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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love the Scarpetta series; this one was a little slower in pace than the others.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse
Here’s what I loved: the maintained and progressively continued development of each character, the plot, the setting, the emotion, the interweaving of different storylines in classic Cornwell fashion. The vivid descriptions and visual elements based on real places and institutes helps in the story development so much. The tension between Kay and Dorothy is there as always and I’d miss it if it wasn’t!!! I appreciated that unlike the last Scarpetta book, this one took place over a few more days instead of an entire novel in the course of just one- I really, really didn’t like that in the last book. I feel like Cornwell got way closer to her previous writing genius and style, closer to how it was before Red Mist when it all tanked for me!
Here’s what I didn’t love: Though it was a few days of time in the storyline, it still felt like a rushed scene and I prefer her early writing where Kay rolls up on a scene, processes it, and then thoroughly and incrementally follows it through over days, weeks or even months. I felt like the first several
Chapters and the autopsy chapter were basically a rewriting of the last book - she gets pulled in to some convoluted big-shot government circus and has to stand center stage in front of them being watched, the only difference is last time she was in the mobile trailer morgue with cameras and surveillance all around rather than an observatory at NASA. Both books started the same, with her at the office, where she gets called out, wrangles Marino, talks to her secretary on her way out the door and then never goes to her office again (though she did go back a little bit in the last book). It just felt too repetitive to me! I think what I like least is the layering of big government agencies and “international politically cases”. I kiss the old Kay Scarpetta cases where she grabbed her stuff from home where she was cooking sleeping or chilling or from her office and gets dispatched to a real interesting but not government-regulated case! Sure, there are plenty of them with FBI stepping in which is how she got with Benton, but i miss the human-related investigations, with Kay going to Prisons, people’s homes, stores, rivers, parks and all places in between to do what she does best. I guess I’m happy that it’s getting back to where it was but I still want more. I’ll never forget that magical feeling of how I felt the first time I read Blow Fly, or From Potters Field. I want it back!! Last of all, I didn’t love that this entire backstory plot is based on a timeline from DURING her early Scarpetta books, and not once do I remember ever hearing an allude to Sal, their affair, her leaving etc. what about Mark?!?!? He was before Benton! I’m just kind of confused I guess. I also felt like there was a heavy illusion of all the time that Kay and Lucy spent at this abandoned theme park when younger, yet again, not once in the earlier books is there mention of them doing such things together. In fact, during the books every time Lucy comes, Kay is caught up in a case and can’t spend much time with Lucy at all! I get that we are supposed to read between the books for this stuff, but I guess to me it feels like too much after the fact and filler info when I’d much rather have something juicy now, like Kay finds Sal alive and has Ana affair now, or has a midlife crisis and suddenly applies to run for governor or something whacko. I want the here and now story building, not the backstory fillers that no longer serve me or the storylines.
With all that said- it was good, I’ll keep reading every gem
She puts out every year, and i may go back and read from the beginning now that we’ve moved to Virginia and are just two hours from Richmond and Fredericksburg ourselves!
Here’s what I didn’t love: Though it was a few days of time in the storyline, it still felt like a rushed scene and I prefer her early writing where Kay rolls up on a scene, processes it, and then thoroughly and incrementally follows it through over days, weeks or even months. I felt like the first several
Chapters and the autopsy chapter were basically a rewriting of the last book - she gets pulled in to some convoluted big-shot government circus and has to stand center stage in front of them being watched, the only difference is last time she was in the mobile trailer morgue with cameras and surveillance all around rather than an observatory at NASA. Both books started the same, with her at the office, where she gets called out, wrangles Marino, talks to her secretary on her way out the door and then never goes to her office again (though she did go back a little bit in the last book). It just felt too repetitive to me! I think what I like least is the layering of big government agencies and “international politically cases”. I kiss the old Kay Scarpetta cases where she grabbed her stuff from home where she was cooking sleeping or chilling or from her office and gets dispatched to a real interesting but not government-regulated case! Sure, there are plenty of them with FBI stepping in which is how she got with Benton, but i miss the human-related investigations, with Kay going to Prisons, people’s homes, stores, rivers, parks and all places in between to do what she does best. I guess I’m happy that it’s getting back to where it was but I still want more. I’ll never forget that magical feeling of how I felt the first time I read Blow Fly, or From Potters Field. I want it back!! Last of all, I didn’t love that this entire backstory plot is based on a timeline from DURING her early Scarpetta books, and not once do I remember ever hearing an allude to Sal, their affair, her leaving etc. what about Mark?!?!? He was before Benton! I’m just kind of confused I guess. I also felt like there was a heavy illusion of all the time that Kay and Lucy spent at this abandoned theme park when younger, yet again, not once in the earlier books is there mention of them doing such things together. In fact, during the books every time Lucy comes, Kay is caught up in a case and can’t spend much time with Lucy at all! I get that we are supposed to read between the books for this stuff, but I guess to me it feels like too much after the fact and filler info when I’d much rather have something juicy now, like Kay finds Sal alive and has Ana affair now, or has a midlife crisis and suddenly applies to run for governor or something whacko. I want the here and now story building, not the backstory fillers that no longer serve me or the storylines.
With all that said- it was good, I’ll keep reading every gem
She puts out every year, and i may go back and read from the beginning now that we’ve moved to Virginia and are just two hours from Richmond and Fredericksburg ourselves!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Who among us doesn't love a good Dr. Kay Scarpetta book?? This one did not disappoint and had all the action and sly decision-making Kay, Lucy, and Benton are known for. However, is Merino ever going to grow and up and get his shit together? The man needs therapy in the worst way!
#IdentityUnknown
#NetGalley
#IdentityUnknown
#NetGalley
mysterious
tense
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
mysterious
medium-paced