Rating: 
Summary: First Cornwell book
Review: This was the first I have read of Patricia Cornwell, but it will not be the last. I picked it up used and figure it was a bargain. When I started it I was at a Dr's office waiting and couldn't wait to get home to finish it. Actually I couldn't sleep and read all night and did finish it that very night. I can't wait to go back and start the first of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: An average book
Review: Readers of a series of books such as the Kay Scarpetta series may become oblivious to the flaws in the series and they read book after book. The Body Farm is the first book I've read by Cornwell and it has its strengths and many weaknesses.
Since I haven't read any Scarpetta books, its hard to decide where to begin a series. I chose the body farm because of the plot described on Amazon. An 11 year old girl is found murdered in the woods and the FBI is trying to solve the crime. The opening scene with all involved personal discussing the crime is quite interesting.
Then Scarpetta, her married lover Benton Wesley and Captain Marino travel to the town of the crime to try and solve it. Cornwell throws in a character from a past novel Temple Gault as a possible suspect, but that never rings true because he never gets enough development to be a suspect in this book. The fun part of the book was try to sift through the evidence to find out what actually happened to the little girl.
The downside of the book is the niece Lucy, who is a lesbian, and who really cares about her internship. An investigation into Lucy's work at the FBI is stretched to tie into the case of the dead little girl, but most of it is there just to stretch the length of the book.
Cornwell does little to establish the characters in this book, so I have no sympathy or reason to know why Scarpetta is sleeping with a married man or why Wesley is cheating on his wife. He seems like a jerk who is leading Scarpetta along just to get some action on the side.
The actual "Body Farm" has little to do with the novel. The ending and the identity of the actual killer happens to quickly or to easily. The only think we hear about the killer is Scarpetta's fears of how she is scared of this "evil" person. Since we don't learn of the evil first hand, its hard to feel to much about what happens at the end.
Sometimes when you read a series you feel like you have to read all the books in the series because it is so good. The Scarpetta series had its chance and blew it, because the Body Farm isn't that good of a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible...
Review: After hearing the hype about Cornwell and then reading Death's Acre, I was excited to try out my first Cornwell book. I found the story line long, drawn out and boring and SO boring in fact, I could not even finish the book. If this story is any indication of Ms. Cornwell's other works, I am not interested in the least.
Rating:
Summary: 1st Kay Scarpetta book I read, got me hooked!
Review: I picked up this book after reading about it in Dr Bass's book "Death's Acre" (he's the one who started the real "Body Farm"). I haven't read fiction in awhile, and have never read anything of this genre, but I loved this book. In fact after reading through this one, I promptly went to the store to by the first book in the series, "Postmortem", and I'm now on my fourth "Kay Scarpetta" book. I definitely recommend these books to anyone interested in forensics, they are quite realistic as Cornwell puts a lot of research into her works of fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Body buddy
Review: I absolutely loved this book. Never before have I read a novel that was so interesting and so knowledgable. Patricia Cornwell did an awesome job with description and explaining procedures. Everyone should read this book. It is full of every genre of writing and is perfect for even those who don't like to read!
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