Unnatural Exposure

Rating:
Summary: Boring and written on autopilot ...
Review: I haven't read a Kay Scarpetta novel since 'The Body Farm' as I was getting sick of all the gore/body parts. When I found this book in the book swap bin at work I thought it would at least pass the time - something a bit gross maybe but a fast paced exciting read. How wrong I was - I admit it did pass the time but I had to force myself to plod my way through it. The story focuses far too much on Kay's personal life, on different forensic procedures on government organisations and their sophisticated equipment - all at the expense of the story. Despite all the gross-out descriptions of dead bodies/horrible diseases the whole thing left me curiously unmoved. Perhaps because all the characters apart from Kay have become one-dimensional cutouts. The ending is a total damp squib - she just seems to have picked a minor character out at random to be the killer - and lots of plot points - such as the Lucy storyline are left totally unresolved - probably to sucker the reader into buying the next book in the series! However for me the major problem for me was that Kay had become a character I disliked intensely - she was so rude and arrogant to everyone - so neurotic and set in her ways that quite honestly I didn't care if she got smallpox - in fact I was hoping that Cornwall would just kill her off, as I think she's really sick of writing about this character now - and it shows ...

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not my favorite
Review: This story is a good read, but I'll admit I enjoyed the others better. Still, if you're a Kay Scarpetta fan, you'll want to include this in your reading of the series.

Rating:
Summary: reality check: pathologists are the dumbests MDs around
Review: This may not have been my favourite Kay Scarpetta, but I still enjoyed it to the point where I didn't want to put it down. I find that Dr. Kay is getting more and more human with each book, and that's a good thing! In my estimation though, Ms. Cornwell dwells too much on the homosexual angle with each book. This leads me to question Lucy's authenticity since she seems less and less real with each book. I think the books would be improved without her character. Ms. Cornwell tries too hard with her, and it shows. But Kay, Benton and Marino are real characters. In this book we don't see as much of Marino and that's a loss. The story is intense and gripping, and the tension really doesn't ease up. The book deals with biological terrorism, and that is certainly a hot topic right now. For those of us Scarpetta lovers who love a tense and gripping tale with lots of forensics, this book does not disappoint.