What? No Scarpetta? What is Cornwell thinking?
928084
But, but, but...well, damn. Scarpetta really is not in Blowfly. Instead, Cornwell turns the spotlight over to her smart-mouthed, perennially angry niece and Marino, the perennially angry cop. Toss in a few psychopaths from previous books, several plot lines that Cornwell is a little too obviously struggling to keep under control, and some gruesome details, however, and it's still pretty good...tho I DO miss Scarpetta and her sassy lines and Attitude with a capital A.
863433
I ordered this just after I finished 'Sharpe's Sword'. That put it in context. It's a good short story but it is - alas - short.

I read all the non-Sharpe Cornwell books and then I started the Sharpe stories. In the meantime Cornwell has written more novels. I am ready to start 'The Pagan Lord'.  I read three or four of the Hornblower books again too. I guess someday maybe someday soon I will run out of Cornwell books and I will have to re-read all of them again too.
1111960
Scarpetta is dead, and Cornwell is in denial.  It might be because Cornwell is responsible for the destruction of what was once an interesting character.  Cornwell has turned Kay, Marino, Benton, and Lucy into such caricatures that they are barely human.  The high-end designer product placements are irrelevant to the story, contrived and annoying.  I loved the first several novels but can no longer follow this sad saga.
865787
While I don't disagree with Cornwell's assessment that Walter Sickert could have been Jack the Ripper, I found the book a very disappointing read.  From her Scarpetta novels, I expected a tightly wrapped story.  Instead I felt she was all over the place --  her personal struggle with the material, as ourlined in her conversation with her editor in the 1st chapter, added nothing to the story in my opinion.  Her constant harping on what would be done today in an investigation did not add to the original thesis of the book -- to prove that Sickert was the killer -- and was distracting.  Her laundry list of unsolved murders post 1888 was reptetitive and redudant.
2100484
I am tired of Scarpetta.  It seems to be the same oil same old.  I liked the older ones where the caratures were
Not so seasoned and could solve a case that was not related to them.  Lucy turned into a very unconcerned
Person.
3414937
Not one of Cornwell's good Scarpetta books.  For me, it was disappointing.
The book arrived quickly and it was in perfect condition.
2055099
I wait all year for these books by Patricia Cornwell.

I fear that my review of this novel will echo the previous ones.  This book was hardly worth the wait.

I admire Ms. Cornwell, and I adore these characters.  I will buy and read every book she produces about them... but this book isn't worthy of my devotion, and it is not a worthy addition to the series.  In fact, that the most recent efforts of the last several years fall far short of the stellar beginning she made 20 years ago.  It's as though she lost control of her creations after the publication of Black Notice, and now, the inmates of her mind are running the asylum of her career.

Instead of rebuilding the momentum that makes this series so compelling, allying herself to recognizable orchestral arcs, or establishing any kind of basis for the events she foists upon these three dimensional inventions of her own imagination, it's as if... she's making it up as she goes along?  Pulling down familiar characters in a vaguely sensationalistic effort to generate buzz?  Bastardizing the integrity of her life's work with cheap tricks and introspective jargon?  This book did very little to satisfy me with a Cornwellian catharsis, to spark my curiosity, or delight me as an English teacher with the flawlessness of its contruction or turn of phrase.  It didn't even make me hungry with epicurean sololoquies of Scarpetta in her kitchen.  It was a sleepless, food-less, loveless blur from start to finish, and limited as I was with Scarpetta's return to first person, I shared her confusion when I didn't understand what was going on, while everyone else seemed to.  Lucy is a ghost in this book.  Benton is a cypher.  Marino's appearances are few and far between, and his previous interest, the Bonnell who gave me hope in The Scarpetta Factor, is entirely MIA.  Even this book's well-known villain hides from our view the entire time.  Nothing and no one in it redeems it.

So, then the Devil's advocate in my brain asks, "Maybe Cornwell's attempting to make a point about the randomness of real life?  Maybe she's exploring the pointless decline of those with gifts and talents, when their weaknesses become the more powerful part of them, and then they fall?  Maybe she's trying to show that a perfect storm can be perfectly pointless in its devastation?"

Well, maybe she is.  All I can say is that she shrouded her perfect storm in impenetrable fog, and her perfect point's ostensible sharpness is the most shrouded part of all, dulling and destroing it altogether.

How can Cornwell restore herself to my good graces?  How can she earn back the trust and faith of this particular reader?  What isn't ringing true that needs, well, re-rung?  Scarpetta is a leader.  She is not a perfect woman, but she is a strong, competent, and proficient specialist in her field.  Stop making her a victim, and let her flex the muscles in her body and mind again.  That, above all, would be the most essential first step.
1684641
I anticipated this was going to be a REAL Scarpetta novel, back to the GOOD stuff, at last!! But no such luck!  The odd switch to 3rd person for Scarpetta means she's no longer narrating, and right there you have a huge loss!  Scarpetta said this, Scarpetta said that, etc., etc., etc., it's just far less interesting.  I think even the lightweight plot could have been saved by PC using her winning formula of having Scarpetta doing her usual narration! I can't fathom why a terrific writer like PC would have so little regard for her fans as to mess with what we have grown to expect from her.  If she's trying to drive her readership away, then just keep disappointing us like this!  I threw BLOWFLY in the garbage, where it belonged, after reading just 20 pages! I'm going to finish TRACE before I donate it to the Thrift Shop. But I'm just going to have to deal with the fact that the Scarpetta series is really over now. Sad, but true!
2175807
Patricia Cornwell remains to be one of my favorite authors.  However, lately, I have not been impressed with the Kay Scarpetta series.  I wasn't thrilled about this whole "werewolf" serial killer storyline.  Despite the bad reviews in Amazon.com on Predator, I was thrilled to learned that there would be no mentions of the werewolf.

I thought Predator was a fresh change.  However, it is not without faults.  First of all, Pete Marino...ugh!  He needs to go.  I've never liked him.  He's just rude and brash.  I hope that Cornwell will kill him off without any chance of resurrecting him like she did with Benton.  Lucy is also getting to be a PITA.  She's a good character but she's withdrawing to the point where nothing is shared about her.  And that is getting boring.  She's been like that the past 3 or 4 books.

The story starts out interesting.  However, in the last 1/4 of the book, the story starts to become a bit complicated where I had to go back and re-read a couple of chapters twice.

Here's what's going on:

Kay, Lucy and Pete are in Florida, working for the National Forensic Academy.  The NFA was founded by Lucy.  They currently have an intern, Joe Amos, that no one can tolerate, especially Scarpetta.  However, unline Marino, she remains professional.

Benton Wesley is up in Massachusetts, studying and testing the brain patterns of violent perpetrators.  (He avoids the term "serial killer".)  One of his patients is Basil Jenrette.

There's a series of murders in southern Florida that seem to echo Basil's previous murders.  Therefore, all the characters are working together on these cases.  Meanwhile, Lucy is contemplating her one-night stand with Stevie.  Plus, she has a health issue to worry about.  Marino chews out just about everyone, especially with a local police detective, Reba.  Benton and Kay are on the rocks about their relationship.

Bottom line, this isn't one of the impressive works by Cornwell.  So, yeah, I was disappointed, especially how the story ended.
1437454
Used to be I couldn't wait to get my hands on another Kay Scarpetta novel.  Seems to me, since the miraculous bringing of Wesley Benton "back to life", I have been dissapointed with these novels.  You have to be a forensic specialist to understand what "Kay" is saying or thinking most of the time.  And, aren't you supposed to root for the main, return characters?  I have found over the years that I don't feel that way.  I don't think anyone would let their child, much less their niece, act and treat them the way Lucy does her Aunt Kay.  And if it's so painful for Kay to remember what Marino did to her all those years ago, why would she keep him on her staff?  These things make no sense to me.  To me, it's like a sitcom that should have ended years ago because it isn't funny anymore, I think maybe it's time to retire Kay Scarpetta.  These books are no longer entertaining and page turning to me, they are creepy, hard to understand (in fact I find myself rereading page after page to try and figure out what it means)and I wish I hand't wasted this much money on this book - I could have found another murder mystery that would make me anxious to sit down and finish, not feeling like this one does.  I'm left feeling like Kay Scarpetta is not the character I knew and loved, and Lucy and Morino should have been kicked to the curb years ago.  If you liked the original Scarpetta/Marino novels, you will most likey not like this one at all.
3653676
It seemed for years Cornwell coasted on her earlier work to sell books.
After reading the 500 page "Scarpetta", she has my attention once again.
Let's hope it goes that way.  pk in vt
1554959
As always, Patricia Cornwell delivers as Kay Scarpetta struggles to unravel a mystery involving her niece, Lucy, her husband, Benton and her arch-nemesis, Carrie Grethen. It keep you wanting more, but not everything is solved in this novel. I look forward to seeing more adventures and some more answers.
3718055
I have read ALL the Scarpetta novels and have only been disappointed twice.  The first time was when she had terrorists running around a nuclear reactor and the second was "Trace". I seriously had to struggle through this very dull book and only did so because I wanted to be able to say I read ALL the Scarpetta novels to date. However, I would suggest that anyone who is a fan, like myself, should skip this one.  Trust me, when and if she writes the next one, you'll be able to pick up where you left off because you will have missed absolutely nothing except the distortion of characters you used to love like Marino, who is now an ex smoker, Atkins diet convert, and sports a shaved head.  I am all for the evolution of characters, but she has pretty much reduced everyone, especially our beloved Kay, to unlikeable, uninteresting people we would rather not associate with lest spend our time reading about them. This novel spends a lot of it's time on Lucy, who is a lesbian (okay, we got that in the last six novels, and we accept and love her.  Stop weaving her sexuaity into the storyline when it's really become quite repetative and boring.), flies a helicopter, (we knew that), and has now relocated to South Florida.  Hmmmmmmmmmm, does Cornwell realize that her characters are getting a bit autobiographical?????????????
Back to basics I say.  Loved the forensic stuff in her prior novels but Scarpetta and her inherent talents barely waft through the story line.  This is abook that ends and leaves you feeling disappointed and frankly feeling a little cheated.  Pass on it, believe me.
3538400
I am disappointed that there is no cornwell discourse on the
 actual battle of Waterloo. I've enjoyed them in all of the other Cornwell novels.
3103185
before I just had to stop.  I was so excited to get this book, I waited all summer. I thought Patricia Cornwell would maybe pull out of the slump she has been in since the character of Benton Wesley was killed off.  Not so.
This book started out rambling and did not stop in the 100 pages I read.  The use of third person was disconcerting to me, and the fact that everyone else was talking about Kay, but we never actually heard from Kay was irritating.
The reason I started reading Cornwell in the first place and especially the Scarpetta novels was the way Scarpetta solved these cases without all the nonsense and blather.  In the past, Cornwells novels focused on Kays job as the medical examiner and how she performed this task.  The other issues, such as the affair with Benton Wesley, and her personal life were just side notes that added to the real story.
Kay Scarpetta has become a boring, washed up version of her former self.  Cornwell needs to retire this character rather than teasing the fans who have been there from the start.  Her name on the cover does not a best seller make.
Definitely don't spend your hard earned money on this one...
Anyone who read this as their first Scarpetta novel, go back and read Patricia Cornwell's early Scarpetta books.  You will be hooked...
1983473
I agree with 480 of the other 500 reviewers. I have read just about every Patricia Cornwell novel. A while back, I remember thinking that Hornet's Nest, a departure from the Kay Scarpetta series, was just not as good. Why, why, why didn't I remember that when I shelled out my hard-earned dollars for this abomination? One night recently, I picked up Isle of Dogs for the third time, got to about page 75 (yes, I lasted that long!) and threw the book on the floor. My poor slumbering wife was startled from her sleep, and I heaped my indignation on her. I'm sorry , honey.
4734387
I too am an avid Cornwell fan and can hardly wait for her next book to come out. But unfortunately this was a terrible disappoitment and a total waste of time and money.
I love a good satire as well as anyone and must admit this is not one. It didn't make me laugh and it only made me want to get finished so I could move on to a good book. As I write, I am forcing myself to finish the last 50 pages.
I will wait for Patricia's next book,but I might not be as quick to buy and wait for the paperback.