Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If there was a Book of the Dead for this outing, Kay Scarpetta's name would be written in bold print at the top of the page.... When Cornwell started the Scarpetta series, she was a trailblazer - a woman medical examiner who not only performs autopsies, but showed us the forensics behind a case - sometimes in graphic terms...and solves the case...A taut writing style is told in 1st person to get us involved with Kay and co., and in the middle of the mystery. But something happened - Scarpetta was derailed. Her life is a mess - She is now trying to establish an independant medical examiner's office and has her niece Lucy, her former police liaison Pete Marino, her former secretary, Rose, and her lover, former FBI agent, presumed dead, but not, Benton Wesley with her - moving from Virginia to Florida to now South Carolina... Scarpetta is called to put her spin in a very visible murder of a young tennis star. The murderer's MO makes him one sick puppy. Somehow this murder is connected with former nemesis, Dr. Self, who was involved with Pete Marino in previous books. Patricia Cornwell has never treated Marino with even a shred of decency. He is a blue collar policeman, who is portrayed as a brash, crude man from the start of the series - He has always been attracted to Scarpetta, and she has always allowed him to be in her inner circle - As the series has continued, Marino has been a parody of a human being - now he is a crude muscled biker dude who rides on the apron strings of Scarpetta - a shadow of the excellent investigator he used to be. The plot of this book is so complicated and so implausable, it is almost funny. The fates of 3 of the 5 main characters are in the air. And we really don't give a hoot - because the characters are not 3 dimensional anymore. Someone should send Cornwell to a writing class, or have her read her own early books, because she has totally lost her way as a writer. While there are so many writers who are anxious to prove themselves, Cornwell has spun her wheels in a useless circle. No editors seem to be reading her texts anymore. Can someone give a life preserver to both Scarpetta and Cornwell? Because if someone doesn't jump in to help, the series could be dead.