Rating: 
Summary: Blow Fly: A Scarpetta Novel
Review: I've been a big fan of the earlier Scarpetta novels---but what a disapointment this one was. It was like it wasn't even written by the same person. The revived bad guys were almost cartoonish, and the new charactors (which seemed to have more attention than Kate) were somewhat interesting, but never fully developed.
Rating: 
Summary: blown
Review: I am an avid admirer of Cornwell's books and just completed Blow Fly and was blown away with the lack luster content. I sure hope the next Scarpetta novel is a 5 star because this one seemed rushed, harried and scattered.
Rating:
Summary: too much violence; too little substance.
Review: found Blow Fly on the new books shelf in the library and seized the opportunity for cornwell to redeem herself after such a lackluster Hornet's Nest. alas, this - cornwell's latest scarpetta novel - sucks, too. centering on two serial murders, who happen to be fraternal twins, the story's fraught with unnecessary, detailed violence and atrocities. more disturbingly, lucy, benton and even kay are touched by the uneven brutality of cornwell's prose, for they seem sinister and untrustworthy - especially lucy, who seems ready to erupt into a savage dervish with just the right provocation. guess that's what happens when your mom's a well-known author of children's books. i like(d) cornwell because her earlier novels were good, solid mysteries, edgier than the classic agatha christies. characters were interesting and well-rounded, and plots were compelling. but this turn toward sick violence is neither useful to the plot nor interesting. there's enough hate, inhumanity and sadism in real life that I don't need it re-enacted in my leisure reading. again, i wonder whether cornwell wrote Blow Fly and Hornet's Nest (have not yet read the books between) or whether she got tired and let her niece take over. :)
Rating:
Summary: What on earth happened to Pat?
Review: First Ilse of Dogs which was a Dog. The Ripper wasn't far behind and now this. Does it rate a one.. no. Hacked and trite BUT I will admit not as bad as De Dog which isn't saying much. It could be toilet paper for the outhouse instead of going to the burn barrel. What happened? Different Ghost writer? A Ghost writer? What? What? Or maybe it is just time to stop writing for a while. It is better to leave your fans gasping for more than just gasping.
One starts to wonder.
Rating: 
Summary: I liked the book
Review: I liked the book, I would have given it 5 stars if she'd gotten rid of the wolfman. I'm glad Benton is back, the books weren't the same without him. I like the two new characters as well. The ending was too fast, and wasn't satisfying, however, I have read a lot of books worse than Blowfly. I was very happy to have bought the book and I don't understand why the reviews are so totally bad. I read this book in less than 24 hours and eagerly await the next book.
Rating:
Summary: This Blow Fly is still a maggot
Review: It's prolly too late to matter but there are some spoilers below. When I saw the blurb that includes "..confronts her with the shock of her life." I just KNEW that Benton would be involved. (BTW I don't want to know even that much about the events in a book. It's like, "Watch out for the surprise ending." or a character saying, in the first chapter "Had I know how badly things would turn out...") Anyway, my guess was that Kay would finally meet the child that Benton fathered with Lucy when she was 14. That would explain SO much. If there is another book in this series it must include Kay dealing with her egregious and continuing betrayal by the three most important people in her life. There could be good reason for staging the death and even keeping Kay in the dark... but for SIX YEARS? The best ending for this book would have been for Kay to see Benton climbing the stairs, Glock in hand, and shooting him dead. No, no... she sees him, shoots but only wounds him, he tells her the story, THEN she shoots him dead.
Rating:
Summary: Done with Cornwell
Review: This is a terrible novel. Does Cornwell just live on her laurels these days? None of her later novels reach the quality of her earlier books. In Blowfly there is too much of an effort to mix all of her earlier characters, and this does not work.
Sorry all this has happened to an author I use to enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Okay But ended too fast
Review: I liked the book except the Poland thing that was not right. However I do know that a lot of people who are kind of sick in the head all want to live to New Orleans. So that part was right on. I do think the ending was really lame we get a huge buildup and then all the sudden Bev and Jay Talley are gone and it was rushed. Way too rushed. All the other Kay novels have been great and most of us all really knew Benton never died. I do think Jean Babtise needs to be a goner new charachters. The Last Precinct could be a great new direction for new things with everyone together and new characters. I read this book in one sitting and the only reason it gets 2 stars and not more is because the ending blows.
Rating:
Summary: What Happened?
Review: I have been a Kay Scarpetta fan since the inception of the series, but the past few books have left me disappointed and wondering where Patricia Cornwell had gone - they read like someone else wrote them. After reading "Blow Fly", I'm quitting the series. This book was so diappointing. I won't give a description since that has been done, but would like to know - what happened? Where are you, Ms. Cornwell?
Rating:
Summary: Going from bad to worse
Review: I started reading Patrica Cornwells books just a couple weeks ago. My wife and I went on vacation and at the airport book store I bought three of her novels...Point of Origin, Isle of Dogs, Blow Fly, and her non fiction work on Jack-the Ripper, Portrait of a Killer. Having heard so much about her work I braced myself for a enjoyable experience reading through all of these on the beach. Now I'll admit not having read her books in sequence I feared getting to know the characters, their personalities, motiovations etc. would be a bit challenging. But with the first book I read Point of Origin, I got a pretty good feel for each of them. Kay Scarpetta is chief of forensics in Virgina, fighting the establishment, depressed, and overworked. Lucy is a former FBI agent who has been fired. She's also a misunderstood lesbian, computer genuis, helicopter pilot, and all around superwoman enduring a strained relationship with her aunt Kay. Marino on the other hand is smitten with Kay. He's also a over weight police detective, borderline alcoholic, chain smoking coronary waiting to happen. Then I read Isle of Dogs. Plots different (talking crabs too) but the characters and problems are the same. Hmmm. Finally I started Blow Fly. None of these characters seem to have grown in the least. Well thats not entirely true...Kay Scarpetta has lost her job somewhere in another book. So surprise! She's depressed. And tired too. Lucy is still the misunderstood wunderkind who can do everything in law enforcement but now in the private sector. Her company is so elite it seems to have a fake name and unlisted number. Oh yeah she's got her own helicopter too...Lord do we really need to know the inane details of her Bell 407. Marino is still overweight, angry at the world, and frustrated over his unrequited love for Kay. Sigh. To the book itself...as a bit of warning there are some plot details I'll discuss so if you are considering buying this book (a big mistake) then go no further. Clearly Patricia Cornwell is in her element when she wades into the forensic details of the crimes in this and all her books. That in and of itself is fascinating reading. But the biggest stylistic downside of this book (and a trait this book shares with the others of hers I've read) is the prolonged buildup to the inevitable confrontation with the bad guys only to have it abruptly and unsatisfactorily occur in the last couple pages. It all leaves you feeling rather cheated. For example, one of the main despicable characters, Jay Talley, who at various points in the book is letting loose his pyscopathic tendencies, is dispatched at the end of story along with another character with no further detail given than a "You killed him?", "I had no choice." What's up with that? We get more about the killing of the fat corrupt Baton Rouge Attorney General and who cares about him? By comparison we are treated to pages of lead in of Lucy and Rudy traveling to Poland to set up and kill Marinos smarmy son. After wading through all this (which in the context of this story seems hopelessly out of place ) we are given the plot detail that they are letting Blow Flies loose in the room presumably to accelerate decomposition and thus confuse the time of death. But then the bodys discovered early and Lucy confesses to Kay and a friend anyway. So why did we bother? To give the book a title? Wouldn't you think a Blow Fly would play some part in the main plot line which is taking place thousands of miles away in Louisiana? They have Blow Flies there don't they? But I digress Another big problem for me was the rather cavalier way Jay Talleys brother, Jean-Baptiste aka the Wolfman, escapes from death row. Again and again we are told about his horrific physical appearance."Soft downy hair" growing all all over his face and body (hence the term Wolfman), wandering lazy eye(s), his pointed teeth, etc. Yet he shaves himself, kills a couple guards, dons one of their uniforms and then manages to walk out of prison completely unmolested. I guess with a shave he looks pretty sharp in a uniform. C'mon! If were going to get such terrific and realistic forensic detail in these books why is it so hard to give equal measure to other aspects of the story. Lastly, when Jay Talleys significant other Bev Kiffin is tracked down deep in the Lousiana bayous, Lucy has to crash land her helicopter. Given the pains Cornwell goes to let us know its foggy and remote, and with Lucy and company without a way to get out, I'm expecting some page turning cat and mouse action. Instead Bev is summarily dispatched a page later with everyone getting rescued by the Coast Guard. Yawn! I remember feeling more or less the same way at the end of this book that I did when I finished reading Point of Origin. Pretty much that sentiment can be summarized with a "is that all there is?" Patricia Cornwell would have been more honest had she left out the last 15 pages of her book and retitled it, The Angst of Kay, Lucy, and Marino... a study in futility and law enforcement in Lousiana.
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