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A review by outsmartyourshelf
Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta is due to autopsy the body of Ronnie Joe Waddell after his execution for killing local TV celebrity Robyn Naismith. During the autopsy her assistant, Susan Storey, seems agitated and distracted & she is the same during the autopsy of a young boy who is killed several days later. Susan then abruptly quits without explanation. Meanwhile FBI agent Benton Wesley become involved in the cases when Marino spots that Eddie Heath's death scene is eerily similar to Robyn Naismith's, & Waddell's print is found at another crime scene - a crime committed after his execution.
This is a fast paced addition to the series with a plot that is complicated but not overly convoluted. There are several murders in the book with varying ties to the main case, & Scarpetta's new nemesis appears, one that will return in several future books. Scarpetta (I never feel right referring to her as Kay) struggles with both her professional & personal life in this one. The reader learns that Mark James is dead, killed by a bomb explosion, & that Scarpetta has been withdrawing from her friends & family. Workwise there are betrayals & back stabbings & she has to depend upon an old academic teacher from her past for help. One thing I wondered about this time through is that when the hard copies of memos go missing from her office there is apparently no way to evidence they were ever there, but surely her administrative assistant would keep electronic copies? A small niggle in an otherwise great read.
This is a fast paced addition to the series with a plot that is complicated but not overly convoluted. There are several murders in the book with varying ties to the main case, & Scarpetta's new nemesis appears, one that will return in several future books. Scarpetta (I never feel right referring to her as Kay) struggles with both her professional & personal life in this one. The reader learns that Mark James is dead, killed by a bomb explosion, & that Scarpetta has been withdrawing from her friends & family. Workwise there are betrayals & back stabbings & she has to depend upon an old academic teacher from her past for help. One thing I wondered about this time through is that when the hard copies of memos go missing from her office there is apparently no way to evidence they were ever there, but surely her administrative assistant would keep electronic copies? A small niggle in an otherwise great read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Medical content