Let me preface this review by saying I am a fan of Patricia Cornwell and her Scarpetta series. This book, however, is not up to the other books in this series and I was disappointed.

This mystery features the same cast of characters as the other Scarpetta mysteries. However, the crazy sadist, Gault, appears to be a caricature of a person. There's one formulaic clue after another and it becomes unbelievable. The protagonist, Kay Scarpetta, is shop-worn and new characters are introduced but never developed. Marino, the politically incorrect, chain-smoking cop is the most real and endearing character in the book.

Supposedly a mystery, this book drops clues from the sky, more in line with a fantasy.

Cornwell's writing is sharpe in this book. You have Temple Gaunt still on the loose and he just likes to kill for the thrill of it. It seems like he is focusing on Kay and her niece Lucy. Cornwell's books are a master-piece in my mind. It is amazing how she writes all these great book's. I don't think I would want to do her homework that she does while writing her book's

The is one of Scarpetta's better adventures. Temple Brooks Gault, the serial killer released from prison in "Cruel & Unusual" plays mind games with Scarpetta and the NYPD and NY Transit Police after a woman's body is discovered in a park. The twisty plot is worth a re-read, especially for the ending which pits Gault against Scarpetta and her geniuse niece, Lucy, in the subway tunnels of New York.

I've been an ardent Patricia Cornwell fan, since I read the first of her books, Post Mortem, about two summers ago. Since then, I've been trying to get my hands on her books, in the order that she wrote them, so as to follow the character building that she's done for the Chief Medical Examiner of VA, Key Scarpetta, and her entourage including Det. Marino, Agent Wesley, and her niece Lucy.

However, this book left a bad after-taste in my mouth. The story moves at a very fast pace, but then that's about the only thing that is good about this book. Rest everything is about average. Sadly, Cornwell tries to inculcate fear of Gault in the reader's mind, but nothing much seems to happen to Scarpetta anyway, despite her working in what could very well be the least secure government offices in the world! Just about anyone can break in, at anytime, anyone can make anything disappear, anyone can crack any security protocol and encrypted passwords - one seems to wonder how's the place still standing!

It reminded me of those spoof teenage horror movies, where the favourite quip is "don't open that door...", or "someone was lurking in the shadows, and I was alone...". This book has one-too-many of such circumstances, and I for one found my interest wavering on each of those ocassions.

Forensics is the reason I took to reading her, but this book largely lacks in Forensic Science / Investigation. No foreign material, no strange residue, no inexplicable wound mark... nothing to intrigue the reader.

The climax is high-tech, but again a little lost on me.

P.S.: I'm still wondering WTH does it have to do with Potter's Field?

An average read: 2.5 / 5

I love the Kay Scarpetta series, that's how I got hooked on the whole forensics stuff! Patricia Cornwell is an excellent author!

Another great book!!!!!

Marino's at his best!