Rating: 
Summary: Patricia Cornwell shows a nice sense of humor
Review: "Hornet's Nest" is a significant departure from Ms. Cornwell's standard dark, gritty Kay Scarpetta novels. Instead, in "Hornet's Nest" Ms. Cornwell comes up with a light novel about a young civilian ride along and an older female police officer. The book reads almost as a series of wry, funny anecdotes "from the streets of Charlotte and the halls of Justice."Those readers expecting Ms. Cornwell's usual dark, thrilling fare will be rather sorely disappointed. On the other hand, if the reader does not require a thriller of a novel full of dark, realistic details, then the reader will be pleasantly surprised at the wry sort of humor exhibited. In short, "Hornet's Nest" by Patricia Cornwell is not Ms. Cornwell's usual fare of thrilling police procedural mystery, but is instead a sort of "Opera Bouffe" look at policework, not terribly unlike the televison show "Cops." For those who enjoy that sort of wry humor (c.f. the science fiction novels of Lois McMaster Bujold), "Hornet's Nest" is an entertaining read -- a read made made more entertaining by Ms. Cornwell's very vivd descriptive style. For those who want a dark, gripping thriller -- turn elsewhere for novels of that type.
Rating: 
Summary: difficult to stay with, not to Scarpetta standards
Review: Reading Cornwell books is a little slice of heaven. Unfortunately, Hornet's Nest did make the cut. Instead of being an intense 3 day read, the book still sits on the self, half completed. Cornwell fans will find this one a sleeper.
Rating: 
Summary: Recipe-Overcooked
Review: P.Cornwall has re-used this recipe of hers too many times. It's overcooked. I'm getting the feeling that she cranks out a book at such a fast pace simply to make a buck. I used to truly enjoy her books. But honestly, my last favorite was Potter's Field.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible boring pointless work.
Review: Even if Cornwell had never written another book, this would still be terrible. If this was her first, her career as a writer would hopefully have ended.I forced myself to finish the book, assuming the plot was on the next page, but it never came.her next book should be submitted to an editor, she should get out of this new genre.
Rating:
Summary: Total suprise for Cornwell, One of the worst books ever.
Review: Extremely suprised, based on the quality of her previous books. all of her other books, in my opinion, would receive 4-5 starts. I just could not belive how bad this book was. A total waste of money.
Rating:
Summary: VERY POOR IN PUTTING IT TOGETHER
Review: I was very unhappy with the book. It had more cliches than a bad movie. I ralley enjoyed all her other books and have read them all. Patrica please stay away from writting any more like the Horneets Nest. In the book there was so much jumping around from it was hard to tell who was who and then in some places you never did find out how others ended up. I am really not sure I will buy another one of her books again, sorry. Yours truly Peggy Henry of Maple Valley, Washington.
Rating:
Summary: What's with the cat?
Review: Since Patsy and I both went to Davidson College, I thought that after a long period of bashing her, I would actually *read* one of her novels to discover for myself the source of the world's fascination with her work. Unfortunately, I picked up this one. Harlequin Romance novels are better than this. Legal briefs are better than this. Self-induced pain is better than this. You get the point. I'm embarrassed that the world knows about Davidson from this book and associates Davidson with Patricia Cornwell. The irony? She endows a scholarship for up-and-coming freshmen that show special promise in writing. At least there's some justice, because there's no mystery here: it's _all_ bad.
Rating:
Summary: Fairly good read until the last 20 pages
Review: This was my first Patricia Cornwell book and what a disappointment it was. It had some attention grabbing moments but the ending was atrocious. I normally don't mind when an author lets you draw your own conclusions about certain items but this left so many unanswered questions it reminded me of when I had to write a 500 word essay in school -- once you reach the 498th word you stop & close with "The End."
Rating:
Summary: Zero stars if I had the choice
Review: One of the most poorly written books I've ever read. Grammar and syntax were atrocious, irritating, and ultimately distracting. Strings of words appear to have been regularly thrown in as meaningless filler. Characters' internal dialogues were laughable, as were most of the characters. The book just collapsed under the weight of too many half-baked subplots and too many poorly chosen words. I, too, wonder if Cornwell really wrote this and if so, where was her editor?
Rating:
Summary: Still Wondering
Review: I found Hornest's Nest hard to get into. The story and plot slow and I was always wondering when Dr. Scarpetta was going to get involved. Then I couldn't put it down. I thought it was great that West and Brazil got together could be interesting for a future series? I thought the ending was very disappointing and I felt like the book wrapped up too fast and as a reader you were left hanging. Would be interested to see if Ms. Cornwell will continue with these characters.
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