Rating: 
Summary: Black Notice should have been titled Bad Notice
Review: The original KS books were great, but the last three have gone steadily downhill. I initially read the series eagerly ,one after the other, but this one has convinced me finally to never read another.Let's get real here! Someone is out to sabotage Kay's career and discredit her reputation. She learns that someone is acting as her in an on-line chat but never bothers to contact the host and refute this? Stupid connections, unbelievable scenarios and a meager plot sum up this book. The plot is negligible at best -- in fact plot lines were so non-existent that I can't even recall anything worth commenting about. The main focus was Kay's self absorption and continued whining about her misfortune while everyone around her revolves in her shadow apparently in awe of her immense talents? Oh c'mon! The reader should apparently side with Kay against her sister about her niece Lucy. Kay claims that Lucy's mother is only involved in herself. I've never seen a character as self absorbed as KS herself. Sorry, but this book isn't worth the price or the time to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Losing a Favorite Series Author
Review: When the author of a favorite series dies, favorite characters also die, leaving a void that's not easy to fill. But one can always reread the old books and enjoy the stories and the characters again. What has happened to the Kay Scarpetta series is worse than the author ceasing to write. With each recent novel, and especially with Black Notice, the main characters (Kay, Lucy, Marino) have become so loathsome and the plots so unengaging that I can't imagine wanting to revisit the earlier novels. These are unpleasant people and I will not miss them.
Rating:
Summary: Slice 'em, Dice 'em, Decomposition
Review: The corpse wasn't the only thing decomposing in what is the latest (last?) Scarpetta novel. Improbable, implausible, incoherent and irrational - to start with. Between werewolf disease, Marino's resurrection theory, drug cartels, Loony Little Lucy, weak and bizarre political manuevering, internet body-snatching (and a coroner's office uses AOL, come on!), walk-ons by a Senator and Interpol, and a baffling trip to France on the Concorde, Ms. Cornwell has effectively killed Dr. Scarpetta for this reader, who just assumes this is some sort of mid-life nightmare? Save your $.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Developement of Character Through Prose
Review: Patricia Cornwell, your writing style is improving with each book :) I can't say that I'm joyously thrilled about Scarpetta's change of character and morality, but after reflecting, I understand now that it is needed to convey Scarpetta's devastated emotions. The plot is structured well enough, perhaps not as ingenious as other books in the series, but I'm glad. It takes so much more skill to NOT be a plot-based writer. It's still there, but the substance of human nature is much more solid. This book shows that Scarpetta isn't a mechanical heroine, rather, she's more human than ever. It's a splendid continuation for those that followed the series in order -- otherwise, I don't know how one can piece the puzzle together.
Rating: 
Summary: what a disappointment
Review: Patricia Cornwell has become quite the disappointment. Her earlier books were all exciting; I couldn't "put them down". Now I doubt that I'll ever "pick another one up". The plot never got off the ground and the ending was a real let-down. Sorry Ms. Cornwell, you've lost a fan here!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best of the Kay Scarpetta
Review: Thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I was really NOT enjoying many of the previous ones. Black Notice really kept my attention. I agree with another review, that Cornwell really limited the background information on these characters and this would not be a good first Kay Scarpetta novel to start with.
Rating:
Summary: What's the Name of this Book Again?
Review: I bought the audio version of this book - I'm 3 tapes down - and I keep asking myself if I've already read it. I came to Amazon.com to make sure this was Patricia Cornwell's latest book. Nothing in Black Notice is very original. It's all a repeat of Postmortem and Body of Evidence. Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth it.
Review: A relative of mine decided to give this book to me as a gift for Christmas. Unfortunately, I wish she had included the receipt along with it. This was the first novel by Patricia Cornwell that I have read, and the first Kay Scarpetta mystery that I have had the displeasure of wasting time on. To begin with, the book is 400 pages long. A decent size. But Cornwell doesn't really get into the actual mystery until a good 200 pages into the book. Instead, she decides to spend the majority of the book on Kay's personal life, on how Kay is dealing with her lover's death, on her strained relationship with her niece, on her tempestuous friendship with Officer Marino. There's a dead body found down in the dockyards, which isn't too strange except for the odd hair found on the corpse. Soon, women begin to turn up dead, brutally murdered and mutilated, with the same strange hairs upon their bodies. Then there's the whole business with someone tampering with computers in her office (pardon me if I'm mistaken, but does EVERY Scarpetta mystery have to have someone inside her office or associated with her office being some sort of nefarious, backstabbing troublemaker?). And she's being secretly framed as incompetent by her enemies so she'll be fired. Then, to make things really confusing, at a little past the halfway point in the book, she gets sent to Europe with Marino on a "secret mission" to help solve these bizarre murders and identify the killer. While there she becomes romantically involved with an American agent, and....well, to say the least, this book goes in about a thousand directions at once. And they're ALL confusing. When the climax finally comes, it has the sound and fury not of thunderstorm, but of a weak afternoon drizzle. Cornwell seems to be content to spend virtually every sentence focusing on Kay's complicated personal life. How will she get over the death of her soulmate? Does Marino harbor feelings for her? Why is it she has such a difficult time getting along with her bullheaded, policewoman niece? Who is sabotaging her work, and who wants her fired? A better question would be, who really cares? Believe me, after line after endless line of this, it's not the reader. There are a couple bright points. I've always found the technical detail that Cornwell puts into her novels refreshing. I may never become a forensic pathologist myself, but I find it interesting to learn about their techniques and the kind of duties they perform. And the killer has to be one of the most unique I've ever seen in a mystery; of all the maladies that writers have afflicted their villains with, hypertrichosis has to be a first. Unfortunately, Cornwell seems to duplicate some of her earlier work for the finale; the sudden showdown with the killer was eerily similar to the anti-climactic ending of her first Scarpetta novel, "Postmortem". I think that, after sitting there and reading each and every page--about 400 pages of rambling plot--I can sufficiently classify myself as a masochist. I wish I could say that this book is worth a buy, but I wouldn't even recommend checking it out of your local library and reading it for FREE. Sorry, Scarpetta fans, but this is one mystery best left unsolved.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must!
Review: I really love all Kay Scarpetta novels, and I was really excited to get to read Black Notice. I liked the plot, it' s worth reading it. The only thing I didn't like is Scarpetta being involved with a much younger man. It just ain't 'Scarpetta like'. And it seemed as though the idea was taken from two others of Cornwell's novels I also read, Horning's Nest and Southern Cross. Still, I really recommend it. and I'm already looking foward to the next one.
Rating: 
Summary: Another excellent read!
Review: This book had me reading well into the early morning hours.Exciting, thrilling, and interesting, right up to the last page.
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