Rating: 
Summary: I am sad. I miss my friends, Kay, Marino and even Lucy
Review: I made a mistake. I said I would not buy any more of Patricia Cornwell's books. But I did. It was an error. This book is awful. I am over halfway through and I do not think I can finish it. In many, many years of reading I can count on my fingers the number of books that I have started and have chosen not to finish. It is a shame. Patricia Cornwell is one of the most talented and engaging writers I have ever read. I would put her up there with John D. MacDonald, Faye Kellerman, and better than Jonathan Kellerman. But not now. It is as though only part of her is writing. You can still see the talent in her work, only it is not being used anymore. It just sort of sits there. In the past when she was cooking the talent was hidden the way it is supposed to be. Do not buy this book. If you have not read them buy any of her first ten Kay Scarpetta books. They are excellent. There you will meet some interesting people. Here you will find only regret
Rating: 
Summary: Big wind-up, no delivery
Review: Having read The Last Precinct, I looked forward to its follow-up, where hopefully Cornwell would help convict the Hairy One (Jean Cardonne) and in the process also jail his crime-ridden French family. Alas, Blow Fly gets off to a good start but dissolves like the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz in it last hundred pages --a puddle of slimy goo on the floor. A long dead Scarpetta lover suddenly reappears. Jean Cardonne --supposedly blinded by acid-- can suddenly see again and escapes from prison. Further we are subjected to page after page of pyscho-babble as Scarpetta's inner self is explored. And the ending, oh the ending ! It sets us up for still ANOTHER Hairy One saga.
Not for me, Ms. Cornwell, unless you catch and kill him off in the very first chapter and proceed with another totally new set of Scarpetta characters, letting Kay do what she does best, working her forensic magic with the likes of Marino to chase down the perps.
Rating:
Summary: Silliness wins
Review: My son, a former law enforcement officer, and I have long argued over the Scarpetta novels. I've said that a heroine who gets involved in the action--although not really appropriate to her job--or a weird villain--are OK within a mystery series. I thought there are values to the other books that still make them worth reading. In this case, the silliness absolutely wins. If you plan to read this book (DON'T!!!) you might not want to know that the current disgusting villain overcomes two prison guards in a fairly public area, changes clothes with one of them with no one sending an alarm. Then, though his is terribly deformed, no one notices that he doesn't match the ID of the officer whose clothes he's stolen--and indeed even manages to get off the prison grounds scott free. Except for Scarpetta herself, all the "good guys" come off as nasty, violent, and manipulative. There are also a number of scenes of torture that don't seem to advance the plot but are there only for titillation. Don't waste your time on this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than expected; worth a read
Review: Having taken a 4 or so year hiatus from reading Cornwell (my last read was Point of Origin, which I could not finish because it moved too slowly), I picked up Blow Fly while visiting a friend who had just completed it and told me a little bit about the plot. I became so engrossed in Blow Fly that I read it in two sittings -- something that I rarely do. Cornwell's forte is developing complex, multi-layered characters, using the distance afforded by forensic science descriptions to describe what could otherwise be blood-and-guts-gross-out-gruesome murder plots under a different pen. Unlike her early Scarpetta novels, which focus mainly on Scarpetta's development, this story focuses more on peripheral characters like Lucy, Marino, and Benton, developing them in interesting and more complete ways than before. My only disappointments were that I wanted Scarpetta to be rid of the Wolfman once and for all (it looks like that will have to wait until the next novel; I am tired of his psychological flights of fancy and his character in general), and I wanted Kay to get over Benton once and for all, and not for him to come back. However, I liked the development of the Nic and Rudy characters, and the fact that Lucy seems to be heading for firmer ground -- still tempestuous but beginning to become a little more level-headed. And Marino is still Marino, with his self-destructive ways, and I'm glad that he has remained in tact. Some people never change, and Marino has been the one personality who has remained pretty much the same, self-destructive person over the years. His character's constancy provides an interesting reference point from which to observe development of the other characters.
Rating:
Summary: ??
Review: I'm still wondering if this is really a Cornwell book. If her name had not been listed as the author I would have been certain someone else had written the book. Totally not in the typical Cornwell catagory. I hope she has plans for better in the future.
Rating:
Summary: I Wish I'd Read the Reviews First...
Review: I gobble up her books so it never occurred to me that her latest wouldn't be as good as her previous novels. What an utter disappointment Blow Fly was to me. I'm boycotting buying from now on and will check books out from the library in the future. I was appalled...
Rating:
Summary: Not the Author We Know
Review: Blow Fly, the latest in the Kay Scarpetta series is a huge disappointment. Billed as "A Scarpetta Novel," rather than the more familar "A Kay Scarpetta Novel" may seem like a small thing, but it is indicative of the entire tone of the book it heralds. Miss Cornwell seems to have either lost her touch or decided to change her writing style completely. Either way, it is a sad thing for her long-term fans, and this new, dry style won't gain her any new ones. Three years have passed since "The Last Precint," and life has changed for many of the characters. The potential for a facinating story is never met. Instead of the familar first-person narrative of Kay Scarpetta herself, the reader is treated to dry and stilted writing that inspires no of the feelings her previous books have. The characters when presented this way are flat and impossible to care about. They act in ways that are completely foreign to what the reader has come to expect form them. While each individual thread of the story woven in the book again has potential to be thrilling, presented all together in one book it is too much, done by too many, for reasons that are completely unbelievable to the readers who have come to know them. And indeed, there are no full explanations as to what has happened to them in the three years since we have last seen them. The ending adds new definition to word "anticlimatic." I can only hope that Miss Cornwell will go back to her original style in her next book. And she can only hope that her readers still care enough to buy that next book and find out.
Rating:
Summary: Grave disappointment
Review: Having read all the Scarpetta novels, I was looking forward to another, but disliked Cornwell's approach from the get-go. I never rekindled any like for any of the characters, and felt she muddled her way through a half-baked idea. Very little held together, the characters were all on the verge of or within nervous breakdowns, and just when things would get suspenseful or interesting, the novel would break down. It's a pity that once good novelists like Cornwell or Clancy really make it, they rest on their laurels and dispense with the aid of a good editor. The more recent efforts from these authors are not good (I didn't even finish Clancy's, it was so bad, which is in shocking contrast to his older books.)
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Patricia must of been ill when she wrote this one. This is the worst out of the Scarpetta series!
Rating: 
Summary: Scarpetta's on her way back!!!
Review: I've been a fan of Cornwell's Scarpetta series from the beginning. While the last couple of books have been a detour from the norm for this series, I think this book is the foundation for getting our beloved Scarpetta back on track and doing what she does best! I've read some reviews that are pretty negative and complain that Scarpetta seemed to be a secondary character...I disagree. With the last book in the series, I think all of the characters had reached a turning point, and Blow Fly is partially about turning that corner and, I hope, getting us back to the heart of the series. (I know I couldn't put it down!) I certainly hope this is a new beginning for Scarpetta and pals, and not the beginning of the end of the series. Keep 'em coming Patricia!!!
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