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Summary: body farm?
Review: Body farm? It is only given scant space in the book. Instead, I find myself reading about an extremely stupid cop (Pete Marino, aka Chief Wiggums of Simpsons fame) who is supposed to be Captain of a rough neighborhood in Richmond who is seconded to two murders in North Carolina. How's that for jurisdiction? There, the best that Virginia has to offer gives overwraught, vitriolic advice to a blue-blooded, self important of an MD, JD (please!) dumbbutt who expounds about soup for no apparent reason. When I found Ferguson dead, I knew it must be the mother of Emily, but then I had to labor on for 200 pages before the obvious was proven. However, when Denesa got blown away by several shotgun blasts, what is the JD going to do when the felon is dead? Too bad, we miss all the poor plot development for a typical Hollywood ending. About the only part I found amusing was the relationship of the heroine with her family. That is interesting if somewhat predictable. Please, save yourself, and don't read the book once, just wait for the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Another work from this very lazy author
Review: The Kay Scarpetta novels present fully developed and belivable reoccuring characters. Unfortunately that is where the attraction ends. Plots are muddled, significant clues are developed and then forgotten, important background details are often wrong, and even important "facts" change in mid-story. These reoccurring weaknesses offend the reader who loves a well-considered mystery.
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Summary: The hook
Review: I was in the Peace Corps and dying to find a good book to take me away.....I picked up this one, thinking it might just be one of those "cheesy mysteries".....I was greatly surprised. I couldn't put the book down and finished it in a week. This is the one that hooked me to Patricia Cornwell and I have not been disappointed since! The writing just draws you in and you can't wait to find out who did it and if they find him/her!!
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Summary: Yeah, Scarpetta!
Review: I've read all of the Scarpetta books to date, and loved them all. This particular book was quite interesting because it explains some of the forensic techniques learned by the scientists at the actual body farm. But don't eat lunch while you're reading this one...
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Summary: Worst mystery... EVER.
Review: Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta ought not be dismissed lightly. She ought to be escorted out by security, strip-searched and scrutinized while cleaning out her desk then be served with a restraining order, to be followed up with a visit from a contract killer. THE BODY FARM was my first and final Kay Scarpetta mystery. I was intrigued by the lure of the title, which is the unofficial name for an actual forensic laboratory in Tennessee. Instead of the gripping introduction to what is perhaps one of the three most famous mystery series extant, I came across one red herring after another. The Body Farm itself takes up less than an entire chapter of this book in which Cornwell was clearly coasting. Instead of merely suckering the reader into thinking that this fascinating laboratory actually takes center stage in this stillborn effort, Cornwell should've done just this. How difficult would it have been to incorporate the Body Farm and Lyall Shade into a few more chapters? Another red herring is Temple Gault, which Cornwell drew in for his apparent drawing power from earlier installments in the series. But this, too, turns out to be a dead end and the reader is treated instead to a brief improbable glimpse of Temple Gault at a mall featuring The Simpson's Comic Book Guy, which turns out to be another red herring. The murder of Emily Steiner promises a rousing, intriguing mystery that unfortunately gets lost in a welter of confusing subplots, such as Scarpetta's inexplicable affair with a married FBI agent with children, Marino's even more inexplicable desire to become Sheriff Andy Taylor in a small North Carolina town, which requires him to abandon his duties to his actual superiors with impunity, who also turn a misty, blind eye to Marino getting emotionally involved with a principle in a homicide investigation. How about Kay's niece Lucy's improbable setup at ERF and her complete reinstatement after her aunt proves her innocence with the help of a US Senator, which also has nothing much to do with the main plot? Scarpetta would raise my hackles even if she was not the ventriloquist dummy for Cornwell's obviously republican bias. A character who's a doctor AND a lawyer would be hard enough to pull off, especially if the author was neither (as Cornwell, for instance), but Dr. Scarpetta's character has the personality of an H & R Block sign on a dimly lit street. She is like one of those animatronic figures at Disney World that one wishes would run amuck a la WESTWORLD to relieve itself and its spectator of the sense of dreariness that she drags after her like a bad body odor. Cornwell is not as talented as, say, John Gilstrap in disguising a troubling conservative bias that would do Strom Thurmond proud and she shows this in her uncannily incorrect depiction of southerners and lesbians. I hated, Hated, HATED this book and Cornwell to the point where I'm taking it personally.
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Summary: THERE IS NO FARMER IN THE DELL...ONLY A KILLER
Review: This story begins in the mountains of North Carolina, where eleven year old Emily Steiner lived. She had left a youth meeting at her church one afternoon and was on her way home. She never arrived. A week later, her nude, lifeless body was found.
Kay Scarpetta, medical examiner and noted forensic pathologist, is called in by the North Carolina authorities. After an initial review, she believes that the murder may have been commited by serial killer, Temple Gault. Long known to the FBI, he has managed to elude capture and remains at large. More careful review of the forensic evidence, however, leaves her with unanswered question that initially puzzle her. As she endeavors to untangle these strange and tantalizing clues, she realizes that they begin to point away from Gault and in a direction more horrifying than anyone ever imagined. Meanwhile, Dr. Scarpetta must contend with other issues closer to home. Her troubled niece, Lucy, an intern at the FBI facility at Quantico, becomes enmeshed in a legal controversy that threatens to derail her future employment hopes. Scarpetta's long time associate and homicide detective, Pete Marino, may have bitten off more than he could chew and has personally gotten involved with Emily Steiner's mother. Meanwhile, Dr. Scarpetta, herself, is undergoing a certain amount of personal angst over the sexual tension that is building between her and married FBI agent, Benton Wesley. All these personal concerns overlay her investigation for Emily Steiner's killer. The forensic questions that arise from Emily's murder lead Dr. Scarpetta to "The Body Farm", a secret research facility in Tennessee, where some of the answers to her questions may be found. It is the forensic clues and their analysis by Dr. Scarpetta that provide the most interesting aspects of the book. All in all, it is another excellent addition to the Kay Scarpetta series and well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: One of her very very best
Review: This Scarpetta novel is second only to Point of Origin. It is an excellent, chilling, atmospheric tale of ghastly murder in a small american town, normally untouched by any kind of crime. Scarpetta is back in full force, her powerful personality brooding over the book, and Marino is along for the ride, too, getting far too personally involved in a case which can only end badly... Great characters, a great plot, some brilliant writing. (You've got to love her style. You've got to.) Also, it has one of the most disturbing motives and resolutions that you will find among the Cornwell cannon. A must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Very Very Good
Review: The Body Farm is another excellent book from the Kay Scarpetta series. This time the majority of the novel is set in the Mountains of North Carolina, where a young girl named Emily Steiner has disappeared and was found murdered. It seems Temple Gault is the perpetrator of this foul deed. However, as the story unfolds and more bodies are found, other suspects emerge. Also, Lucy, Kay Scarpetta's niece, now a Senior at UVA and an intern at the FBI facility in Quantico, runs into quite a bit of trouble with the law. On top of the thrilling nature of the story, Patricia Cornwell also complicates the personal lives of our protagonists Scarpetta and Marino. If you like Scarpetta, don' miss this one. If you haven't read any of the books in the series, then start with cruel an unusual, because it leads into this one.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Fun Reading... Educational Too!
Review: I really have enjoyed the Kay Scarpetta series... (Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All That Remains, Cruel & Unusual, The Body Farm, From Potter's Field, Cause of Death, Unnatural Exposure, Point of Origin, Black Notice, The Last Precinct). I have read them all except The Last Precinct which I expect to begin very soon. I recommend you read them all for pure pleasure. They are an absolute delight to read. I also recommend these books to you (as well as to my clients) because they are a great way to see how vibration and reflection works with fictional characters while you are learning how your own vibration and subsequent reflections occur... Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Slightly disappointing
Review: With the title, you'd think that more time would be spent at "The Body Farm," which is a real place (although it's researcher's do not like that label). Only one very brief visit is made to the Tennessee research facility which studies the stages and conditions of death on the human body. On the other hand, the story itself is very good. It appears one of Kay's old enemies is killing children again - or is he? Is he in Carolina? London? Virginia? Or is she simply loosing it from the pressure?
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