I have not read all of the Patricia Cornwell books featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, but I found the early ones in the series to be reasonably interesting, and you wanted to follow the lead character, flinty as she was, through her adventures.
The problem with writing a series is, first of all, inspiration. An author has to be able to come up with story after story while weaving in the popular characters each time. Often, the writer mixes the story in with ongoing character development, so we see the familiar people age and change. But it is death to the series if the author starts to believe that the attraction is the soap opera, not the action.
And this is what has happened to the Scarpetta series. Reading the current release, Book of the Dead, I found way too much of the inner life of Scarpetta and her extended family, way too little of the forensic thriller I was expecting. The character traits, which previously served to flesh out the personalities, make them seem more real, have become irritants; anyone reading one of these books for the first time couldn't comprehend why you'd want to spend a minute with Kay's niece, Lucy, or her investigator, Marino. They are not fine people with quirks, they are profoundly unpleasant people.
As for the book itself, there's very little here. I won't recount the plot, it's fairly standard serial killer fare, but what will amaze and appall is the dialogue. There is almost no line of quoted text that any reader would buy as anyone actually saying. At times, you will believe that the two characters' lines were written separately, as there is no possible exchange that would lead to that sequence. This book was very disappointing, and it makes you wonder if Cornwell has spread herself too thin to maintain the series that put her on the map. It may be time for Dr. Scarpetta to hang up the scalpel.
The problem with writing a series is, first of all, inspiration. An author has to be able to come up with story after story while weaving in the popular characters each time. Often, the writer mixes the story in with ongoing character development, so we see the familiar people age and change. But it is death to the series if the author starts to believe that the attraction is the soap opera, not the action.
And this is what has happened to the Scarpetta series. Reading the current release, Book of the Dead, I found way too much of the inner life of Scarpetta and her extended family, way too little of the forensic thriller I was expecting. The character traits, which previously served to flesh out the personalities, make them seem more real, have become irritants; anyone reading one of these books for the first time couldn't comprehend why you'd want to spend a minute with Kay's niece, Lucy, or her investigator, Marino. They are not fine people with quirks, they are profoundly unpleasant people.
As for the book itself, there's very little here. I won't recount the plot, it's fairly standard serial killer fare, but what will amaze and appall is the dialogue. There is almost no line of quoted text that any reader would buy as anyone actually saying. At times, you will believe that the two characters' lines were written separately, as there is no possible exchange that would lead to that sequence. This book was very disappointing, and it makes you wonder if Cornwell has spread herself too thin to maintain the series that put her on the map. It may be time for Dr. Scarpetta to hang up the scalpel.
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