Rating: 
Summary: What Series are we in here?
Review: After the first couple of chapters, the reader will be checking to see that this is "A Scarpetta novel" The flashing in and out of scenes is reminiscent of the Andy Brazil series, not the smooth narratives we expect from Kay Scarpetta's world.
Also, this volume is not exactly consistent with what has come before. Questions left open include: How did "The Last Precinct" turn into a viable enterprise? What happened to Teun McGovern? and most importantly, how in the world did Lucy and Marino manage to slip a frozen copy of Benton Wesley's face into a locked and chained refrigerator in Newton Joyce's garage
when Wesley was actually alive. To say that this strains credibility is to understate the obvious.
Saying all that, however, it was a joy to find Kay Scarpetta slowly recovering into her old self. Without her insights about human nature, I would have tossed this book aside quickly.
Still, the ending isn't one and I long for the days when monsters like Jean-Baptiste Chardonne are dispatched by the final page. This book is worth reading if you have come to care for Scarpetta, Lucy and Marino. However, you will leave it feeling sad for what has happened to your old friends.
Rating: 
Summary: JUST PLAIN AWFUL
Review: This book can only be described as "just plain awful" After reading so many well written and interesting novels by Patricia Cornwell, she must have written this book while asleep. The plot is very poorly conceived and written and jumps around. I found it impossible to believe that Lucy and Marino could have kept their secret for all those years while watching Scarpetto suffer from her loss. The end of the book is hastily pulled together with a less than satisfactory ending. Since there is one more Chardonne on the loose, their will probably be one more novel involving them. Kay Scarpetto was almost nonexistant in this book and comes across as a despirited broken woman who has no direction. This is not the character I've come to know. Her case solving abilities are one of the main reasons I read Cornwell's books. In this book Patricia Cornwell has made Lucy and Marino the main characters but has radically changed their personalities. Why did Patricia Cornwell feel compelled to suddenly throw in a live-in for Marino and their break-up and his packing his truck and walking away from his house. What relevance did this have to the book? All it did was fill a few blank pages of paper. If you have to read it, get it from the library or pick it up at a garage sale where I'm sure there will be a lot of them. Again, this book is "just plain awful"!
Rating:
Summary: Don't Go There
Review: I put the book down after reading 79 pages. I couldn't get any sort of continuity in the story. I got tired of trying to stay on course with the book. I have read only two other Patricia Cornwell novels and one I found OK and the other, was just as bad as Blow Fly. I doubt if I will buy other Cornwell novel.
Rating:
Summary: Hey, Patricia,.... You can do better!!
Review: I'm a die-hard loyal Scarpetta fan, but I must say I'm a little disappointed in this book. When I hard Kay Scarpetta was coming back, I marked my calendar for release date, & began counting the days! As I started reading I kept waiting for that "magic" hook to come along-you know the one that grabs you and won't allow you to put the book down, keeps you up all night- but it never came, but kept reading till the end. As I turned the last page, it was like "what,.....thats it?!" Try again, Patricia.
You left Chandonne open, let's do better this time, let us see some of the passion that Kay feels on a case.
Rating:
Summary: Complete Waste of Time
Review: The only good thing I can say about, BLOWFLY,is that I took it out from the library & didn't waste any money buying it. As a big Cornwell/Scarpetta fan, I was truly disappointed by this book. Scarpetta is relegated to a minor character & the rest is just convoluted drivel. When the end finally came, I couldn't believe how hurriedly it was wrapped up! I was also terribly disappointed that Jean-Baptiste survived to darken yet ANOTHER storyline. Fans of Scarpetta can only hope the next book begins with the medical examiner finding Jean-Baptiste dead on page one!
Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's really awful.
Review: Like lots of other readers, I have read all of the Scarpetta novels and loved them. This one is beyond terrible. It is very boring, quite distasteful (sick really), and the main characters are no longer likeable. Kay is in love with herself and mean. Benton is mean and rude. Lucy is crazy and makes stupid mistakes. And Marino has no dimension. I would say that P.C. didn't write this book, but her previous book about Jack the Ripper wasn't very good either. There was so much ego in it. Skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT
Review: I am a long time Patricia Cornwell fan and have read all her books. I was looking forward to the return of K. Scarpetta in BLOW FLY but this is a dull mess. The story jumps around, leaving loose ends everywhere. The plot, if you can call it that is thin, senseless, and totally unbelievable. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS!
Rating:
Summary: Scarpetta Fan- but awful ending
Review: Read the book in two days. Was really enjoying it until about 2/3rds of the way through. For those who have read it, I still don't understand why Benton was sending those letters??? It is like she took a hatchet and just zap- finished the book without reaching closure on a number of the story lines. Very disappointing. I agree with other readers-- let's move on to some new criminals.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: After years of hearing people rave about Patricia Cornwell novels, I decided to listen to this book on audio CD. I stopped listening half way through. I kept thinking that the story would get better and the pace would pick up -- but it didn't. It was unneccessarily gory and had no real story line. I didn't connect with any of the characters. (I can't imagine listening to all 13 CDs.) I just don't see what all the hype is about her being an excellent author.
Rating: 
Summary: Mid-Career Crisis for Kay Scarpetta and Her Loyal Tribe
Review: Having read all of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta novels, I would have to say that Blowfly is not the one to start out with if this is a reader's first trip with Kay Scarpetta. However, I felt the book was quite well developed and carefully written, and it is a natural progression of plot and character development at this juncture in the series. Blowfly takes place at a trying and extremely difficult period of time in the lives and careers of Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, Benton Wesley and Scarpetta's niece, Lucy. Working quite faithfully and naturally from the events of the last book in the series, Cornwell works with the characters she has created and evolved since the series began many volumes ago. Each of the central characters has undergone a fairly traumatic change in their careers and has suffered enormously as a result of events pretty much beyond their control. This is all critical backdrop to the series as it evolves in the future and I believe it's important for the critics to take that into consideration as they moan and complain that Cornwell has abandoned her readers. Even within the rotten life circumstances that each of the central figures struggles with, Blowfly offers a richly developed plot involving Jean Paul Chandonne, the notorious serial killer who has left a trail of bodies for Kay Scarpetta in the past. Chandonne is now on death row in Texas and things start to get kind of spooky as his days til execution get shorter and shorter. Kay is drawn back into his life, as are all of the other characters that have been responsible for his captivity and sentence. A really satisfying story in and of itself, and, I believe the lower key nature of Blowfly when compared to earlier Scarpettas is understandable. And yet, the great detail in the relationships and life events of the main characters seems to be central to the continuation of these characters in future volumes. Cornwell has been faithful to her old friends in Blowfly, and she has demonstrated her skills as a writer once again in this presentation. With Blowfly as intermission, I now can't wait for the next adventures of Kay Scarpetta and her faithful friends! A Must for Continuing Scarpetta Fans! Highly recommended. Daniel J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota U.S.A.
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