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Summary: All-nighter!
Review: Patricia Cornwell's real talent, intellect, and sensuality trully come out in this mystery/thriller. Kay Scarpetta becomes more than the intellegent Chief M.E./Lawyer/F.B.I. consultant in this, the best of the Kay Scarpetta series. This book had me up all night, I just couldn't put it down. I couldn't sleep until I finished it. Cornwell had me chilled to the bone. She had hairs standing on parts of my body I didn't even know there was hair! If I had to choose between an all-nighter with my husband, and staying up all night reading "Cruel and Unusual"...well let's just say my husband was glad to see this book leave my nightstand! If you love thrillers, if you love major sexual tention, bone chilling details, if you love staying up all night reading a great book, "Cruel and Unusual" is the all-nighter for you!!!
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Summary: This author has a way of keeping you interested. Marilyn DH
Review: Cornwall is a great author and in this book she starts out with a great plot. Just when your interest might be slipping, the story builds
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Summary: Cornwell must have gotten tired of writing this book
Review: The first 75% of this book is a 10. Cornwell sets up the perfect novel, albeit with her rather drab, reactive protagonist, but then suddenly swerves off the road and goes bonkers. For me the peak of the book was when Kay Scarpetta is threatened by the governor and is suspended from her job, but then Cornwell finds a way to tie this great, believable plot into, of all things, a Nazi war criminal, and that's where she totally lost me. Then there's absolutely no climax or showdown whatsoever. We just hear about the acts of the murderer second hand, and that was a big letdown, too
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell must have gotten tired of writing this story
Review: The first 75% of this book is a 10. Cornwell sets up the perfect novel, albeit with a rather drab, reactive protagonist, but then suddenly swerves off the road and goes bonkers. For me the peak of the book was when Kay Scarpetta is threatened by the governor and is suspended from her job, but then Cornwell finds a way to tie this great, believable plot into, of all things, a Nazi war criminal, and that's where she totally lost me. Then there's absolutely no climax or showdown whatsoever. We just hear about the acts of the murderer second hand, and that was a big letdown, too
Rating:
Summary: excellent, couldn't read it fast enough
Review: This is my first Cornwell novel, but it certainly won't be my last. The action, people and plot involved is realistic and very believable. Scarpetta is the typical over-achieving but doesn't believe-in-herself feamle of the 90's. Details concerning autopsies, computer mainframes, police procedures, etc. are informative but don't go overboard on descriptions. I only wish I could read faster, couldn't put it down
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Summary: Suspenseful gripping tale with a slightly anticlimatic end
Review: A well written, detailed and nail-biting novel. But, the ending was anti-climatic and rather tepid. I also thought that there might have been some loopholes, but maybe I was reading too fast. Her style, plot and other such devices put her far ahead of Mary Higgins Clark and her like. If you like P.D. James, you may like her too, though I find the characters in P.D. James' novels psychologically more complex than Kay.
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Summary: Captivating
Review: Well the improbabilty of this happening seemed to almost ruin the book for me, once I had gotten past the first couple of chapters it was amazingly well written. The wasy she introduced a new serial killer and gave him traits that would scare anybody out of their wits was well done. I heavily recommend that if you do pick this book up before bed you leave enough time to finish it!!!
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Summary: The book was excellent
Review: Patricia Cornwell is an excellent author. She has a very vivid imagination and the skill that makes you read on and on until you have finished the book. Everytime i pick up one of her books to read i can't put it down. They are really really good books and she is a great author. Cruel and Unusual is prove of Patricia's great expertise in writing. The book was very well written with a great ending. I look forward in reading the rest of Patricaia Cornwell's novels as I have read 6 of them and I am on my 7th
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Summary: This is the best Patricia Cornwell book I've read
Review: This is the most suspenseful, quickest read of any of her books.
The ending as with most books of this kind was slightly anticlimactic, but
I can't deny that reading this book was a great, grisly, fun ride
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Summary: One bad egg is forgiveable
Review: This is the worst of the Scarpetta series. which is quite an achievement seeing as all the others are brilliant. My favourites being the claustrophobic "The Body Farm", and the superbly dark "Point of Origin". I have loved all the Scarpetta's, and read them at least twice over, and i still think this is the worst. The plot was very complicated, and it all seemed a bit of a mess. The characters were nothing special, and i this is the only book in which Cornwell manage to bore me with her normally insightful computer terminology. It's too long, and basically i dont think it has any substance. There is a great potential. The idea for the plot is superb, and could well have been one of the best, but somewhere along the line it all slips. I cant put my finger on it, but i just didnt come away from this with the satisfaction i normally get out of a Kay Scarpetta book. Nevertheless this is still a necessary book to read if you intend to read the entire series. It is one of the major turning points. The first book to feature Temple Gault, who would later lead to Carrie Grethen, Newton Joyce, and all the other catastrophic events which culminate in the next turning point of "The Last Precint". each one has signalled a new era for Patricia Cornwell, and each one has not been quite as good as the others. But The Last Precint was still much better than this. It is, admittedly, very clever, but far too complicated, and im surprised it got the CWA's gold dagger. nevertheless, i have given it two stars purely because it is such a major point in Scarpetta's life. You must read it if you intend to read the entire series, but dont expect to enjoy it as much as you do the others.
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