Rating: 
Summary: Not her best
Review: There's something compulsively readable about Patricia Cornwell, even at her worst. Though her brilliant forensic pathologist, Kay Scarpetta, has gotten increasingly earnest, self-righteous and humorless over the last few books, my annoyance hasn't hindered the turning of the pages. And, while this latest is a bit of a slog, I eagerly await the next.Scarpetta, after the unhappy debacle concluding "The Last Precinct" is now a private forensic consultant. Still mired in her grief over her slain FBI lover, she is called in to consult on a Louisiana cold case, because of a letter the coroner received from a serial killer on death row - the repulsive Jean-Baptiste Chandonne. The outcast "wolfman" of the ruthless French crime family, long obsessed with Scarpetta, Chandonne has been busy with his letter writing, much like a boy poking a hornet's nest. What results is a page-turning mess, which involves Chandonne's twin brother ("Black Notice") on a serial-killing rampage which dovetails with Scarpetta's cold case, a conspiracy of unbelievable complexity and motivation, and some very dubious black ops work. Trouble is, if you don't read this one, you'll never figure out what's going on in the next one. As for newcomers (are there any?), start with something good, like her Edgar winning debut "Post Mortem."
Rating: 
Summary: An unfortunate disappointment
Review: I read some of the reviews here on Amazon before picking up a copy of "Blow Fly". I preferred to go about the book in the most objective way possible. The first three hundred pages were somewhat good. The pace of the story was fast. I didn't mind the little summaries from the previous Scarpetta novels. However, by page 350 or so the pace of the story slowed down. I also found Nic Robillard's story distracting at times and wish that the author would have minimized her presence a bit because it takes away from Kay Scarpetta's own drama. I also believe that Jay Talley's and Bev Kiffin's demise came too quickly. These characters were disposed of in the fastest way possible and it's too bad because they were too compelling for this cheap brush-off and I honestly felt cheated as a reader. I was also troubled by Jean-Baptiste Chandonne's escape from prison. It didn't feel elaborate enough. That, too, felt easy in comparison to the great detail Ms. Cornwell has presented in earlier works like "Postmortem". I'm also confused about Jean-Baptiste Chandonne's ability to "see". In "Black Notice" Jean Baptiste Chandonne was blinded when Kay Scarpetta threw acid in his face but now in "Blow Fly" he can see. Are we supposed to assume, then, that Chandonne has ESP? That he now has extra-sensory perception that allows him to "see" things even when he's not there, like the way he could visit France even though he was sitting in a Texas prison? I honestly feel that Ms. Cornwell could have done better with this novel. While the short chapter technique she's adopted helped push the story's pace in the first three hundred pages, that doesn't help much towards the end. I only hope that in her next installment of the Kay Scarpetta series, she does a much better job. She's done excellent work before. Her most recent good work in the Scarpetta series was The Last Precinct. After that, it seems, that the author hit a low. I read "Blow Fly" in its entirety because I'm a completist. I wanted to see what would happen to Kay Scarpetta after she quit her position as Chief Medical Examiner. In spite of the disappointment that is "Blow Fly" I do look forward to the next Scarpetta installment, as long as the author and her editors take more time to correct any mistakes and make certain that the next book is not a disappointment, like this one.
Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite Author, But...
Review: This book fails to live up to the standards we have come to expect from Patricia Cornwell. It is as if someone else wrote this book. Perhaps after the aptly named "Isle of Dogs" and the non-fiction Jack the Ripper book, she lost touch with Scarpetta and how to write her. Cornwell abandoned her usual style of writing her hero in the first person, and in so doing lost her focus. Gone are the things that made Kay Scarpetta so compelling--her investigation skills, her caring for those close to her, her cooking. Simply as a work of fiction, it is a book that spends 400 pages on its set-up, and only a few paragraphs on the payoff. This is not a good book in any sense. It seems that Cornwell may be spending too much time on "Prime Time Live", and not enough on what made her so popular. Until then, the reaser may want to spend time reading Lisa Scottoline instead.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to par
Review: I'm a huge Patricia Cornwell fan and couldn't wait to read this book on paperback, so bought a hardcover.
Big mistake.
It just never took off. Nothing was added to the character line and the storyline is played out.
Not enough time was spent with Kay and forensic pathology. I don't know if the editor butchered it or if Patricia was working under a deadline...who knows, but it doesn't measure up.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing characters buried by suprisingly average writing
Review: Patricia, what happened? The characters in the Scarpetta series have been so well-developed that they have taken on a life-like quality. I have read each book with interest and pleasure and I was thrilled when BlowFly arrived on my doorstep. But when I dove into the first chapter, I felt as if I had stumbled into some generic version of this series: made with the same active characters/ingredients, but missing that name-brand quality. Told in the third person, this story immediately distanced me from the characters I so loved. No longer was I able to tag along with Scarpetta as she figured out the clues. I was pushed back to the balcony seat to watch each character go through the motions, and had I not known and loved these characters from earlier books, I would not have cared enough to see what happened. And what happens? What doesn't happen is a better question. There is no cohesion between story-lines, no banter between characters, and no explaination as to why Ms. Cornwell thought it would be good fiction to install two dimensional soap opera tricks into what could have been an amazing story. Yes, it all makes sense and yes, it is plausible. That is what is frustrating. This story could have taken my breath away. Instead, it plodded along with memories, "shocking" revelations and then an anti-climatic ending that should have been the main focus of the book. If you are a fan, read it just to know what happens to your favorite characters. If you are not a fan, start at the beginning of the series. Don't start here.
Rating:
Summary: Appropriate that I finished this bomb on Pearl Harbor Day
Review: My first thought was "what the h*ll has gone wrong with Patricia Cornwell." GONE are all the elements that made her great -- and rich. Kay's voice, her hard-nosed-cop investigations with Marino, her job as chief ME, her cooking, forensics, autopsies, Kay's in-control snippiness -- all gone. Instead, there are farfetched international spy games, more time with that psycho niece Lucy, Benton's ridiculous resurrection, and really unappealing characters across the board. Everyone is constantly commenting on how hot Kay is, how great Kay is, what a legend Kay is. What ever happened to writers' rule #1: SHOW the readers, don't tell the readers? This is an author self-destructing. It will be interesting to see how long Cornwell will command big contracts and debut at #1 if her writing remains this poor. This isn't nearly as bad as Isles of Dogs, but then, that was the worst book I'd read in my life. This was without a doubt a low point for the Scarpetta series, Cornwell's publisher, editor and anyone else who pretends she's still writing good stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Cornwell is always a safe choice !!!
Review: I have just put down this book and felt that I just had to log onto the Net and find out when Cornwell plans to release the next book in the Scarpetta series.It was well written and kept me intrigued the whole way through.I liked the manner in which she included all the characters we have come to love over the years and gave us their own personal stories. And the shocker at the end had me totally stunned!!! It was well worth the wait and I sincerely hope she doesn't plan to keep us in suspense for too much longer.Keep up the great work Patricia!!!
Rating:
Summary: What Happened?
Review: What in the world happened? I love Kay and Cornwell's writing and have gotten many others interested. When I saw that there was a new book we all waited, reviews aside. The reviews were right on. I enjoyed the beginning and figured the recap was for those who were reading for the first time. I kept waiting for something to happen. The end was SO disappointing that I was checking to see if maybe I had missed some pages! DO NOT START WITH THIS BOOK to get into Kay and the rest of the cast. Skip this and pretend it never happened. Maybe a sequel would explain what she was trying to do???
Rating:
Summary: where is the story?
Review: Why? With so much talent , why not move forward with new adventures , not make a composite of the old. Benton dies-aw! but is resurrected. Lucy adds action and Pete tries to help in a very limited role. Interpersonal relationships between longstanding characters seems to mask out the storyline. The same villians are portrayed - there must be more evil Kaye Scarpetta can foil. Please!
Rating:
Summary: What?
Review: I understand Cornwell's strategy of introducing a continuing storyline into the Scarpetta series, but she's done a terrible job of accomplishing it. With every installment of the Chandonne cartel series I get more and more confused. I've completely lost track of how the crimes from the last three books are tied together and hope that the next book finally sees Jean-Baptiste dead so that we can move on to something else (although bringing in organized crime would allow Cornwell to keep this story going on forever. The Chandonne family will likely keep trailing Kay and the rest of the Last Precinct until readers stop making it profitable for Cornwell by refusing to buy these terrible books.) And what was that ending? We go through all that to see nothing? We don't even know if the crimes are officially solved, and after all that time building up Jay Talley as this terrible psychopath, we learn of his death as an afterthought from Benton? These books are less and less what I expect from Cornwell after having enjoyed the first books in the Scarpetta series. The sad part is that I'll probably read the next one, hoping that we can wrap up this story and hoping that the next novel will redeem the last three. I will, as I did with this one, get it from the library, though, and won't waste my money on it. I would've been pretty mad if I had.
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