Rating: 
Summary: Cornwell is not really trying...
Review: This is one of Cornwell's 'alternate' books -- not a Kay Scarpetta mystery, but a thriller featuring a female police chief from Charlotte. This time, she's in Richmond with a huge cast of characters whose stories are all merging into an unclimactic climax. While I liked this one better than its predecessor Hornet's Nest, it still didn't quite gel. I just got the feeling that these characters and this story didn't mean as much to Cornwell as the recurring characters in her much better Scarpetta novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Your Usual Cornwell
Review: If you approach this book as the usual Cornwell tightly packed, grim crime story, then you will probably be disappointed and wonder what happened to the lucid Cornwell. If you are ready for a "tongue-in-cheek" Cornwell mixed with a little grimness, then you are ready for a good time.Butner Fluck? Cigarettes $11 dollars a pack? A web site with an address 10 lines long that uses Orrin Hatch for its initial entry? A cop named Fling who is a computer unteachable? A blue fish virus? For the first 50 pages, I was a little outraged and then began to go with the flow. The snips of reveiws in the front of the book made me wonder if those people had actually read the book. Hello, notice anything unusual? I guess serious Cornwell fans are fairly humorless. As I write this, her rating is only two stars from them.
Rating:
Summary: A good portrayal
Review: I love this new series by Cornwell. I think it is a nice change from the Kay Scarpetta series which was getting to be too much of the same thing. The thing I liked best about Southern Cross was Cornwell's depiction of a young man who becomes involved with Smoke and his gang. I work with delinquent youth, many of whom are involved in gangs. As I read Southern Cross, I realized how difficult it is for kids to break away from a gang once they become involved. Even if you don't like this new series, it's worth the read just to see the types of pressures today's youth are facing.
Rating:
Summary: Not her best work
Review: Cornwell has so many characters running amok in this book that she is unable to fully develop any of them. Halfway through the book I still had no idea what the plot was. With Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series, I had trouble putting the books down without peeking at the next chapter - with this book, I had to force myself to finish it. A definite disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: This pudding has soured.
Review: We all know the old cliche about the proof being in the pudding. In her effort to provide us with a new pudding to sample Cornwell has indeed soured. This novel is obviously well written, but it falls flat on its face. First of all, I can't say I appreciate the decided and deliberately intended Jefferson Davis bashing. This is uncalled for. The obvious denegrading of Southern Culture is also uncalled for. On top of all this Cornwell insists upon writing in a style which obviously emulates Joseph Wambaugh. Mind you, she does a superb job of it without infringing upon his territory. But she should have stuck to her own turf. The only really credible character in the entire volume is Andy Brazil -- a character Cornwell manages to screw up inspite of herself. This book is a good read given the fact it gives the police a black eye and the City of Richmond, Virginia and unwarranted bad name.
Rating:
Summary: Love it - - but those names! "Butner Fluck"?!?! No way
Review: I love this author! I found the characters in Hornet's Nest so much fun that I immediately had to read Southern Cross. But she's really crossed a line with those weird names she uses. "Judge Bovine" was bad enough in H.N. but "Butner Fluck" in this one? And hey - we already had a "Bubba" in H.N., so why another? And what's with the Boston Terrier dogs in both books? Nevertheless, I am crossing my fingers that Cornwell writes another book in this series, because I am enthralled. Dr. Scarpetta can wait; I like Andy Brazil.
Rating: 
Summary: Cornwell at her best
Review: From what I have seen on Amazon, I appear to have a minority opinion. This is the first Patricia Cornwell novel I have read, and when I read it I had never heard of Kay Scarpetta, or any of her other familiar characters. This is not a Kay Scarpetta novel - it has similar elements with its slightly neurotic feel, but overall I think it is still my favorite Cornwell novel (having now read three more). This is the story of a police chief, deputy-chief, and rookie cop working to install software to help deal with Richmond's growing gang problem. At the heart of this story is Smoke, a controlling gang leader evolving from petty criminal to murderous psychopath as he builds his gang. Other contributors are a pair of tobacco-working/smoking rednecks (one of whom I grew to like and pity by the end), a wealthy committee chairperson whose European background causes her to mangle the American language, and a young artist being sucked into Smoke's gang. A lot of the entertainment comes from the natural mistakes committed by the characters (such as an unwilling gang member creates a work of art when forced to deface public property, and two rednecks named Bubba and Smudge are suspected of planning a racially-motivated slaying when their 'coon hunting plans are overheard from cellular traffic). Several small touches add color and realism to the story, such as Chief Hammer's ugly little dog and Butner Fluck's sensitivity about his name. There are a couple of flaws - the technical aspects of the computer virus seem a little unbelievable, and the profanity reaches an all-time high (it didn't bother me, it just made things sound a little repetitious).
Rating:
Summary: Wickedly Funny
Review: ...I'm so glad I did. I liked the Hammer, West and Brazil characters very much in Hornet's Nest, and found all the characters in Southern Cross to be well-drawn, believable, and either very endearing or appropriately distasteful, yet intriguing. The whole story hinges on a series of increasingly funny miscommunications, which all collide at the climax near the end. There is only one scene of truly shocking violence, as opposed to the many you might find in a Kay Scarpetta story, and it's a very good example of the sheer wastefulness of most crimes. I'd say that the only slight drawback is the odd way the West/Brazil relationship is handled. Still, it's interesting, and I am looking forward to seeing what is in store for them next, in the new book about them, which is due out in October of this year. (2001)
Rating:
Summary: Better luck next time!
Review: Sorry but this book wasn't even close to Ms. Cornwell's previous worse, (I have never read a bad one until this one) so what's up? I live in Harrisonburg, VA and can't believe that everyone in Richmond is that stupid, doesn't anyone there have an average IQ? And also (I know I am alone here) why is there so much profanity in this book, it was repulsive. I grew up around the US Navy in Norfolk, VA for 35 years and never heard this language all day and all night long . . . give it a rest. Of course if the people in Richmond are as ignorant as they are portrayed then their vocabulary is probably like this. And one good note the language mangler was good, she done good working on her, in my opinion the only bright spot, but still not worth reading. Better luck next time!
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I seem to be in a minority here. This is only the second book I've read by this author so I guess I came to it without any preconceptions about how her novels "should" be written. I found it funny as all get out and kept turning back to reread bits. Loved the English language mangler, laughed at, felt sorry for and identified sometimes with Bubbah. Ms. Cornwell has a real gift for observation and if you the reader, can lighten up a little, you may catch her gentle digs at the human condition.
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