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Summary: what's with the talking pets?
Review: I was expecting a thriller. Instead I ended up reading what appeared to be a cross between an adolescent type romance, talking pets with greater intellect than their owners, and a few murders thrown in for good measure. It's almost as if Cornwell couldn't be bothered to make the effort. Need I say how greatly disappointed I was!
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Summary: Southern Cross
Review: I found this P. Cornwell book to be refreshingly different than her psychological killers with excessive descriptions of the victim and the subsequent autopsy. The book held my interest, the plot was full of suspense and you couldn't wait to see how the events would evolve until the real psychotic killer was subdued, and Weed was safe.
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Summary: Very entertaining.
Review: Like many others, I picked up this book expecting it to be an edge-of-my-seat thriller but I was delighted with the parody. Her stereotypical characterizations were hilarious - especially Babba - and the plot moved along much like real life, that is out of control and ridiculous. I thought the writing was some of Cornwall's best.
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Summary: Enjoyable humor
Review: Ms. Cornwell's attempt at a humorous book captivated my attention and I stuck with it all the way through. I became interested in the characters and cared about what became of them. Unfortunately, the author doesn't seem to have cared as much as I did. The ending was a jumbled web of tangled loose-ends, without a really satisfying tie-up of plot-lines. Nonetheless, it was worth the read, and I wish she would do it again with more patience and care to the plot, as well.
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Summary: Derivative and unfocused
Review: I've read all of Patricia Cornwell's books, and I've watched the overall quality slide as her characters have aged and Ms. Cornwell's own interest has strayed. Southern Cross represents a new direction for her, with experiments in humor and character development that are distinct departures from the Kay Scarpetta series. Unfortuntately, the humor is forced and the characterizations are uneven. Ms. Cornwell's strength remains her intensive research-- I always learn something from each of her books. Otherwise, Southern Cross is immature and derivative of southern-style drama-humorists like Carl Hiaasen.
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Summary: Don't bother, read something else.
Review: I'm a big Cornwell fan, but this book was terrible. Not because it wasn't a Kay Scarpetta novel (I liked "Hornets Nest), it was just bad. Cornwell usually writes convincing novels. This one was just ridiculous. Pets that can think and reason about their owner's behavior? Give me a break. Also, the passages of the character that spoke in broken english were so annoying, that I just skimmed over them. I haven't read "Black Notice" yet, but hopefully Cornwell has gotten back to reality. Don't waste your time with this one. I'm sorry that I did.
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Summary: A Breath of Fresh Air
Review: I must admit this was my first time reading Patricia Cornwell's work. I bought the book expecting to read an edge-of-your-seat thriller but instead got a rather surreal, David Lynch-ian type of story. The novel started out pretty much like your run-of-the-mill crime story - that is until the second chapter or so when I realized that this is some sort of a parody, with its odd motley bunch of characters. It took me awhile to finish this book, which normally would have only lasted me a couple of all-nighters. The plot develops very slowly and we are often faced with the inevitable character conflicts at every turn of the page, but the satirical and offbeat humor on those same pages kept me glued to the novel. Thanks largely to Patricia Cornwell's story-telling ability, I kept wanting to know more about what will happen next, even though I didn't really care so much about the characters - a lot of them tends to be like those in a Stephen King novel which almost always seem to lack a kind of dimensionality in them. It's like a cartoon character where it's hard to care even in a tragic situation when you know that in the next instant he'd just bounce back up with nary a scratch. The ending was, of course, kindda predictable also, but satisfying nonetheless. The bad guy was so mean that it made me almost shouted out "yeah - way to go !" during that rather anticlimactic denouement But in spite of all that, I really enjoyed the book. I thought it was a real breath of fresh air especially after just reading James Patterson and Dean Koontz. I will definitely be reading more of Patricia Cornwell's novels.
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Summary: Lousy
Review: I have been a fan of Patricia's writing for many years. This one was a big miss. It appeared as if it was thrown together at the last minute. I like the characters Hammer, West and Brazil but I didn't see the point in some of the others. Butner Fluck and Smudge? What did they have to do with anything? If these two were her effort to describe people in the South; I hope she was kidding. The dispatcher getting arrested was out of nowhere. The cast of characters never came together. I wouldn't waste your time or money on this one.
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Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I, like the other reviewers, loved Cornwell's books, but this was awful. I found the internet story line to be out in fantasy land. Basically - boring. At the end I was so shocked and disappointed that "that was it" (I had held out to the end hoping it would get better). Hopefully better luck next time
Rating:
Summary: southern cross
Review: Canned novel, no plot character development, went no where, obvious ending. why write it. I want a refund
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