Rating: Summary: Dumbfounded Review: This was an awful book. If it had been written by anyone other than Patricia Cornwell it never would have made it into print. How on earth did a blind guy escape from prison? What wasn't implausible was silly. Because Amazaone is a bookseller it won't do this, but there should be a Do Not Buy warning option.
Rating: Summary: What a crock! Review: I was so disappointed with this book that I am disgusted that I spent hours reading it. The plot was confusing and the "resurrection of the dead" (I'm trying not to give away an surprise) was so unbelievable. I really liked many previous Kay Scarpetta books, but this one was so contrived and unsatisfying that I may not bother to read any more.
Rating: Summary: I LOVED IT! Review: I guess I'm one of the few people to write a positive review about "Blow Fly" by Patricia Cornwell. But, I really enjoyed the novel and found myself unable to put it down. The story was compelling and the way she incorporated so many elements of previous novels was masterful. Way to go, Ms C!
Rating: Summary: Needs an editor (and a plot, and better characters and...) Review: Quite simply the worst installment yet of the Scarpetta series. When will Mrs. Corwall get over her fascination with the Chardonne family and get back to writing the forensic thrillers that made the Scarpetta series such a hit? The latest Wolfman reprise gave hope in that promised to be the last...until the final pages where it's obvious that he will reappear in a future novel. Scarpetta, save us!
Rating: Summary: A waste of time and money Review: Actually, my title pretty much says it all. This book was an absolute bore and I found myself skimming it. I will not give any "suspense" away but there are developments here that should be beneath the author. If Cornwell wants to continue the Scarpetta series, she owes her readers better than this. Perhaps its time to "retire" Kay Scarpetta and move on.
Rating: Summary: Very disappointing Review: I am a huge Patricia Cornwell fan and was eagerly awaiting this book, but was terribly disappointed by it. Although I am holding out hope that she reverts back to her old style with any future novels, I definitely would not recommend Blow Fly to fans of her earlier works. The third person narrative did not work well, and the characters seemed especially flat. This certainly wasn't the Scarpetta I know & love from all of Cornwell's earlier books! Save your money and hope that Cornwell returns to her old style with her next book...
Rating: Summary: Tedious and unsatisfying Review: It seemed that Ms. Cornwell is just getting by on previous hits and is now concentrating on getting paid by the chapter. This book was over long, over wordy and dull. It took forever to get to the conclusion and was then too neatly tied up in a few short pages, as if the author was as tired of just rambling along as we were in the reading. Thank G-d for James Patterson and J.D. Robb.
Rating: Summary: Better than some, but still lacking Review: Honestly, I debated whether to give this 3 stars or 4... but I felt that overall this book has been under-rated by other reviewers, so I erred higher.This isn't, by any means, Cornwell (or Scarpetta) at her best. However, it's leaps and bounds better than the last Scarpetta book. I was horrified to realize that the Wolfman was returning in this one - to me, his story is what has brought this series down - but this was at least a little more like the pre-Wolf books. I'm just hoping (though I'm not holding my breath) that we've seen the end of the Chandonne cartel storyline for good. The thing about Lucy flirting with her male partner really galled me, though, especially coming from a lesbian author! The pacing was odd, and the wrap-up was fast, but the ride was fun anyhow along the way. Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. It gave me hope that Scarpetta and her crew CAN come back into their old glory.
Rating: Summary: Embarrassingly bad Review: Patricia Cornwell's descent as a writer is gaining speed. Early on in this dreadful and overlong book, it is clear that Cornwell has forgotten why we liked Kay Scarpetta. Scarpetta once rang true as a sophisticated middle-aged woman who was juggling a serious and demanding career with a difficult but grown-up relationship. But in Blowfly, Cornwell portrays Scarpetta as a burned-out wreck, completely traumatized by the death of her former lover Wesley Benton. And just as Scarpetta is on a downhill slide, so is her friend Pete Marino and her niece Lucy. Even the handsome serial killer Jay, clever enough to have become an ATF agent, is now a pot-bellied and bloated, beer-guzzling goober who uses human body parts to trap alligators in a swamp outside Baton Rouge. In a complete misreading of her hard-headed and pragmatic audience, Cornwell even resurrects Wesley Benton. Ooops -- he wasn't killed. It was all part of a nonsensical plot to deceive the evil Chardonne family. Huh? And even the urbane Mr. Benton is now a burned-out and bearded shadow of his former self. Instead of giving us characters to care about and cutting-edge forensic science, Cornwell now has Scarpetta tell us what to take for a cold. The ending? There isn't one. She merely kills off a few people, forgets about others and makes it clear that the repulsive Wolfman will live another day to blight another book. There is no one in this awful mess of a book worth the ink and the paper. Cornwell should have gracefully retired three or four books ago when her reputation was still somewhat intact, so that loyal fans would not continue to waste money hoping beyond hope that she has re-gained her touch.
Rating: Summary: I couldn't put it down, at first......... Review: I agree with those who reviewed this and asked, "what happened to the ending?" I too was disappointed and toward the end, was thinking, how could there possibly be only a few pages left when the story just got really good? So I give it 2 stars because it started out really good, but it ended abruptly. I also agree with others who state that Scarpetta is a dark depressing figure, Marino is a pathetic overweight person and Lucy, in this one, she comes on to her partner who is a male, so this just adds some confusion and hypocrcy. Overall though, I have thoroughly enjoyed Patricia Cornwell novels, but I am left confused and thinking I need to reread to figure out how we got from point a to point b....
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