Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre at Best
Review: It was a long awaited release of a new Scarpetta novel, but it was a short lived time of excitement. Moving the characters away from Richmond was bad enough, but moving them to ambiguous locations was even worse. And why the Chandonne's again. JB is on the loose?? You mean we have to endure about him in a future book (assuming we bother to read it)? Only one good thing came from this story line, and it had nothing to do with the villain, really. This was a scattered, uncohesive novel that basically went around in a vicious twister of lackluster vagueness. Bummer!
Rating: 
Summary: I have to agree...
Review: I was really excited to read this book, but after reading it I'm afraid to say that it was pretty bad. It doesn't have the same focus as past books in the series - it seems at times that this book is not even about Scarpetta. It is much more of an ensemble cast, which is disappointing. Also, I agree with the reviewer who said that this book spent most of its time on descriptions and events that didn't really matter, and then wrapped up the climax and ending way way too fast. After finishing it, I thought "This is it?"
If you're going to read it, definitely check it out from the library - don't waste your money buying this book.
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell has lost it
Review: Patricia Cornwell's series has been patchy with some of the books gripping and others limp but this time she has really lost it. The plot has become totally unbelievable, reviving the lost lover a device that was stale long ago and doesn't work in this novel. Scarpetta has become merely a neurotic, ineffective cypher.
Give up the series Cornwell and try something else.
If there was a negative rating I would give it to this book.
Rating:
Summary: 465 Page A Waste of Good Paper
Review: I have read all of Patricia Cornwell's novels and this by far was the absolute worse I have ever read. 465 page of overly descriptive writing with and ending that took 10 pages to get through. It was a huge disappointment. To much time was given to the description of Jean Baptiste Chardonne. If you have read her previous novels where this character was included then you know the history behind who he is and what makes him tick. The need to rehash it and then describe wine and his disillusions in such great detail where more time could have been spent on the other characters and there frame of mind and motives would have made a lot more sense.
Rating:
Summary: Blow Fly Blows!
Review: So there I was, believing what everyone had told me: Cornwell's stuff is really cool. So I go off and pay freakin' full price at my local bookstore, eager to find a best-selling author who actually knows how to tell a g.d. story...and discover this laughable, excremental exercise in frustration. Cornwell couldn't get a passing grade in a high school composition class with this crap. The screwed-up use of tenses and awkward grammar nearly drove me nuts. Obviously, this author believes her own inflated press releases. Now, of course, she's becoming a TV crime-reporting pundit. That's like having Marcia Clark and Chris Darden tell the world how to convict slam-dunk guilty murderers. A very bad joke.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts with a roar, ends with a whimper...
Review: I became addicted to the Scarpetta series and devoured every one. Sad to say, this one gave me a bit of indigestion. Ms. Cornwell, what have you done to our beloved characters? Marino was always an out of shape slob, but we knew he was the best at what he did. In this book, we only got the slob. And Lucy! There was finally a strong, beautiful character who happened to be a lesbian. What happened? Her sexuality was one of the things that seemed to make Lucy who she was. And remind me not to rob any banks with her; she spilled her guts within 24 hrs.
Bringing Benton back to life sucked the life out of Scarpetta...she was strong, intelligent, and in charge, it seems, till she met him. All of a sudden she was the damsel in distress needing to be saved by the all encompassing male hero. Rudy, the human Ken doll, deserves no mention. Never. Ever. Amen.
Rating:
Summary: Starts with a roar, ends with a whimper...
Review: I became addicted to the Scarpetta series and devoured every one. Sad to say, this one gave me bit of indigestion. Ms. Cornwell, what have you done to our beloved characters? Marino was always an out of shape slob, but we knew he was the best at what he did. In this book, we only got the slob. And Lucy! There was finally a strong, beautiful character who happened to be a lesbian. What happened? Her sexuality was one of the things that seemed to make Lucy who she was. And remind me not to rob any banks with her; she spilled her guts within 24 hrs.
Bringing Benton back to life sucked the life out of Scarpetta...she was strong, intelligent, and in charge, it seems, till she met him. All of a sudden she was the damsel in distress needing to be saved by the all encompassing male hero. Rudy, the human Ken doll, deserves no mention. Never. Ever. Amen.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible read, even for a die-hard fan
Review: I really enjoy the Scarpetta books, but this one is truly unreadable, poorly written, with a hard to follow story line.I re-read The Last Precinct before starting Blow Fly, which helped, but this book is a disappointment. What a shame.
Rating:
Summary: "BLOW FLY" blows
Review: As a serious fan of Patricia Cornwell's "Scarpetta" books, I looked forward to reading "BLOW FLY." Unfortunately, I feel my money was wasted. The story drug on...page after page...chapter after chapter...only to have it hurry up and close--with all kinds of loose ends!! This is NOT the way to write a novel!! All the familiar characters have dramatically shifted in temperment and even sexual proclivity (Lucy is fooling around with her new "partner" who had previously tried to rape her when she was having a clandestine lesbian affair?? come on!!!). The twist of having Benton masterminding provocative letters being sent to spur the protagonists to action is interesting--but why reveal Benton's non-death and manipulations so early in what appears to be a continuing saga?? Really--the way this book was written makes it a big YUCK--not the best selling crime fiction we have come to expect from Ms. Cornwell.
Rating:
Summary: A good thing never lasts
Review: A good thing never lasts, and that's how it is with the Kay Scarpetta series. Blowfly just plain blows. So now Lucy is 007? And the man who tried to rape her when they were together in the FBI is now Lucy's most trusted Last Precinct partner? Come on Cornwell, that's really gross. Oh, yes, and now Lucy's thing is to sleep with him after they engage in assassinations. Oh, puleeease. What happened to Teun who started The Last Precinct with Lucy? No mention of her. And what happened to Lucy being a lesbian? Seems Cornwell wants to steer clear of that. How about the ridiculous, unbelievable machinations to explain Benton's "death" and then bring him back from it? Utterly unbelievable, even for fiction. Heeeello, if our government dimwits were really capable enough to pull off something as complicated as that, I'd have more faith in our government. Cornwell has pumped steriods into all the returning characters. Their familiar traits now exploded into superhuman characteristics beyond the reach of mere mortals. Lucy was a smart computer geek. Now she's James Bond, every catlike move calculated down to the millisecond. Benton was a profiler. He's now gifted with a superhuman ability to walk down a busy Manhattan street and memorize every face he passes. Marino was in love with Scarpetta, now he's more in love with her. Jay Talley was a psycho who passed as a sophisticated, man about the world. Now he's a white trash psycho cutting up victims to pass the time and drinking a case of beer a day. Skip Blowfly. If you want Scarpetta, re-read your old tattered books from the beginning of the series, and stop before you get to Cause of Death.
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