Hornet's Nest

Rating:
Summary: Hornet's Nest stings the reader
Review: If Patricia Cornwell wrote "Hornets Nest" then who is the real author of the Kay Scarpetta series. Shame on the author and the publisher for using this cheap con practice on a loyal reading public for profit purposes. The writer of this book must have followed a recipe package, using dollops of sex, violence, romance, personality disorders, and other seamy spices --- the trouble is that the finished product remains unfinished and gives the reader a bad case of nauseous indigestion. It will be a while before I suspiciously pick up any other 'Cornwell' book

Rating:
Summary: Waste of time
Review: Bring back Kay - this book was choppy, and a waste of time

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed Cornwell Fan
Review: Perhaps the publisher got mixed up with the authors, because this book was not what readers have come to enjoy from Patricia Cornwell. I have been surprised as to how long it was on the best seller list. Others followers like myself bought the book with great expections. Myself, I wonder if she was meeting a contract with this book. The characters and plot are extremely weak and very boring. Reading the book, and constantly complaining to my husband, I kept thinking the next chapter will get better. Cornwell has the ability to do much better and hopefully with "Unnatural Exposure" due out in July, she will give her readers something to enjoy once again and regain the respect of her followers. If I want the real world then I will watch the news to catch up on the day to day life of police work. It's my opinion people enjoy a book that allows them simple enjoyment, not like "Hornest's Nest". Patricia Cornwell, you put yourself in a 'hornest's nest' with fans like myself

Rating:
Summary: Interesting character development, slow plot, weak ending
Review: Why did the cat have to be involved? That aspect of the storyline weakened the whole novel. It destroyed my faith in Patricia Cornwall as a writer dedicated to quality

Rating:
Summary: Lousy
Review: Probably the worst book I have ever read. Early on I kept turning pages just to see if it ever got better and it didn't.Thank heavens it was a library book. Either her first book or she is steadily degenerating; probably the latter and I will have no trouble staying away from furthur efforts despite having liked Kay Scarpetta at first . Gene Linberg

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Cornwell has shown the rest of the vanguard of women mystery writers the way with this one. The parodic gender reversals alone bring stunning clarity to sex-typing in genre fiction, including her own Kay Scarpetta mysteries. Look at young Andy Brazil. He could be any ingenue in a Hollywood film, a mystery, or romance novel, except that he's male. Chief Hammer and Deputy Chief West, names wonderfully parodic (not satiric--read Linda Hutcheon), have the kind of personal magnetism and powerful leverage of the best males in the field, including the new breed represented on TV in NYPD Blue, for example, and in the classics of police procedurals. Cornwell brilliantly teases us with our own trite and formulaic expectations and breaks us free of them while still giving us enough of the familiar field to enjoy the read. The stale device of the single overwhelming crime is undercut by the NYPD Blueish and very realistic episodic, coincidental, and sometimes just plain hilarious events in life, including criminal life. The virtually accidental solving of the main crime shows the texture of a realism that may not sit well with those expecting only escapism in their fiction. Even closure is not easily allowed us here with another crime revealed within the other. This is truly a watershed work for which Cornwell cannot be commended enough. It is always difficult to both find and reach the next step in literary endeavour, perhaps in genre fiction most of all. In a world not ready for "sh'ims", indeed needing to go beyond this love/hate compromise, the relations between gender and power must search for contexts that break down stereotyping and the hates built on this defensive process. I look forward to the next installment in this series, which I trust will continue to challenge these, but also continue to unpack ageism and the turf wars among truth tellers such as mayors, Police Chiefs, and newspaper publishers. No one's truth in this text is safe. The scene in the diner regarding the banana will rapidly become a classic, especially for anyone interested in semiotics, a masterfully twisted microcosm of John Fowles' daring experiment in The Collector. As for the cat, as an owner of 4 mixed breed cats I found Niles very cat-like indeed and not the least out of character

Rating:
Summary: Not Kay Scarpetta, but good nevertheless!
Review: Since I am an arvid PC fan I ordered this book from the US ( you cannot get it in Germany yet) and was expecting a Kay Scarpetta novel. At first I was a bit disappointed because the book does not feature Kay. The disappointment faded quickly though, and unlike most of the other reviewers I really enjoyed reading this book. But: PLEASE BRING KAY SCARPETTA BACK SOON!

Rating:
Summary: Not what anyone expected...
Review: If the book hadn't been written by Patricia Cornwell and I wasn't a big Kay Scarpetta fan, I probably would have liked this book more than I did. For all those readers (and there seem to be a lot of them) that absolutely hated this book, you missed the point. It's a satire, not a police procedural. The problem is, we all expected a police procedural and we get nasty when we're disappointed. I read the book after reading the reviews and what the author had to say and was not too disappointed. The book was not as good as I expected it to be, but Patricia gets points for trying something new. It would have been much easier for her to crank out another Scarpetta novel. Overall, the only thing I really hated was the cat. I guess I'm just a dog person at heart..

Rating:
Summary: Double the Disappointment
Review: As a PC fan and a native North Carolinian, I looked forward to this latest book with great anticipation. I should have saved my money. Unlike some other reviewers, I was not upset that Scarpetta was not the major character. It was an excellent opportunity to develop a new character, another woman in a leadership position. This opportunity,however, was wasted. The storyline was convoluted and the timeline was illogical. The characters were not fully developed and made it impossible to make any type of connection with them. The story skipped back and forth so much I found myself constantly turning back to earlier chapters to try to figure out what was going on. The references to major landmarks in Charlotte were trivial and trite; as if she picked up a AAA guide and quoted it. I finally decided that after paying $20 for the hardback it was PC's job to explain the story and gave up

Rating:
Summary: It's not nearly as good as her other books
Review: I've been an avid reader of Patricia Cornwell's since the beginning...Although I found Hornet's Nest interesting in parts, it was in no way the caliber of her other books..I frankly miss Kay, her neice, Kay's relationship with her FBI bow, and Kay's constant attempt to educate the Captain..I realize that authors must try virgin territory but I certainly hope that Patricia returns to the characters she has developed and allow her readers to continue in their life.