Rating: 
Summary: Not up to par
Review: I'm a huge Patricia Cornwell fan and couldn't wait to read this book on paperback, so bought a hardcover.
Big mistake.
It just never took off. Nothing was added to the character line and the storyline is played out.
Not enough time was spent with Kay and forensic pathology. I don't know if the editor butchered it or if Patricia was working under a deadline...who knows, but it doesn't measure up.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing characters buried by suprisingly average writing
Review: Patricia, what happened? The characters in the Scarpetta series have been so well-developed that they have taken on a life-like quality. I have read each book with interest and pleasure and I was thrilled when BlowFly arrived on my doorstep. But when I dove into the first chapter, I felt as if I had stumbled into some generic version of this series: made with the same active characters/ingredients, but missing that name-brand quality.Told in the third person, this story immediately distanced me from the characters I so loved. No longer was I able to tag along with Scarpetta as she figured out the clues. I was pushed back to the balcony seat to watch each character go through the motions, and had I not known and loved these characters from earlier books, I would not have cared enough to see what happened. And what happens? What doesn't happen is a better question. There is no cohesion between story-lines, no banter between characters, and no explaination as to why Ms. Cornwell thought it would be good fiction to install two dimensional soap opera tricks into what could have been an amazing story. Yes, it all makes sense and yes, it is plausible. That is what is frustrating. This story could have taken my breath away. Instead, it plodded along with memories, "shocking" revelations and then an anti-climatic ending that should have been the main focus of the book. If you are a fan, read it just to know what happens to your favorite characters. If you are not a fan, start at the beginning of the series. Don't start here.
Rating: 
Summary: Appropriate that I finished this bomb on Pearl Harbor Day
Review: My first thought was "what the h*ll has gone wrong with Patricia Cornwell." GONE are all the elements that made her great -- and rich. Kay's voice, her hard-nosed-cop investigations with Marino, her job as chief ME, her cooking, forensics, autopsies, Kay's in-control snippiness -- all gone. Instead, there are farfetched international spy games, more time with that psycho niece Lucy, Benton's ridiculous resurrection, and really unappealing characters across the board. Everyone is constantly commenting on how hot Kay is, how great Kay is, what a legend Kay is. What ever happened to writers' rule #1: SHOW the readers, don't tell the readers? This is an author self-destructing. It will be interesting to see how long Cornwell will command big contracts and debut at #1 if her writing remains this poor. This isn't nearly as bad as Isles of Dogs, but then, that was the worst book I'd read in my life. This was without a doubt a low point for the Scarpetta series, Cornwell's publisher, editor and anyone else who pretends she's still writing good stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Cornwell is always a safe choice !!!
Review: I have just put down this book and felt that I just had to log onto the Net and find out when Cornwell plans to release the next book in the Scarpetta series.It was well written and kept me intrigued the whole way through.I liked the manner in which she included all the characters we have come to love over the years and gave us their own personal stories. And the shocker at the end had me totally stunned!!! It was well worth the wait and I sincerely hope she doesn't plan to keep us in suspense for too much longer.Keep up the great work Patricia!!!
Rating:
Summary: What Happened?
Review: What in the world happened? I love Kay and Cornwell's writing and have gotten many others interested. When I saw that there was a new book we all waited, reviews aside. The reviews were right on. I enjoyed the beginning and figured the recap was for those who were reading for the first time. I kept waiting for something to happen. The end was SO disappointing that I was checking to see if maybe I had missed some pages! DO NOT START WITH THIS BOOK to get into Kay and the rest of the cast. Skip this and pretend it never happened. Maybe a sequel would explain what she was trying to do???
Rating:
Summary: where is the story?
Review: Why? With so much talent , why not move forward with new adventures , not make a composite of the old. Benton dies-aw! but is resurrected. Lucy adds action and Pete tries to help in a very limited role. Interpersonal relationships between longstanding characters seems to mask out the storyline. The same villians are portrayed - there must be more evil Kaye Scarpetta can foil. Please!
Rating:
Summary: What?
Review: I understand Cornwell's strategy of introducing a continuing storyline into the Scarpetta series, but she's done a terrible job of accomplishing it. With every installment of the Chandonne cartel series I get more and more confused. I've completely lost track of how the crimes from the last three books are tied together and hope that the next book finally sees Jean-Baptiste dead so that we can move on to something else (although bringing in organized crime would allow Cornwell to keep this story going on forever. The Chandonne family will likely keep trailing Kay and the rest of the Last Precinct until readers stop making it profitable for Cornwell by refusing to buy these terrible books.) And what was that ending? We go through all that to see nothing? We don't even know if the crimes are officially solved, and after all that time building up Jay Talley as this terrible psychopath, we learn of his death as an afterthought from Benton? These books are less and less what I expect from Cornwell after having enjoyed the first books in the Scarpetta series. The sad part is that I'll probably read the next one, hoping that we can wrap up this story and hoping that the next novel will redeem the last three. I will, as I did with this one, get it from the library, though, and won't waste my money on it. I would've been pretty mad if I had.
Rating:
Summary: A dolorous ending for Dr. Kay
Review: I am not sure if it is because of the times we now live in or my own lack of hope for the future, but I could barely get through this book. The lengthy discussion of torture and death was excessive and I too found a loss of love for the main characters. Lucy is now a hired killer - it was just a annihilation of people I cared about. Very disappointing and it will be my last Kay Scarpetta read although perhaps not my last Cornwell read.
Rating:
Summary: One star is one too many.
Review: I agree with all the negative comments I've read so far. This may do it for me as far as reading Patricia Cornwell in the future. Why has she allowed her characters to become so hardened and morose? There is not a likeable person among them; and if the reader does not care about the people in a novel, whats the point of reading it?
Some revelations and answers to long-standing questions were made clear, but becuse of the afore-mentioned facts, I couldn't work up much interest.
My biggest regret, second only to wasting the money I spent on this book, is that I didn't read the customer reviews until I had already bought it.
Rating:
Summary: Something's missing.
Review: Kay Scarpetta is missing for Cornwell's newest novel 'Blow Fly', but the usual cast of characters such as Jean-Baptiste Chandonne, Wolfman,Lucy, and Marino are here. I am not sure if I am such a fan of Kay Scarpetta or the character development here was not up to Cornwell's traditional standards.
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