Rating: 
Summary: Did not hold my attention.
Review: This book is far from a page turner...I had difficulty completing the book. I had not read any of her books previously.
Rating:
Summary: Okay book - badly narrated tape!
Review: I have read all but 2 of Patricia Cornwell's books. This is the first I've ordered on tape. This may have been a compelling story, but Chris Sarandan is definitely not a compelling narrator! I'm sorry I tried this. From now on, I'll stick to reading it myself.
Rating:
Summary: Stinky!
Review: The real mystery here is who actually wrote this novel: it's such a poorly conceived, badly written, and atrociously edited book that I had difficulty believing the same person who brought us the Scarpetta stories could have authored this. Now Cornwell's come out with a follow-up novel ("Southern Cross") that I wouldn't touch with a proverbial ten-foot pole. Unless you're a literary critic who enjoys guffawing over really bad prose, stay away from these recent Cornwell creations.
Rating:
Summary: A waste of hard earned money!
Review: A GREAT disappointment! No hint that this book did not have another Scarpetta adventure for me to relish. Plot weak-character development lacking. Makes me hesitate to buy her newest book!
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment to her Kay Scarpetta fans!
Review: Although I appreciate an author's need to expand her creativity by branching out to other story lines and characters, I must say that this was not the proper vehicle to do so. This is one of the few times that I have not been able to get "into" a book. Usually I can somehow manage to continue once I get started. However, the main problem with this book is that it is just "plain boring" and you somehow cannot associate with it's characters. It is amazing that Ms. Cornwell who does such excellent writing with Kay Scarpetta could not seem to get "into" these new characters herself and do them proper justice. Perhaps she identifies more with Ms. Scarpetta as do her fans. If so, she would be wise to bring her back or bring more of her old style to these or other new characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Cornwell Pens Police Yawner
Review: Patricia Cornwell, author of the tautly written Kay Scarpetta series, turns her focus to police fiction, and the result is an exceedingly dull Harlequin Romance reject. Character development is strictly black-and-white, perhaps in keeping with the police theme. Her Police Chief Hammer fairly walks on water, while we have other cartoonishly one-dimensional characters, such as the mayor, who is concerned only with the serial murders' effects on tourism (He wants the sainted Chief Hammer to report a 105% rate of closing crimes.) The list goes on: the eager cub reporter, the grizzled night editor, the female cop who rose through the ranks. Worst of all, Cornwell forgets to have a point to all this. The murders serve only as a backdrop to a sloppy half-baked romance, and the whole mystery comes to a rather abrupt conclusion, almost an afterthought. Suspense, drama and even crime are almost entirely lacking from this so-called thriller. Stick to Scarpetta ... please!
Rating:
Summary: Lacks coherence and insight
Review: I am not a particularly avid Cornwell fan, but I usually like her plots, if not her style. This book lacks both. The characterization is shallow, the narrative threads are not interwoven with any great care, and most of the time the writer's mind appears to be elsewhere. I am a big fan of novels in which I get several perspectives, but since none of the points of view in this novel are drawn with any care, I just found this novel tiresome. I was also annoyed at the truly weird hostility I sensed toward most female characters in the novel. (With the exception of Hammer and West, most of the female characters in this book are treated with contempt, and male characters' faults are described as "female" or "womanlike.") I also object to her attitudes about homosexuals -- among other things, there is no excuse for referring to a transsexual character as "it." The longer I read this book, the less I liked Patricia Cornwell as a person. Cornwell also throws in a subplot about a cat who, three quarters of the way through the novel, turns out to be psychic and knowledgeable about high finance. I tried to ignore the fact the Cornwell has created an Abyssinian with crossed blue eyes -- this is not a blue-eyed breed. I couldn't ignore the way the psychic cat subplot was dumped into and then out of the novel. I am sure Cornwell spends plenty of time researching her forensic and police reference. After this cat (and the character in "From Potter's Field" who is referred to as having "malamute-blue" eyes -- malamutes have brown eyes, she meant "Siberian husky blue") I wish she would spend five minutes researching her animal characters. I am afraid that reading this poorly constructed, tediously written, ill-humoured and downright unpleasant novel has put me in a bad mood. All the same, I think this is a fair review and also reasonable warning to anyone who hopes that all Cornwell novels are of equal quality. Trust me, this one isn't.
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell should stick with her Scarpetta series.
Review: Being a fan of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series I was very disappointed in this story. I read this book and was unimpressed with the characters. It seems to be lazily written. Cornwell should stick with her Scarpetta series.
Rating:
Summary: A Rating of One Star is Generous
Review: Much to my dismay, this was not a Scarpetta story, nor did it carry the same pizzaz and appeal. Like so many other comments written here, I agree the book was simply not worth reading and a major disappointment. Come on, Ms Cornwell, we all know you are capable of much greater things - you deserve 20 lashes with a wet noodle for this one!
Rating:
Summary: slow
Review: Not as good as her other works. I can figure out who is the murder victim after reading 3/4s of the book. It is like she is trying to weave in a love story but it is not working.
| 
