Add your review
Avg. Rating: 3.62
Cornwell does it again, and again, and again, and again...
...and with this book, she has done it yet again. The book does not start off too well, with the sherrif Santa bit being a bit confusing for the first couple of pages. I didn't like it. And i thought i might be in for a disappointing Cornwellian offering. My, was i WRONG. This book is yet another stunner. She has definitely veered away from the cunningness and cleverness which inhabited her first three books. But she more than makes up for it with a chilling plot and one of the most cold and clinical serial killers i have eve read of. Essentially, this is a serial killer novel, and as that it not especially original. But it is nonetheless a good one. Marino, Benton, Lucy and of course Kay are back again for another great read. Cornwell's writing is sharp and to the point, and keeps the you turning those pages. I can't really put my finger on a reason why, but from the first time i read a Cornwell book i feel in love with the way she writes. It's simply...wonderful. I can't get enough of it. It's no more literate than the next person's, but for some reason i just relish every sentence she writes. The plot here is sometimes scatty and random (as was Cruel and Unusual) but here, she pulls it off a lot better. I tend not to like books full of random killings, without rhyme or reason (yoo hoo, James Patterson, author of Violets are Blue, i'm talking in particular about you.), but here i really did. The randomness is chilling, and Tenple Gault is a super villain, who curdles the blood. He is just so...hateable. You loathe him absolutely. Especially when you find out how he treats his sister. You just hate him even more. With every part of i wanted him to die, die, die. It is hard to conceieve of anyone so cruel and horrifically terrifying than him. When Scarpetta talks to his parents, it's painful to read, even though it's fiction. It's an extremely moving scene, full of emotion. (As is the entire book.) This book moves along relentlessly to it's absolutely brilliant conclusion. It is the best conclusion she has penned yet, down in the bowels of the New York subway. Dark and frightening, she really brings over the atmosphere. I loved this book, as i have loved almost every single Scarpetta novel so far. The identity of the first victim should come as a real shock.
So much potential
This book had so much potential. Cornwell crafted a great plot with this one. I agree with an earlier reviewer that there were several things that were unrealistic in this one. However, the plot was so good and the action was pretty tense, so I was willing to overlook those details.I was honestly enjoying the book. Then I came to the ending. I had read the Scarpetta series in order from Postmortem to this one. Her serial killer Gault appears in several of the prior books, and the Scarpetta vs. Gualt finale happens here. I won't give it away, but let me say I was so disappointed that I quit reading the series. The poor ending of this book, combined with the unrealistic events and general lack of research by the author in all her books has made me decide not to read anymore from Cornwell. With books I haven't read by better authors like DeMille, Deaver, Connelly, and Crais I don't want to waste my time with below average books.
Entertaining, but one major quibble.
I listened to the tape version, which is pretty good for getting you to the beach, etc. There is a strong narrative drive that carries you along. However, having the text read to you highlights some of the lack of "tightness" that good editing could have fixed. Also, please don't TELL us that Gault is the worst murderer of the century, SHOW us. Prove it! My personal quibble is that when our heroine is talking with a woman's father and he asks if his daughter is dead, Kay answers with a flat yes, when at most she's got a hunch as to the identity of the dead woman. This is inconceivable for a forensic pathologist whose specialty is not only what she knows, but what she can prove. I'd probably listen to another Scarpetta book on tape, if I got it from the library.
Review this book
|
