Rating: 
Summary: Interesting book to read during the holidays!
Review: This is only the second of the author's "Kay Scarpetta" novels that I've read, and I wasn't all that impressed with _Postmortem,_ so I approached this fourth book in the series with some scepticism, even though It seems to be one of the best reviewed. After a decade of appeals, Ronnie Joe Waddell is finally being executed and Scarpetta waits to perform the autopsy (though I'm not clear why that should be necessary). But that same evening, a young boy is ritually murdered in a manner very reminiscent of Waddell's style. That's followed by another murder -- and Waddell's fingerprints apparently are found on the scene. Was someone else executed in his place? The authorities involved, of course, don't even want to *think* about such an appalling possibility. More murders follow, including Scarpetta's own Morgue Attendant, and suddenly links seem to be turning up to tie the Chief Medical Examiner to the killings, as well as to corruption in her own office. All the action takes place in the few weeks preceding and following the Christmas-New Year's holidays, and the gray, cold winter adds greatly to the flavor of the narration.There's no question that this one is an improvement over the first one I read. Cornwell doesn't bring in a completely new character in the last chapter to be the villain, for one thing. And she has added considerable depth to the personalities of all the repeating characters, especially Lt. Pete Marino of Richmond Homicide and FBI Special Agent Benton Wesley. My favorite, though, is Lucy, Scarpetta's niece from Miami, who possesses what another character calls a "frightening intellect." But she's still seventeen years old, and her home life is, in many ways, not a happy one. Aunt Kay really does try to be the friend and confident to Lucy that she would like to be, but she has her own emotional problems -- not least among them the death of her lover in an IRA bombing in London less than a year before -- and her naturally reserved and somewhat stony personality is sometimes her own worst liability. There are problems, though. Cornwell has a rather pompous style, especially when she's describing the latest crime-fighting technological advances, or the ins and outs of UNIX. It's as if she enjoys saying "I know more about this than you do." She also indulges in irritating word-choices, such as not knowing the difference between "in" and "inside" (e.g., "I put my revolver inside my purse"), and she seems to be unaware of the use of contractions in ordinary speech. Still, the well thought out plot and the complications in possible motives and interpretations kept me reading. Many fans and reviewers take it as a given that Cornwell is the "best" mystery writer working, which I can't agree with at all. But she's not bad.
Rating: 
Summary: AWESOME!!
Review: This is awesome! Excellent plot! After reading this, you should read From Potter's Field!
Rating:
Summary: Unexplained murders
Review: Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta is involved with the autopsy of an executed man just as a young boy is killed in a grisly murder. Scarpetta realizes that the murder scene has a lot in common with the one which was created by the executed man 10 years ago. A third event is the murder of a person within Kay's own department. The husband of the murdered woman begins spreading damaging rumors about Scarpetta and a noose of circumstantial evidence is pulled around her. Soon she is trying to solve the murders for her own self-defense as well as just doing her job. During all of this, her young niece Lucy comes to stay with her and she helps with unraveling a mystery involving computer records of fingerprints. Scarpetta is also helped by her friends Pete Marino, a homicide investigator and Benton, an old friend from the FBI. This book has plenty of twists and turns and it will keep Scarpetta fans busily trying to figure out the solution.
Rating:
Summary: Plenty of Twists and Turns
Review: First off, let me say that although all of Cornwell's thrillers stand alone, it's better if you read them in the order they were written. More so in PC's case than in other authors who continue with the same character, book after book. This is because PC does the impossible, she keeps her characters continually growing with each story. Pass one up and you miss some of their development and the very interesting, but very flawed people that walk through the pages of her books are like people we know, friends, and one should stay current with one's friends. "Cruel and Unusual" opens with Kay waiting for the execution of murder/rapist Ronnie Joe Waddell, but even as she's waiting someone is being killed, the killer using Waddell's M.O. One of his finger prints even shows up at one of the crime scenes. This book has the usual Cornwellian twists and turns and as usual I was glued to my seat as I read this five star novel. I loved every second of it, because nobody does Cornwell, like Cornwell. Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
Rating:
Summary: Best of the First Four in this series.
Review: This is an awesome book. Kay just keeps getting better and better. It's also fun to see the characters develop more with each book - Kay herself as she seems to be always "one against the world", Marino who it appears is heading towards some sort of heart attack, Lucy who seems to be getting more and more quixotic. In this book Kay finds herself smack in the middle of a series of gruesome killings. It appears that a recently executed murderer, who Kay herself has seen on her autopsy table, is still around committing crimes. A number of murders occur where the executed murderer's fingerprints are turning up. Kay, Marino and Benton try to track a killer, but it appears that the corruption goes up a long ways into the political stratosphere. This is a taut and totally believable thriller. I can't wait until the next one because the book ended with the way wide open to the next installment.
Rating:
Summary: Great story, great heroine
Review: Somehow as I became initiated into the world of Kay Scarpetta I missed this gem. It was great to backtrack and discover what has become one of my favorite books in the series. The story is SO imaginative and original! The suspense is taut and kept me on the edge of my seat. And most of all, there is Kay, a three dimensional, refreshingly human heroine. No, she isn't perfect. As the possibility of an affair with a married man arose, I wasn't "appalled" by Kay, I was heartbroken for her. Driven by work, shattered by lost love, reaching for someone to bring her back to life emotionally ... her feelings may not be noble but they certainly seemed human to me. A powerful woman in a controversial, conventionally male field, and reviewers ask why so many people hate her? It seems very realistic that the head of a high-profile state agency would find herself with enemies. While I have no real criticism of this book, I do have a comment on the rest of the series. Part of why I enjoyed this one so much is Lucy. As the series progresses, Lucy's life gets so complicated and convulated and dangerous that it is her character, not Kay's, that strains credibility. It was refreshing to revisit a time when Lucy was a teenager whose biggest (immediate) problem was access to a car.
Rating:
Summary: Unusual is Right!
Review: Ah, the good old days of Dr. Scarpetta and her gang of crime solvers. This book represents one of the glory days of Cornwell's writing. I reread CRUEL AND UNUSUAL whenever I wish to return to a time when I actually liked Scarpetta. The plot is ingenious. An executed inmate's fingerprints turn up at another crime scene. How could this possibly happen? Perhaps he's still alive, having been switched with another inmate instead of dying himself. Perhaps the truth is more twisted and harrowing than even Dr. Scarpetta can imagine. When Kay's implicated in the murder of one of her workers she has to find the reason behind the fingerprints to save herself and those close to her.
Rating: 
Summary: Deja vu
Review: The book is well written. However, the storyline has begun to be repititious, in that Kay is attacked in every book either by the criminal, or worse, her colleagues, over and over again. How much would one person stand for in the same job? And the major changes that happened between books was too much for me. Mark's dead? Lucy's grown? Kay's quit smoking? Kay's moved? Very choppy and alot to adjust too. Where is Abby?
If Kay is so likeable, how is it she had so many enemies? THis is where I get off the series. THe lack of information about the main character, and the redundance is dissappointing. Also, I read that in the future books, Kay and Benton get together. Adultery? Appalling. Our beloved heroine can't even get her own man? Come on.
Rating:
Summary: TALENTED
Review: A very talented work of a very talented writer.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Fun Reading... Educational Too!
Review: I really have enjoyed the Kay Scarpetta series... (Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All That Remains, Cruel & Unusual, The Body Farm, From Potter's Field, Cause of Death, Unnatural Exposure, Point of Origin, Black Notice, The Last Precinct). I have read them all except The Last Precinct which I expect to begin very soon. I recommend you read them all for pure pleasure. They are an absolute delight to read. I also recommend these books to you (as well as to my clients) because they are a great way to see how vibration and reflection works with fictional characters while you are learning how your own vibration and subsequent reflections occur... Enjoy!
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