The Last Precinct

Rating:
Summary: Recycling
Review: I read some of Cornwell's earlier books but grew tired of them for some reason. I decided to try this one and got to page 85, at which point she was still recapitulating what happened, I surmise, in the previous book. But readers read to find out what happens in the current book, not in some earlier one. I stopped reading.

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Summary: A light at the end of the paranoid tunnel
Review: I decided about one hundred pages into _The Last Precinct_ that I really didn't like it. Scarpetta novels are not knee-slappers at the best of times, but this one seemed determined to wallow in paranoid murk. Marino is transformed into a menacing drunk. Lucy is off on a tangent so strange that nobody can follow it. Even the faithful Anna is revealed to have a disturbing past and takes even more disturbing actions in the present. And through it all, the events of _Black Notice_ and Benton's death weave like ghosts. I don't read mystery novels for black paranoia, I read them for conflict and its resolution. I was really irritated that I seemed to have bought myself into a 565 page serious bummer.

But it was then that it hit me-- of course the book is a paranoid murk. Her lover was killed, she was brutally attacked, she's been opposed by every important figure in Virginia for her power and insight. Without going down, there was no way to take Kay Scarpetta back up.

This *is* a different side of Scarpetta, and I can understand why it isn't satisfying to a lot of people. This is a Scarpetta who questions herself. Benton has been dead long enough to not be a holy ghost anymore. She's forced to deal with her real issues with Lucy's sexual orientation. She can no longer ignore the curdled attraction that Marino feels for her. It's unpleasant to read, but it would have been wrong somehow for Cornwell to have her character simply dusting herself off and going forward with a smile after everything that has happened.

It is this troubled Scarpetta who eventually leads the book into the way out, where she has a tiny island of trust and a new direction from which to pick up her life again. It's a manner for Cornwell to renew the series, and I believe that the time had come for that to happen. So applause to Cornell for taking some chances with a familiar character-- always a very risky thing.

I wish that there hadn't been such an overabundance of coincidence in the way everything tied together. I can't say anything specific about it without giving away aspects of the ending, but it was the only terribly weak point in what was ultimately a very strong book.

Rating:
Summary: What Happened?
Review: I've been a Patricia Cornwell fan for years, and wait IMPATIENTLY for each new book to come out. This one really let me down. The first third of the book was based on the story from the previous Kay Scarpetta book. It had been so long since I read it, though, that I had trouble following the storyline. Then, when it finally got to the new storyline the ending left me saying WHAT HAPPENED? I kept going back to see if there were pages missing from my copy.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible, terrible, terrible
Review: I have loved the Kay Scarpetta series over the years - but with the last two novels I think it's time for Cornwell to head in a new direction. This series has evidently dried up. I was so disappointed in this book. If you have been a fan of the series everything in this book is old information - a certain amount of this is expected in a series - but this one was a waste of my money because "I've heard it all before". Kay, Lucy, and Marino have become very unpleasant people - there is no joy in their lives, even off the job. Doom and Gloom!

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Summary: Tired of Kay Scarpetta and her self-indulgent whining
Review: I thought I'd give Kay another chance but now I'm done. What a self-indulgent whiner who acts like the whole world revolves around her. She's totally boring now. There's no suspense to her stories, just more and more about what Kay thinks and how the world has wronged her and misunderstood her. The book had some good moments but the whole thing seemed like a prelude to the next book, which will actually have something to do with The Last Precinct. I was about three-quarters of the way through and realized that the author was going to have to act pretty quickly to sum the whole thing up and give us an ending. Then the ending was there, all neat and pat and way too easy. Why did the actors at the end choose at that time to make the move on Kay? How did they know that Kay was alone but for her niece, and didn't bring an army of people with her? How convenient that she chose to traipse through the woods with just her niece, so that she could meet the guilty party who would then act to eliminate her. I had the most sympathy for the poor dog - that is the only character that had any appeal to me. The others are all selfish and shallow and very bory.

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Summary: Insight to the Scarpetta mystique
Review: I have read all of the Scarpetta series, and I can honestly say that this book gave me and any of her other fans an insight to how Kay thinks and functions. We have never been able to understand her distance to sister and mother until now. It's nice to have a peek into her past and find out just how Kay ticks. I hope that her character continues to evolve and use her past to her advantage, and have her interaction with her niece Lucy mature. I can't wait to read her next adventure and see where she'll be in the future. Will she leave Virginia, or use it as a home base, and what about Marino, how will he tie into the next phase of the Last Precinct?

Rating:
Summary: Come on folks, give it a chance
Review: I have to admit, I have been disappointed in the past two Scarpetta novels and actually held off buying Last Precinct until recently. However, after reading it (very quickly I might add), I see much of the old Patricia Cornwell resurfacing.

I enjoyed the movement and the plot of the book as well as the twists that never cease to amaze me.

I think that in an effort to please the reader, the author "pumped out" a few novels that we didn't find pleasing. In response to us she has produced this one and I feel that we are seeing the resurrection of a good heroine.

So, I'm not giving up - I'm anxiously awaiting the next novel in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Same song, umpteenth verse
Review: Patricia Cornwell used to write really great books, but now she just keeps writing the same one over and over and over... Let's see, we have the betrayal by a co-worker (check), the latest trauma for Lucy (check), the deep angst and depression (check), the persecution by mysterious groups (check), the gruesome killer with a weird agenda (check), and so on. Honestly, the paranoia and self-pity are really getting boring. I keep reading the new ones hoping she'll go back to her old form, but I'm just about to give up. It's just too tedious!

Rating:
Summary: Not the usual but an unusually good read
Review: I love Kay Scarpetta. She is the epitome of who most women strive to be: strong, empowered and independent. And this book did her more justice than any previously...Cornwell actually gave us some insight into Scarpetta's mind for a change. While I admit the plot was quite convoluted, it was a nice change of pace to get inside of Scarpetta to find out how everything in her life has effected her. I actually found myself more interested in her sessions with Anna at times than in the rest of the plot. Plus, I found the ending dissappointing how neatly it wrapped up. Lucy seems to be turning into a real superwoman, like her aunt. Though Cornwell seems to have written herself into a corner, I can't wait to see how she gets Scarpetta out of it.

Rating:
Summary: Let's have some cheese with all the whine
Review: I enjoyed the first few Scarpetta novels-back in the days when Kay Scarpetta was the Ultimate Ice Princess with a Brain who didn't wallow in her own sea of self-pity. Now Kay is nearly unbearable, and now when she reminds us for the umpteenth time how flighty and obnoxious her sister Dorothy is and how she wishes Dorothy wasn't her sister, she fails to realize how obnoxious she herself has become and probably always was. She treated Benton Wesley like dirt when he was alive, now she is still mourning him ad nauseum three books later. I couldn't picture the Kay Scarpetta of Postmortem bonking a 25 year old agent "just because he was there" as she did in Black Notice. And Pete Marino was much more bearable as the gruff but still tender cop in the beginning of the series; now he is just a redneck loudmouth that keeps ruining dinner parties and sticking his foot in his mouth every other sentence. The only character that I still find likeable is Lucy, and I wish Ms. Cornwell would put the others in drydock and give Lucy her own novel. She is a much more intriguing, interesting character than her aunt and Marino. Let's hope the Scarpetta novel due out next year will find Kay doing something entirely different; namely, being over Benton Wesley, stop acting like there is nobody in the world as perfect as herself, and get back to solving crime through medicine without all the bile and recrimination and pity parties. Oh, and transfer Marino to the other side of the state and have Dorothy move next door to Kay. That should liven things up a bit.