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outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Christmas is around the corner, but the work for Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner never stops, & Scarpetta gets the news that she has been dreading. It looks like Temple Brooks Gault has struck again, with the discovery of the naked body of a young woman found in Central Park. The woman has been shot, no sign of sexual assault, but areas of skin have been excised from the body - Gault's MO. Scarpetta heads to New York with Benton & Marino, & Carrie Grethen reappears, on a case that will ultimately put everyone she cares about in danger.
There's a hint of cat-and-mouse between Gault & Scarpetta in this book. She learns that he is posing as her son & using one of her credit cards (apparently stolen from Lucy's desk at work by Carrie), not only in New York but in Richmond too. He even orchestrates a visit to the morgue where Scarpetta works, & he is also remotely manipulating CAIN, the system Lucy built to enable law enforcement to track related crimes quickly. Busy boy! Both Lucy & Scarpetta try to track him, but Gault always seems to be one step ahead. Personally Scarpetta is struggling with her guilty feelings about her affair with Benton & about not being able to be with her sick mother at Christmas because of the case. Marino has started dating again but his ex-wife wants to reconcile, & Lucy is dating Janet, a fellow trainee at Quantico.
On this re-read I have removed a star from the rating, as compared to the earlier books, this one wasn't quite as gripping. Gault has always seemed a bit of an insipid villain to me, & the ending was a bit of a letdown after all the build-up - it was just far too easily resolved. Scarpetta can be stubborn to the point of ridiculous about her safety at times, & Lucy is just too wonderful at everything to be true. There are one or two technological mentions which show just how long ago this was written, i.e. dial-up modems & pagers. Overall, it's just a little lackluster compared to the first five books.
There's a hint of cat-and-mouse between Gault & Scarpetta in this book. She learns that he is posing as her son & using one of her credit cards (apparently stolen from Lucy's desk at work by Carrie), not only in New York but in Richmond too. He even orchestrates a visit to the morgue where Scarpetta works, & he is also remotely manipulating CAIN, the system Lucy built to enable law enforcement to track related crimes quickly. Busy boy! Both Lucy & Scarpetta try to track him, but Gault always seems to be one step ahead. Personally Scarpetta is struggling with her guilty feelings about her affair with Benton & about not being able to be with her sick mother at Christmas because of the case. Marino has started dating again but his ex-wife wants to reconcile, & Lucy is dating Janet, a fellow trainee at Quantico.
On this re-read I have removed a star from the rating, as compared to the earlier books, this one wasn't quite as gripping. Gault has always seemed a bit of an insipid villain to me, & the ending was a bit of a letdown after all the build-up - it was just far too easily resolved. Scarpetta can be stubborn to the point of ridiculous about her safety at times, & Lucy is just too wonderful at everything to be true. There are one or two technological mentions which show just how long ago this was written, i.e. dial-up modems & pagers. Overall, it's just a little lackluster compared to the first five books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Gun violence and Infidelity
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