Rating: 
Summary: Please Patricia, less prose more action!
Review: The most suspenseful thing about this book was waiting for it to arrive in the mail. I am a longtime Cornwell fan and have been looking forward to the next Scarpetta novel for a while now. However, I was disappointed in this one. All of the major characters, without exception, seem to be getting old and tired. I halfway expected them to all be killed off by the end of the book, because it seemed like the author didn't like them anymore. Cornwell still includes the elements that I love such as all the forensic information, but it seems she got more caught up in the prose this time. The "climax" of the novel (getting the bad guy) was too easy. Had it been a movie, it would have been over in 2 minutes flat. Overall, this book felt like a character development novel. I felt like the only reason there was an antagonist and a gruesome crime was to give the characters a reason to talk about themselves and how they feel. The plot got lost in the prose. Sorr! ! y, Patricia. However, I'll still be waiting for the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: A little weaker, but still good
Review: A very enjoyable read in the Kay Scarpetta series, although a bit weaker story than some of the others. Still, well worth your time to read.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Cornwell!
Review: I read a lot of the reviews for this book, and I really don't agree with most of them. I think that this book is an extremely good example of Ms. Cornwell's chilling writing. The dialogue and the plot are crisp and the detail is incredible. We find out a lot about fire investigation in this book. Yes, I admit Ms. Cornwell does get rather graphic and "over-the-top" in her violence, but that is what makes a Kay Scarpetta book so Unputdownable. I do agree with others, that readers must read this series in order. A lot of what happens in each book is a take off from what happened in a previous one. It would be confusing if you started partway through. Also, the character development progesses with each book, so the reader needs to get inside Kay's head and see things in the way she would have. In this book, we see a previous villain come back to haunt Kay and the people that she loves. Kay is called in to a fire investigation where a body is found burned beyond recognition. The more she digs into the case, the more disturbed she becomes and she realizes that she is dealing with true monster who probably had committed many murders before this one. Also, the more she digs, the more it becomes apparent that an old nemesis (Carrie Grethen) is somehow behind these terrible crimes. Her, Benton, Lucy and Marino set out to find a killer and one of the truly evil people that she has ever encountered. Before the final twist of the plot at the end, Kay suffers a very personal tragedy. We will have to read how that has affected her in the next installment.
Rating: 
Summary: Savored Moments
Review: I've read all of Cornwell's books up to this one, and I found this sad, sad, sad -- as well as wonderfully done. As usual, Cornwell's characters are so real the reader feels like we know them personally. In Point of Origin, Cornwell gives the morbidly curious her usual dose of the gross but very real aspect of death. Most people don't think of the cutting open of bodies as part of murder investigations, but as a writer and reporter, I have come across medical investigators and crime myself. I have grown so fond of her character, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, that I can see her with my own eyes. (In fact, I picture her as looking exactly like Cornwell, from her descriptions of Scarpetta and Cornwell's own photographs and Cornwell's experience). Scarpetta and myself savored the last moments of a dying relationship through this book. Cornwell never gives you an ending you'd expect. In fact, this one shocked me, and I'm pretty unshockable. Putting emotion aside, it was the best possible ending she could have done. I think Scarpetta would agree, although in an ironic, unhappy sense. The book serves up horrendous death and a lesson readers can take with them in their own lives -- not to take anything for granted. Bravo, Cornwell!
Rating:
Summary: It was good, even for a 'bad' book by her
Review: I don't consider myself a big fan of hers, though given this I sure have read enough of her books. The are well written, well researched, great plots. I don't even mind that all her female characters are all superstars (a lot of women are superstars ). The negative for me was the whining, the doctor and her neice are big whiners. I will read another book by her.
Rating:
Summary: I kept up the page turning...
Review: Like many popular novels, this one is an easy and fairly quick read despite the fact that Cornwell often gives way too much detail and information in places. Near the beginning of this work she introduces a manager at a local motel that has red hair and a cat named "Pickles". She tells us why the cat is named Pickles, and if I could ask her, I'd wonder why she bothered. Somebody apparently likes Vidalia onions too, so what? I think some of the attention to detail, like what's for dinner and what color a meaningless characters shirt is, could have been left out.Cornwell does a good job of back story and I was surprised to find that a character from 'All That Remains', the only other novel of hers I've read, had died off in one of the previous books. By the end of this one, I decided that there was a plot line that Cornwell doesn't seem to escape from; Scarpetta is a bit of a loner and lots of her friends die including one in the the book I just mentioned. I suppose it propels readers into the next book, who will die next? But I find it too contrived. I never liked the premise of that tv show 'Murder She Wrote' either, how many people have someone around them get murdered all the time? In 'All That Remains' we have too many coincidences. Perhaps that is often how crimes are solved, through lucky breaks and the like, but here it was too much. And I really didn't care for the ending, it was too sudden and didn't have much suspense. It seemed like she decided it was time to end the book, so the killers just showed up and started shooting. Another complaint I have is simply that she leaves some issues unresolved. In the beginning of the novel, there is a black foal that has mysteriously escaped death and we are lead to believe this is some kind of foreshadowing, but it never gets resolved. Also the character that seems to be important at the beginning, the big-wig rich guy, ends up being almost meaningless, even though we are lead to believe he has some importance. A huge issue in trying to solve the crime, how the fires started and how they get so big, gets tons of play, but we never get told what actually happened. This was the biggest error of the book, I felt, there was all this drama building up about how they couldn't figure out how the fires got started and then we are never told what actually happened. One of the problems of writing from only one viewpoint, in the first person, is that it is sometimes awkward to describe events that the protagonist doesn't know about first hand. I'd give Cornwell an "A" for how she handles this technique, but to leave out something so important seems unforgivable. She does explain how the fire starts, but it is akin to saying they "used a match" she left out how they got so hot when that question was a huge story point to the fire detectives. And of course the characterization of Lucy was too much. If Cornwell wants to write about a computer genius, beautiful and perfect, able to do calculations in her head that everyone else needs a calculator for, able to fly helicopters, be a fire investigator, FBI agent, and so forth, perhaps she should make her the protagonist as she is almost like a female James Bond and she shouldn't be playing second fiddle. Despite my complaints, being picky and looking for faults is a character trait of mine, I'm still going to give this book a 4. In the field that it is written in, it is above average. I'd recommend, however, starting in the beginning of the series, unlike myself, as I think that would make the stories run together more smoothly. I'd also point out that this type of writing probably appeals more to female readers, but I'd venture to say I'll read more, they are certainly entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Same Old, Same Old...
Review: Patricia Cornwall's same depressing formula is getting very boring. Dr Scarpetti will once again not be allowed a shred of happiness. Her only long term relationship is with her equally long suffering niece. If you've read one, you've basically read them all.
Rating:
Summary: Carrie strikes again...is she dead this time?
Review: I love Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series! Every book is so interesting. This book is as terrific as the rest, however, I was just as shattered as Kay, Lucy and Marino regarding the final victim of Carrie Grethen (or it is her final victim after all???). I was so angry and hurt! A testimony to the affect and quality of these novels on this reader, and, I'm trying to say this without giving anything away, is that I cried unabashedly for the last three chapters and then, was unable to even start the next book. I may have to wait a few months to take on Black Notice without, again, sobbing through the book. I am easily sucked into the worlds presented in books, but rarely are my reactions this intense.
One thing, though... Hey Patricia Cornwell! Is Kay Scarpetta EVER going to be happy???
Rating:
Summary: If you like suspense.........
Review: You will love this book. Patricia Cornwell does again in "Point Of Origin!" I have always been a fan and have yet to be disappointed in her series. This book is full of twists and will definitely keep you guessing. The ending is very suprising and some what disappointing at the same time. I love Kay, Lucy, Marino and Benton and am sad that we are now minus one of them. I will continue to read Patrica's series of books and highly recommend that you buy this book.
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Summary: My First Cornwell Book
Review: This is my first Cornwell book ever I ever read (listened to - UNABRIDGED audio book version) and I was hooked by the first page. I came into the Kay Scarpetta series in the middle of her books, so I really did not know much about Kay. The level of detail in which Cornwell writes is astounding. I learned so much about many different things form listening to this book. I suppose this review is not so much about the content of the book, which I did enjoy thoroughly, it is about how the character of Kay Scarpetta and her right-hand man Marino made an impression on me to the point that I came to Amazon.com halfway though the book to start listening to the books in order. You really DO have to listen to them in order. One story takes bits and pieces from the last one, especially with the 3 books before the Last Precinct. The one thing that I did not like about the story is that people got to where they had to go in astounding time and effortlessly. Never held up at an airport, or stuck in traffic. Scarpetta would say she had to fly to here and there and all of a sudden, she was there. It reminded me of Oz that people came and went so quickly there! But the story was awesome and Carrie's ending was worth a cheer. Since this was my first time listening to anything by Cornwell, the narrator, Kate Reading, set the 'tone' so to speak of my 'feeling' of Kay Scarpetta and certainly Marino. She has a very distinctive voice and can play both male and female voices nicely - switching gears flawlessly. Going from Scarpetta to Marino is fun to hear, especially when they are sparing or Marino has had too much to drink. None of the other narrators of Cornwell's books can come close to feeling of 'Kay Scarpetta' as Kate Reading can. One thing I strongly recommend: don't bother listening to the ABRIDGED version of Cornwell's books. She puts an extraordinary amount of work into he details of her skills and knowledge in the field of forensic science, and the ABRIDGED versions cuts all of that out. I listened to the ABRIDGED version some time after listening to the UNABRIDGED, and since it was my first Cornwell book, I don't think I would have listened to any more after that. Too many fast jumps in the ABRIDGED version that it is hard to follow. And there are no intimate details to be heard when Scarpetta is alone with her thoughts. This is a good book with characters that you want to know, and YOH... you gotta love Pete Marino!
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