at all times. Is it a person, a government? And what is the connection between the victims?
In the days that follow, Scarpetta; her forensic psychologist husband, Benton Wesley; and her niece, Lucy, who has recently formed her own forensic computer investigation firm in New York, will undertake a harrowing chase through cyberspace and the all-too-real streets of the city, an odyssey that will take them at once to places they never knew, and much, much too close to home.
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Amazon Rating-US: 3.24 out of 5 stars based on 1,187 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.65 out of 5 stars based on 183 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.72 out of 5 stars based on 24,307 rating
Library Thing Ratings: 3.31 out of 5 stars based on 446 ratings
Total Score 3.69 (updated 10/31/17)
#17-The Scarpetta Factor – 2009
First Line:
A frigid wind gusted in from the East River, snatching at Dr. Kay Scarpetta’s coat as she walked quickly along 30th Street.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and Lucy Farinelli
The Setting
New York City
It is the week before Christmas. A tanking economy has prompted Dr. Kay Scarpetta-despite her busy schedule and her continuing work as the senior forensic analyst for CNN- to offer her services pro bono to New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In no time at all, her increased visibility seems to precipitate a string of unexpected and unsettling events. She is asked live on the air about the sensational case of Hannah Starr, who has vanished and is presumed dead. Moments later during the same telecast, she receives a startling call-in from a former psychiatric patient of Benton Wesley’s. When she returns after the show to the apartment where she and Benton live, she finds an ominous package-possibly a bomb-waiting for her at the front desk. Soon the apparent threat on Scarpetta’s life finds her embroiled in a surreal plot that includes a famous actor accused of an unthinkable sex crime and the disappearance of a beautiful millionairess with whom Lucy seems to have shared a secret past.
Scarpetta’s CNN producer wants her to launch a TV show called The Scarpetta Factor. Given the bizarre events already in play, she fears that her growing fame will generate the illusion that she has a “special factor,” a mythical ability to solve all her cases. She wonders if she will end up like other TV personalities: her own stereotype.
“The Scarpetta Factor,” Batcha said. “A great name for your new show.”
“What you are suggesting is the very thing I’m trying to get away from.”
“Why get away from it?”
“It’s become a household word, a cliché.” “Which is what I sure as hell don’t want to become”, she said, trying not to sound as offended as she felt.
“What I mean is, it’s the buzz. Whenever something seems unsolvable, people want the Scarpetta Factor.”
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Amazon Rating-US: 3.17 out of 5 stars based on 1,187 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.14 out of 5 stars based on 224 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.67 out of 5 stars based on 18,606 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.14 out of 5 stars based on 303 ratings
Total Score 3.63 (updated 10/31/17)
#18-Port Mortuary – 2010
Listed #1 on New York Times Bestseller List on 12/19/2010 – 1 week on bestseller list
First Line:
Inside the changing room for female staff, I toss soiled scrubs into a biohazard hamper and strip off the rest of my clothes and medical clogs.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, Lucy Farinelli, and Jack Fielding
The Setting
Cambridge, Massachusetts
A treacherous path from Scarpetta’s past merges with the high- tech highway she now finds herself on. We travel back to the beginning of her professional career, when she accepted a scholarship from the Air Force to pay off her medical school debt. Now, more than twenty years and many career successes later, her secret military ties have drawn her to Dover Air Force Base, where she has been immersed in a training fellowship.
As the chief of the new Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts, a joint venture of the state and federal governments, MIT and Harvard, Scarpetta is confronted with a case that could shut down her new facility and ruin her personally and professionally.
Here is a review on Patricia Cornwell’s novel Port Mortuary from ‘Shelly’ found on Amazon. Seems that she has some problems with Ms. Cornwell’s writing style:
Far from the educating & interesting pages she used to write, Patricia Cornwell seems to actually dislike her readers, so much that she is trying to bore us to death. If you’ve not read her last 2-3 books, here is an example of her writing. “Scarpetta had to choose which socks to wear. She had two colors to choose from, black or white. She likes white, but only with long pants. The black ones look better with shorts. But wait, she’s not wearing shorts. So she really could wear either pair. But which to choose? Black or white? She chose the black socks. And in choosing the black socks, she remembered one time she was wearing black socks. It was long ago and a very important memory that radically changed her life. But she’s never, never in 20-some years EVER thought of it before. It was life-altering, but not important enough for her to ever think of it before. She picks up the left sock and rolls it up in her fingers. She sits on the bed and lifts her right foot. Wait, this sock is for her left foot! She raises her left foot and puts her toes into the sock. She pulls the sock up to her ankle and smooths it out over her foot, then puts her foot back on the floor. She rolls the right sock in her fingers and lifts her right foot up onto her other knee. She puts her toes into the sock and pulls it up over her foot. It goes on twisted. She straightens it out and puts her foot back on the floor.”
And in the case of this book, Cornwell would waste 11 pages describing the weave, age, texture of the sock and contemplating whether the sock actually wants to be worn.
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Amazon Rating-US: 2.81 out of 5 stars based on 960 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 2.82 out of 5 stars based on 338 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.56 out of 5 stars based on 17,387 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.11 out of 5 stars based on 275 ratings
Total Score 3.50 (updated 10/31/17)
#19-Red Mist – 2011
Winner of the 2011 RBA International Thriller Prize
First Line:
Iron rails the rusty brown of old blood cut across a cracked paved road that leads deeper into the Lowcountry.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, Lucy Farinelli, and Jaime Berger
The Setting
Savannah, Georgia
Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings. The murder of an Atlanta family years ago, a young woman on death row, and the inexplicable deaths of homeless people as far away as California seem unrelated. But Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding’s death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it.
“For an instant I smell the iron smell and hear the hissing red mist as it landed warmly, wetly all over me inside my cold, dark garage.”
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Amazon Rating-US: 3.63 out of 5 stars based on 983 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.78 out of 5 stars based on 400 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars based on 19,544 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.28 out of 5 stars based on 199 ratings
Total Score 3.74 (updated 10/31/17)
#20-The Bone Bed – 2012
First Line:
Where the Red Willow and Wapiti Rivers merge in the Peace Region of northwestern Alberta, dark green waters tumble and foam around fallen trees and gray sandy islets with white pebble shores.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and Lucy Farinelli
The Setting
Cambridge, Massachusetts
A woman has vanished while digging a dinosaur bone bed in the remote wilderness of Canada. Somehow, the only evidence has made its way to the inbox of Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, over two thousand miles away in Boston. She has no idea why. But as events unfold with alarming speed, Scarpetta begins to suspect that the paleontologist’s disappearance is connected to a series of crimes much closer to home: a gruesome murder, inexplicable tortures, and trace evidence from the last living creatures of the dinosaur age.
When she turns to those around her, Scarpetta finds that the danger and suspicion have penetrated even her closest circles. Her niece Lucy speaks in riddles. Her lead investigator, Pete Marino, and FBI forensic psychologist and husband, Benton Wesley, have secrets of their own. Feeling alone and betrayed, Scarpetta is tempted by someone from her past as she tracks a killer both cunning and cruel.
“Then the steep rocky slope, what I now know is a dinosaur dig site called the Wapiti bone bed, and the image dissolves into a jpg that is violent and cruel.”
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Mango Momma’s Book and Movie Review
Amazon Rating-US: 3.79 out of 5 stars based on 2,297 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.93 out of 5 stars based on 654 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.65 out of 5 stars based on 17,482 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.29 out of 5 stars based on 153 ratings
Total Score 3.67 (updated 10/31/17)
#21-Dust – 2013
First Line:
The clangor of the phone violates the relentless roll of rain beating the roof like drumsticks.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and Lucy Farinelli
The Setting
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Massachusetts Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta has just returned from working one of the worst mass murders in U.S. history when she’s awakened at an early hour by Detective Pete Marino.
A body, oddly draped in an unusual cloth, has just been discovered inside the sheltered gates of MIT and it’s suspected the identity is that of missing computer engineer Gail Shipton, last seen the night before at a trendy Cambridge bar. It appears she’s been murdered, mere weeks before the trial of her $100 million lawsuit against her former financial managers, and Scarpetta doubts it’s a coincidence. She also fears the case may have a connection with her computer genius niece, Lucy.
At a glance there is no sign of what killed Gail Shipton, but she’s covered with a fine dust that under ultraviolet light fluoresces brilliantly in three vivid colors, what Scarpetta calls a mineral fingerprint. Clearly the body has been posed with chilling premeditation that is symbolic and meant to shock, and Scarpetta has reason to worry that the person responsible is the Capital Murderer, whose most recent sexual homicides have terrorized Washington, D.C. Stunningly, Scarpetta will discover that her FBI profiler husband, Benton Wesley, is convinced that certain people in the government, including his boss, don’t want the killer caught.
When most people write a review on a book, they discuss how well they liked the plot, the characters, etc, but an Amazon Customer gave Patricia Cornwell’s novel Dust a poor rating because he/she had a bigger problem or should I say ‘smaller’ problem with the novel.
This book was published in November 2013. The copy I received was not one of the original size, it was a smaller version. I was surprised because no where in the description was it written that this book was 8 1/2 x 6 instead of 9 1/2 x 6 1/2. The book itself is in very good condition just not the standard size.
Looking for a review of Dust? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.60 out of 5 stars based on 2,729 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.90 out of 5 stars based on 714 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.54 out of 5 stars based on 13,387 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.27 out of 5 stars based on 117 ratings
Total Score 3.56 (updated 10/31/17)
#22-Flesh and Blood – 2014
Sample Audio Clip
First Line:
Copper flashes like shards of aventurine glass on top of the old brick wall behind our house.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and Lucy Farinelli
The Setting
Cambridge, Massachusetts
It’s Dr. Kay Scarpetta’s birthday, and she’s about to head to Miami for a vacation with Benton Wesley, her FBI profiler husband, when she notices seven pennies on a wall behind their Cambridge house. Is this a kids’ game? If so, why are all of the coins dated 1981 and so shiny they could be newly minted? Her cellphone rings, and Detective Pete Marino tells her there’s been a homicide five minutes away. A high school music teacher has been shot with uncanny precision as he unloaded groceries from his car. No one has heard or seen a thing. In this 22nd Scarpetta novel, the master forensic sleuth finds herself in the unsettling pursuit of a serial sniper who leaves no incriminating evidence except fragments of copper. The shots seem impossible, yet they are so perfect they cause instant death. The victims appear to have had nothing in common, and there is no pattern to indicate where the killer will strike next. First New Jersey, then Massachusetts, and then the murky depths off the coast of South Florida, where Scarpetta investigates a shipwreck, looking for answers that only she can discover and analyze. And it is there that she comes face to face with shocking evidence that implicates her techno genius niece, Lucy, Scarpetta’s own flesh and blood.
Mary Berger from Goodreads gave her review of Patricia Cornwell’s Flesh and Blood. Now don’t hold back Mary!
When I say I couldn’t put this book down, I mean I couldn’t put it down fast enough.
Looking for other reviews of Flesh and Blood? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.90 out of 5 stars based on 2,829 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.01 out of 5 stars based on 840 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.67 out of 5 stars based on 13,338 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.32 out of 5 stars based on 99 ratings
Total Score 3.72 (updated 10/31/17)
#23-Depraved Heart –2015
Sample Audio Clip
First Line:
I gave the vintage teddy bear to Lucy when she was ten and she named him Mister Pickle.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, Lucy Farinelli, and Carrie Grethen
The Setting
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Depraved Heart: “Void of social duty and fatally bent on mischief.”
—Mayes v. People, 806 III. 306 (1883)
Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece Lucy. But how can it be? It’s clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago.
As Scarpetta watches she begins to learn frightening secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That film clip and then others sent soon after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her confused, worried, and not knowing where to turn. She doesn’t know whom she can tell—not her FBI husband Benton Wesley or her investigative partner Pete Marino. Not even Lucy.
In this new novel, Cornwell launches these unforgettable characters on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the mysterious death of a Hollywood mogul’s daughter, aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and videos from the past that threaten to destroy Scarpetta’s entire world and everyone she loves. The diabolical presence behind what unfolds seems obvious—but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that’s the message they send when they raid Lucy’s estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life.
“Technically, legally I’m sure they haven’t,” Janet replies. “I guarantee you they didn’t hire Carrie, they didn’t contract with her to hurt Kay last June or kill us. What they’ve done is far more clever and diabolical. It’s an open invitation to commit a violent act, and yes it’s willful negligence. It’s complete disregard for human life, the absolute definition of a depraved heart crime,” she adds to my disbelief. “It should be criminal. But it’s the FBI, Lucy. And there’s no accountability unless there is a perceived political obstruction such as an embarrassment to POTUS.
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Amazon Rating-US: 3.39 out of 5 stars based on 2,814 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.69 out of 5 stars based on 581 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.55 out of 5 stars based on 6,226 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.35 out of 5 stars based on 64 ratings
Total Score 3.51 (Updated 10/31/17)
#24-Chaos – 2016
First Line:
Beyond the brick wall bordering Harvard Yard, four tall chimneys and a gray slate roof with white-painted dormers peek through the branches of hardwood trees.
Characters
Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, Lucy Farinelli, and Carrie Grethen
The Setting
Cambridge, Massachusetts
In the quiet of twilight, on an early autumn day, twenty-six-year-old Elisa Vandersteel is killed while riding her bicycle along the Charles River. It appears she was struck by lightning—except the weather is perfectly clear with not a cloud in sight. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the Cambridge Forensic Center’s director and chief, decides at the scene that this is no accidental Act of God.
Her investigation becomes complicated when she begins receiving a flurry of bizarre poems from an anonymous cyberbully who calls himself Tailend Charlie. Though subsequent lab results support Scarpetta’s conclusions, the threatening messages don’t stop. When the tenth poem arrives exactly twenty-four hours after Elisa’s death, Scarpetta begins to suspect the harasser is involved, and sounds the alarm to her investigative partner Pete Marino and her husband, FBI analyst Benton Wesley.
She also enlists the help of her niece, Lucy. But to Scarpetta’s surprise, tracking the slippery Tailend Charlie is nearly impossible, even for someone as brilliant as her niece. Also, Lucy can’t explain how this anonymous nemesis could have access to private information. To make matters worse, a venomous media is whipping the public into a frenzy, questioning the seasoned forensics chief’s judgment and “a quack cause of death on a par with spontaneous combustion.”
“I recognize your name, your initials, and the word chaos,” Lucy continues to describe what she could make out in the most recent audible harassment. “Apparently chaos in Italian is pretty much the same thing in English.”
“In Italian there’s no h. It’s spelled c-a-o-s.” I pronounce it for her.
“Yes.” Lucy nods. “That’s exactly what I heard. Chaos is coming, or something like that.”
Looking for a review of Chaos? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 3.33 out of 5 stars based on 1,751 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 3.42 out of 5 stars based on 320 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.55 out of 5 stars based on 8,737 ratings
Library Thing Ratings: 3.17 out of 5 stars based on 27 ratings
Total Score 3.51 (updated 10/31/17)
#25-Autopsy – 2021
Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta has returned to Virginia as the chief medical examiner. Finding herself the new girl in town once again after being away for many years, she’s inherited an overbearing secretary and a legacy of neglect and possible corruption.
She and her husband Benton Wesley, now a forensic psychologist with the U.S. Secret Service, have relocated to Old Town Alexandria where she’s headquartered five miles from the Pentagon in a post-pandemic world that’s been torn by civil and political unrest. Just weeks on the job, she’s called to a scene by railroad tracks where a woman’s body has been shockingly displayed, her throat cut down to the spine, and as Scarpetta begins to follow the trail, it leads unnervingly close to her own historic neighborhood.
At the same time a catastrophe occurs on a top secret private laboratory in outer space, and at least two scientists aboard are found dead. Appointed to the highly classified Doomsday Commission that specializes in sensitive national security cases, Scarpetta is summoned to the White House Situation Room to work the case remotely, dispatching astronauts from the International Space Station to deal with the scene and the bodies. She works the first crime scene in space as an apparent serial killer strikes again, this time even closer to home. Almost literally in her own back yard.
Looking for a review of Autopsy? Check out:
#26-Livid – (Expected Release Date 10/25/22)
Chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is the reluctant star witness in a sensational murder trial when she receives shocking news. The judge’s sister has been found dead. At first glance, it appears to be a home invasion, but then why was nothing stolen, and why is the garden strewn with dead plants and insects?
Although there is no apparent cause of death, Scarpetta recognizes telltale signs of the unthinkable, and she knows the worst is yet to come. The forensic pathologist finds herself pitted against a powerful force that returns her to the past, and her time to catch the killer is running out . . .
A-Thrill-A-Week 
In recent books Scarpetta has become way too introspective. The recent books spend half the book in introspection: Does Benton know something that Kay does not; does Lucy know something that Kay does not; do Lucy and Benton know something that Kay does not know. I say give up the many, many pages of introspection and consentrate on solving the crime. And “Flesh and Blood” does not end with capturing the criminal, but ends with a SNAP. A waste of the reader’s time. Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
I couldn’t agree with you more.
I was a huge fan of this series until–as Alan says–she got too inside herself. I switched to the Bones TV show and think that one’s also falling over the edge. I need a new one!
The series has turned into a bit of a soap opera.
First, thanks for liking my review of the Lincoln Child’s “The Forgotten Room.” Second, I agree how the Scarpetta series seems to get old and tired. I read all the books in the Scarpetta series, as well as the two other series of characters Patricia Cornwell started. I think it’s time to conclude the Scarpetta series and concentrate on the new ones she created. As for the actress to play Scarpetta, I agree 100% that Sharon Stone would be perfect. Scarpetta’s description does bring to mind Sharon Stone, and definitely not Angelina Jolie, who I like, but I don’t think would make a good Scarpetta.
I stopped reading the series a few years ago. Started out enjoying all of the main characters, but no longer. Way too negative.
The Scarpetta series started off really strongly but after a while they seemed to run out of steam, maybe when Cornwell changed the narration style to the third person. The main characters seem to spend all their time depressed and at each others throats or else not speaking to each other. I hate how Marino, who was my favorite character, turned into a moody, sulking man child. Also Lucy, Scarpetta’s niece is way over the top, she’s like James Bond, Albert Einstein and John Rambo all rolled into one. Having said that, you can’t go wrong with the first few books, especially the debut Postmortem. Meg Ryan or Melanie Griffiths might make a good Scarpetta, maybe Michelle Pfeiffer. Charlize Theron for a Postmortem era portrayal perhaps.
Thank you Guy for you comments. Marino is my favorite character too and I am pretty unhappy in how he has turned out.
I really enjoyed this post! Be sure to check out mine too on my blog bookworminglife.com and subscribe/follow if you like!
If you get your blog set up on Twitter, I will follow you. It is also a great way to get more exposure for your blog. That is typically how I follow most other blogs.
Thank you! I’ll have a look and see! I’ll let you know xx