Book Review: Scarpetta

I just finished reading Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell. Her character of Kay Scarpetta is one of the best fictional/mystery characters ever, and I have been reading her books for twenty years now. But this one was so disappointing I'm not sure why I bothered to finish it.

The characters all seem so broken and sad in ways they never felt before to me. That's understandable considering what they've all gone through since the late eighties. But in this book they continue to rehash and reiterate the same things over and over and over. So much of it was monotonous and dull. I kept screaming in my head "Get on with it!" and was bored much of the time reading the conversations. I think a good third of this thick tome could have been eliminated.

If you want to read a Kay Scarpetta book that is amazing, try Post Mortem. Cornwell's first book about the medical examiner won several awards, and rightly so. Also, it is written in first person with Scarpetta herself telling her story, something Cornwell has dropped these last few books. Her writing is sharp, the story is focused and gritty. And I think she started the national craze into forensics long before CSI his the scene. Give it a shot. But I'd pass on this one.