Trace

Rating:
Summary: almost back to her original Scarpetta style...
Review: Glad to see that Ms. Cornwell has returned to her original style of writing in her Kay Scarpetta novels. I don't understand why all the male characters close to Dr. Scarpetta are killed or seriously injured. In Trace, you get to see the personal side of Pete Marino and more of his ability as an investigator. I have always liked how Ms. Cornwell explained the reason for any forensic procedure or need for further investigation. I did not appreciate the on going negative remarks about the city of Richmond, Va. however.

Rating:
Summary: Exercise in amateurism
Review: I always get excited when I see a new Cornwell book out, but that will now stop.
I found this book to be mostly isolated mini-stories that never get resolved or really explored, like there are too many pieces on the chessboard and she doesn't know where to put them anymore. (Of course there is one comon thread...)
Dr. Marcus, we get a view of his phobias, then he dissapears.
The dead girl's mother, we get on the verge of discovering her neurosis, the she dissapears.
Henri, we almost see how twisted she is, then she dissapears only to reappear in the last chapter.
Edgar Allen, a constant throughout the book but the resolution and revelation are such let down.
Even Marino, we get the feeling that the divulgation of his psyche is only a page filler. So is Lucy's.
The forensic part that is usually so interesting turns down right morbid in this book.

As someone else mentioned before, it reads like a writter's assistant was given too much freedom.

Sorry Ms Cornwell, but this is the last book of yours I read.


Rating:
Summary: Cornwell's Worst Yet!
Review: I avoided reading reviews of Trace on Amazon until I finished. This dreary, disjointed, and near unreadable mystery seemed horrible, but I wanted to give the book a chance and avoid following the crowd to pile on. Unfortunately, Patricia Cornwell's slump (to put it mildly) has continued and it was an ordeal to even finish Trace. How could such a talented author with any pride put out such garbage? Trace is more of a compilation of idea notes than a real book. The interesting threads in Trace quickly die while we are subjected to more psychodrama and absurdity of what has become an extremely unappealing extended mystery family. Perhaps Cornwell's greatest sin is that she has become boring. The evildoer in this book has to be the wimpiest and most boring psychopath ever created in print. Could Cornwell be attempting to portray the "banality of evil?" Of course not! Trace is just something I would not recommend to even the most hard-core fan.

Rating:
Summary: disappointing beyond belief
Review: i cannot believe how poorly written the last 2 scarpetta books have been. with trace, the story is all over the place. there isn't any of that "scarpetta charm" that carried through the previous novels. ms. cornwell should've ended the series with the Last Pricinct. trace is just that, a trace of what scarpetta used to be. you can only feel sorry for a character so long before you realize a smart educated woman needs to take control and stop whining about the men/problems/family she has.

Rating:
Summary: Cornwell taking herself too seriously
Review: I enjoyed the early Scarpetta books, but the last few (and those ridiculous books set in North Carolina!) have left me very disappointed. I've come to believe that Cornwell thinks SHE's the Medical Examiner, and that she's the smartest crimesolver alive, and is living vicariously through the Scarpetta character.

All this nonsense about flying helicopters (which Cornwell does in real life) while solving crimes (which Cornwell thinks she's qualified to do in real life, i.e. the Diana and Ripper stuff) is just too unrealistic. And she's developed such an unlikeable personality in Kay that I'm no longer rooting for her to get out of harm's way. From her "I-take-myself-too-seriously" TV interviews, I think that personality is Cornwell's as well. And Lucy... Gawd. Does anybody find that obnoxious character likeable in any way?

Sad that what was once an entertaining and stimulating series has turned into such drivel.


Rating:
Summary: What has happened to Patricia Cornwell?
Review: I was someone who always anxiously awaited the next book in the "Kay Scarpetta" series. And I am also someone who is always willing to forgive an author for an "off" book. But to follow the very disappointing "Blowfly" with this even more disappointing book kicks me right off the Patricia Cornwell bandwagon.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe over-edited??? Parts of the plot seem to be missing
Review: I was very happy to see a new Scarpetta novel. That is, until I began to read it. I became annoyed mid-way through the first chapter by Cornwell's decision to write the book in the present tense, which I find makes it difficult for me to immerse myself in the plot. When an occasional scene is written in present tense ("she says", "she does", "she goes", etc.), it can have an impact, but a whole book? No thank you.

But I found that my mind began to read it in the more comfortable past tense I prefer, and I slogged on. Fortunately for me, I checked it out of the library rather than bought it.

The story begins with Dr. Scarpetta helping investigate the death of a 14 year old girl. Meanwhile, her niece, Lucy, is involved with yet another unsuitable partner who has just been attacked in Lucy's home. Naturally, the two events are related. While the book does reveal the killer/stalker, it is never made clear exactly why the girl was killed, nor was the "mysterious" death of a construction worker with similar trace evidence ever explained. The killer is caught but the end just kind of stops. That's the only way I can describe it, it just stops. Midstream, in my opinion. We get the killer, then Kay is suddenly having a conversation with Benton about cigars. Granted, cigars have a role, but I wanted my loose ends wrapped up.

There are many interesting characters here, but we never get the meat of them, only the top layer. The killer is obviously psychopathic, and it has to do with his mother, but his psychosis is never explained. His mother's death, also not explained. The father of the dead girl has some weird habits, and her mother is neurotic, but again, never explained. And again, the dead construction worker and his connection to this is never explained.

It almost seems like big chunks of the book were cut out, hence the title for my review. I feel as though the book was shortened like an edited-for-television movie--big pieces of the plot seem to be missing. What was also missing was the enjoyment I usually get from a Scarpetta novel.

Not a must read, more of a must miss.

Rating:
Summary: Chronic depression...
Review: I won't summarize the plot of the latest Kay Scarpetta story; others do the summarizing quite well. I will say that this is probably the last Kay Scarpetta story I will read. This woman is so chronically depressed, I get depressed reading about her life and problems! The plotting of the first 3 or 4 novels in this series was fascinating enough to offset her negative personality fairly well. But at this point, I find myself surprised that she hasn't committed suicide yet. Even a Medical Examiner must have SOME light moments in her life, but not our Kay. I think she needs (1) a good shrink, and (2) a new line of work not connected to dead people. Despite all the forensics most of us find so fascinating these days, reading fiction is - or should be - mainly for entertainment. This is not entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Shocked I have to rate so low
Review: Never would I have believed that I would be rating a Cornwell novel and a Scarpetta one at that, lower than 5 stars but sadly, it has come to just that.
I managed to give Blow Fly only 4 stars and at that I was generous. In this case, I give it a single star.
I found this book to be awful. I sense Cornwell spewing this book out to meet her contractual agreements. There is no heart in it. The writing style is so different and so awful, I question if Cornwell even wrote it. A lot of bad grammar and confusing wording it rampant enough for me to notice that I can't help but feel a writers assistant, with no experience, was given a bit too much control.
I also find Scarpetta depressing yet egotistical. The whole of the medical examiners office has fallen apart without her. Of course it has, she's perfect and her successor is not. We find the remaining staff depressed in the environment they have been left in or worse, in a state of drug abuse and alcoholism. All since she left.
In line with this egotistical nature she has fallen victim to, this story is once is again finding Scarpetta and her extended family the true targets. Honestly, She isn't that important for so many psychopaths to want to kill her or her family. Ridiculous.

This also goes for Lucy. She has lost the plot as far as I am concerned and just reading her is frustrating. I feel like shaking some sense into the girl. So wrapped up in her own importance that I want to skip over her altogether.
My main gripe is its decendance into unreality. The wonderful thing about Cornwell in the beginning and up until TLP, is that the stories were relatively believable. Blow Fly proved to me that Cornwell has lost that flare. The fantasy of her or her family being the real target once again is laughable. It just doesn't happen. She is(was) just a medical examiner.
Well it only makes me annoyed to write any more on this book. I feel my time was wasted reading this book. I don't recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Disapointment
Review: When I discovered the new Scarpetta novel at the library I immediately snatched it off the shelf...

To later regret even giving it a glance.

As each novel goes on I slowly begin to dislike every character that I originally loved.

The story was so predictably 'too-much' that I half expected Scarpetta and Marino to have real sparks fly in the hotel room.

I will give Cornwell's next book a chance, and if it's as disapointing as Trace was, I will permanently leave her books on the shelve.