Rating: 
Summary: Boo, Boo, and Boo.
Review: This one is an overrated JOKE. It is time for Cornwell to RETIRE the Scarpetta series. Instead of giving us riviting, cliff-hanging mystery suspense we are dealt an emotionally distraught, manic-depressive, and very parinoid, woman not worth the paper she is written on. Instead of ground-breaking inroads into what could be news hights of detective fiction we are given a rehash of Ellery Queen's unstable mental problems. And one would think Lucy would know better than to so cavalierly reck an expensive and well built helicopter. "Blow Fly" isn't a mystery novel; it is a psychoprattling thriller with no coherent ending. It is bad enough Cornwell insisted upon getting involved in the Jack-the-Ripper debate. Now she is meddling with the Princess Diana controvery. Nor she has ever bothered using the research she did in Jamestown, Virginia, in her novels like her former web site had pompously promised. And speaking of her web site, the present incarnation is only a shadow of its former self. It is indeed time for Cornwell to move on to greener pastures. If she wants to keep writing there is always Andy Brazil; or better yet, she can become a columnist for the New York Times.
Rating:
Summary: Worst Book Ever Written
Review: I would have given this book a -5 stars if it was possible. I have read every book I could get my hands on for most of my 42 years and I can honestly say that I have finally read the worst book ever written. This book is horrible. Cornwell can't decide if she wants to be James Patterson with her 2 page chapters or maybe a spy novelist with her international plots that are completely lame. After I finished reading this garbage my first thought was to donate it to the local library but then I thought some unsuspected person might check it out and read it. So instead I threw it away so no one else would be exposed to it. Life is to short to waste one second on this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but different
Review: The problem with Blow Fly, the way I see it, is not its lack of action or plot holes or whatever, but the fact that it's simply not a Scarpetta novel. Yes, Kay, Marino and Lucy are all in it, but it feels much more like another one of Cornwell's Andy Brazil books. The language is sharper, more clinical and factual (and I don't mean the medical terms, obviously). It is a dark novel, mostly because it's written in a third person, which automatically shifts the focus from Kay's life to other characters. To me, hearing the distinctive voice of Kay Scarpetta throughout all previous novels, was what made the books end on a positive note. Not the fact that the killers were caught (or, at least, not all of it), not the fact that the mystery was solved, and not the fact that Kay had survived another blow that life delt her. It was all about HOW she survived. How she dealt, what she thought, how she carried herself - all from a first person point of view. You got to see all the horror of murders and investigations and autopsies from the point of view of a person who was human, vulnerable and kind. You got a sense of wormth, despite all that was going on. Blow Fly, on the other hand, is more general and spreads itself, allowing you to get inside everybody's head - and while that worked great for books like Isle of Dogs, for a Scarpetta novel it just feels somehow not exactly right. Kay is barely in the book for its first hundred pages or so, and with a personal angle of things gone, some plot twists (everything to do with Benton, for instance) start losing their credibility. Still, it's a decent book, and Cornwell definitely knows how to write. Just be prepared for something rather different than what you're used to.
Rating:
Summary: Hello, Kay...? Can you hear me now?
Review: Cornwell is completely out of touch with the characters she created. The story is terrible, there's virtually no forensics, there's not a single autopsy, there are too many inconsistencies to count and improbabilities fuel the whole too-long book. After spending years letting us get to know Kay and her inner circle, these characters are strangers to us, doing and saying things they just wouldn't do. It appears Ms. Cornwell's muse has left her. This is a real RIP moment for a series that had been slowly dying anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Too many characters, poorly tied together, no flow at all
Review: The second installment of poorly written books by Patricia Cornwell. I had hoped the last novel was just her reaction to a contract that she was forced to uphold. Perhaps that is still the case. Find someone else to read for now.
Rating: 
Summary: Could not have been better
Review: I loved it. Why can't you?
Rating:
Summary: Saved me the cost of the book
Review: As a fan of Patricia Cornwell and Kay Scarpetta, I'm glad I read the reviews of all who read Blow Fly before purchasing this book. (My title says it all.) I have read all of the Cornwell/Scarpetta novels and I, too, like many reviewers have had trouble with the Chandonne characters. I enjoyed Cornwell/Scarpetta when the focus was on the forensics. Maybe Cornwell will heed her fans demand and get back to the basics of her early novels! (Must have been a real "shocker" to suddenly come face to face with Benton again!)PS: Couldn't post this without giving a rating.
Rating:
Summary: Another terrific book
Review: I loved this book. Patricia cannot write new books fast enough. I devour every word, often staying up till early hours, because I can't but it down until I know how it ends. Hurry-Hurry-Hurry with the next book, please
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I disliked Cornwell's earlier book about the Wolfman and was disappointed to find this book went back to his character. Then things get more unbelievable with Benton still alive. It was a long, tedious read to get to the end with a lot crammed into the last few pages and no satisfactory resolution to some of the story. How does a blind prisoner manage to escape from prison, even disguised as a guard, and still make his way into the real world without being caught almost immediately? There is nothing about any of the main characters that makes you want to read about them any more and apparently Cornwell is bored with writing about them as well. She should stick to writing about her nonfiction investigations. The only good book she has written in years is the one on Jack the Ripper. If you have to read this because you've read all of her others and were a fan of her early work, then don't buy it. Save your money and borrow it from the library or from someone like me who made the mistake of buying it.
Rating:
Summary: ouch, it hurts
Review: Reading this book was painful. I had to force myself to keep turning the pages, which is quite a change from earlier Cornwell novels, when they almost seemed to turn themselves. Halfway through I was ready to just put it down, so I came here to read the reviews and see if there might be something coming up in the second half that would make forcing my way through this somehow worthwhile, but everyone else's reviews were absolutely correct: This book is awful.
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