Rating: 
Summary: Writer, forensic "expert," TV personality -- what's next?
Review: Patricia Cornwell may try to do it all but it's patently clear that she can't. Something had to give and it did. Her writing in this latest book is AWFUL. The book is a confused mess of espionage, past books, revisions, off-screen action, threads that go nowhere, and new, very unattractive sides to old characters. By now everyone knows the Bobby Ewing-like moment of resurrection of a former (formerly dead) character. Compare this nightmare mishmash to the elegant All That Remains. Based on true, unsolved killings of lovers, the book was great. Autopsies, crime scenes, forensic anthropology at the Smithsonian; a first rate crime novel. Blow Fly? Doesn't even earn its name. There's one insane scene where Lucy kills a character (illegally and without justification). For no good reason, she tried to throw off the time of death -- thus the introduction of blow flies. But the scene never makes sense. The murder was senseless. The scene was just filler. Just like PC these days -- all filler, no quality.
Rating:
Summary: Patty Does Dallas
Review: At least when they brought back Bobby Ewing from the dead there was no pretense at anything other than bringing up the ratings. Maybe next time the author wants to kill a character it will be the "Uber Niece," Lucy -- and she will stay dead. Boring boring boring.
Rating: 
Summary: Ack
Review: Well, this book completely threw me off. I've read almost every book Cornwell ever written, and I've always felt pretty confident in her vision of the Scrapetta series. This book however - what is this?! The characters seem to have the same names, but act totally unlike themselves. The Benton thing seems to come completely out of the blue, and reminds of a soap opera plot. New characters pop up and get pages and pages written about them, while Kay is barely mentioned. Lucy doesn't seem to be gay anymore. The psycho killers are conveniently explained, their psychological damage is easy to figure out, since they seem to be written as if the writer followed a text book. The language is crude. I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of the things happening and the plot seemed rather ridiculous. Never thought I'll find myself regretting spending money on one of Cornwell's books, as I've always considered her to be a gifted and talented writer. Go figure.
Rating:
Summary: Boo, Boo, and Boo.
Review: This one is an overrated JOKE. It is time for Cornwell to RETIRE the Scarpetta series. Instead of giving us riviting, cliff-hanging mystery suspense we are dealt an emotionally distraught, manic-depressive, and very parinoid, woman not worth the paper she is written on. Instead of ground-breaking inroads into what could be news hights of detective fiction we are given a rehash of Ellery Queen's unstable mental problems. And one would think Lucy would know better than to so cavalierly reck an expensive and well built helicopter. "Blow Fly" isn't a mystery novel; it is a psychoprattling thriller with no coherent ending. It is bad enough Cornwell insisted upon getting involved in the Jack-the-Ripper debate. Now she is meddling with the Princess Diana controvery. Nor she has ever bothered using the research she did in Jamestown, Virginia, in her novels like her former web site had pompously promised. And speaking of her web site, the present incarnation is only a shadow of its former self. It is indeed time for Cornwell to move on to greener pastures. If she wants to keep writing there is always Andy Brazil; or better yet, she can become a columnist for the New York Times.
Rating:
Summary: Worst Book Ever Written
Review: I would have given this book a -5 stars if it was possible. I have read every book I could get my hands on for most of my 42 years and I can honestly say that I have finally read the worst book ever written. This book is horrible. Cornwell can't decide if she wants to be James Patterson with her 2 page chapters or maybe a spy novelist with her international plots that are completely lame. After I finished reading this garbage my first thought was to donate it to the local library but then I thought some unsuspected person might check it out and read it. So instead I threw it away so no one else would be exposed to it. Life is to short to waste one second on this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but different
Review: The problem with Blow Fly, the way I see it, is not its lack of action or plot holes or whatever, but the fact that it's simply not a Scarpetta novel. Yes, Kay, Marino and Lucy are all in it, but it feels much more like another one of Cornwell's Andy Brazil books. The language is sharper, more clinical and factual (and I don't mean the medical terms, obviously). It is a dark novel, mostly because it's written in a third person, which automatically shifts the focus from Kay's life to other characters. To me, hearing the distinctive voice of Kay Scarpetta throughout all previous novels, was what made the books end on a positive note. Not the fact that the killers were caught (or, at least, not all of it), not the fact that the mystery was solved, and not the fact that Kay had survived another blow that life delt her. It was all about HOW she survived. How she dealt, what she thought, how she carried herself - all from a first person point of view. You got to see all the horror of murders and investigations and autopsies from the point of view of a person who was human, vulnerable and kind. You got a sense of wormth, despite all that was going on. Blow Fly, on the other hand, is more general and spreads itself, allowing you to get inside everybody's head - and while that worked great for books like Isle of Dogs, for a Scarpetta novel it just feels somehow not exactly right. Kay is barely in the book for its first hundred pages or so, and with a personal angle of things gone, some plot twists (everything to do with Benton, for instance) start losing their credibility. Still, it's a decent book, and Cornwell definitely knows how to write. Just be prepared for something rather different than what you're used to.
Rating:
Summary: Hello, Kay...? Can you hear me now?
Review: Cornwell is completely out of touch with the characters she created. The story is terrible, there's virtually no forensics, there's not a single autopsy, there are too many inconsistencies to count and improbabilities fuel the whole too-long book. After spending years letting us get to know Kay and her inner circle, these characters are strangers to us, doing and saying things they just wouldn't do. It appears Ms. Cornwell's muse has left her. This is a real RIP moment for a series that had been slowly dying anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Too many characters, poorly tied together, no flow at all
Review: The second installment of poorly written books by Patricia Cornwell. I had hoped the last novel was just her reaction to a contract that she was forced to uphold. Perhaps that is still the case. Find someone else to read for now.
Rating: 
Summary: Could not have been better
Review: I loved it. Why can't you?
Rating:
Summary: Saved me the cost of the book
Review: As a fan of Patricia Cornwell and Kay Scarpetta, I'm glad I read the reviews of all who read Blow Fly before purchasing this book. (My title says it all.) I have read all of the Cornwell/Scarpetta novels and I, too, like many reviewers have had trouble with the Chandonne characters. I enjoyed Cornwell/Scarpetta when the focus was on the forensics. Maybe Cornwell will heed her fans demand and get back to the basics of her early novels! (Must have been a real "shocker" to suddenly come face to face with Benton again!)PS: Couldn't post this without giving a rating.
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