Hornet's Nest

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Summary: I ENJOYED this book!
Review: I really liked this book. The characters were 3d and real, they had real problems and reacted to them in a real way. I can understand why others wouldn't like it but personally I hope to see more of these people. This was a people book, the crime, the jobs were backgrounds. Secondly, I think that it is a good thing that she took the time away from writting Scarpetta books. The last one wass a little lame and this excursion into other areas may make the next less stale.

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Summary: should have used a pseudonym
Review: Bonnie, Ed McBain knows how to depart from a narrow policeprocedural without making a mess. Ever heard of Evan Hunter? Evenso, I think you've hit on the perfect word to describe HORNET'S NEST -- girlish.

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Summary: Quite a let down
Review: For fans of Kay Scarpetta this is not your kind of book. The book wanders around between uninteresting characters in a uninteresting storyline. She remembers in the last few pages that her genre is murder mystery and actually solves a crime. For most of the book we are taken deep within individual character's personal drama, a shallow, boilerplate look at best. As a fan of Cornwell it was a huge letdown

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Summary: An evolution of Cornwell that won't be appreciated by some..
Review: Ms. Cornwell's previous novels about Kay Scarpetta have been at times riviting, at other times more weakly drawn, but always welcome. This novel, set in North Carolina, is a diversion from Cornwell's series, which will undoubtedly cause dissension among her fans, just as any artist's evolution to new levels will cause unhappiness among admirers of previous work. Although this novel is unbelievably set in a Southern town in which the Chief of Police and two Deputy Chiefs are all women, their characters are fairly well developed and fleshed out to reveal both personal strengths and very human weaknesses. Cornwell deals well with the issues of middle age and femininity; with the acceptance of lost dreams which is part of middle age, and the excitment and fear of new hopes; with the sexual attraction between a middle aged woman and a young man who are both lonely and yet fear intimacy, and the understandable misunderstandings which such an attraction brings about; and with the sometimes terrible price paid by women for personal and politica power. Her young reporter, Brazil, is both, well, young! and also in some ways too wise for his years; it will be interesting to see if Cornwell reintroduces him in further books and develops his complex character. I hope she gives us more of Hammer, West and Brazil

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Summary: Cornwell's worst
Review: Until now I have been a big Cornwell fan. This book, which does not follow Cornwell's popular Kay Scarpetta, reads as though it is a first draft published merely to meet an untimely deadline. The plot is disjointed and ofent patently unbelievable. Besides the fact that she portrays all three of the top officers in the Charlotte police department as women, she has a 23 year old novice reporter writing stories for the front page of the Charlotte Observer and getting by-line credit. One of the most objectionable passages, though, is that the reporter keeps getting scooped by a local TV journalist. It is clear to any idiot that the TV journalist has illegally accessed the reporter's stories on the computer. The reporter hears at least one of the TV journalist's reports where he is scooped and does nothing about it. It is not until this has happened five times that the publisher finally advises the reporter to determine how his work product is escaping! This is just one of many examples of how the various strings in this plot are not adequately tied together. Both Cornwell and her editor should be ashamed of themselves. With some additional polishing and thought, this might have been a good book

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Summary: College English Project?
Review: Face it folks, this is not a current Patricia Cornwell novel. Read the first 10 pages again. This is not the same woman! Eliminating alien possession, the opinion here is that in an effort to now capitalize on her fame and growing fortune she has dusted off something she wrote in college (high school?) rewritten portions of it to update and foisted it on an unsuspecting public. You can tell in the first 10 pages where Cornwell Today went back and updated Cornwell of Yesterday. her description of Charlotte is obviously written now, yet wedged in among paragraphs she wrote years ago. What's next a short story from grade school

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Summary: A book version of a pilot for a TV series.
Review: There is little to add to the comments of those who have expressed their disappointment in Patricia Cornwell's latest novel. If anyone wanted Scarpetta, she wasn't around. If anyone wanted a single story, it wasn't there. If anyone wanted to plot, there wasn't even a cemetery. So, what was there? THAT is the mystery. The answer is that Ms. Cornwell who had just finished her adaptation of her last book for the movies, is captivated by movie or TV scripts. Note the hornet-marked paragraphs which could indicate scenes for a TV script. See how the people are just like all TV people-- caricatures with a heart whom you can't help but like. And note the presence of a schtick, as they call it in Hollywood, something repetitive "joke" to relieve the tension. This time it's a cat. Unfortunately, one must notice that plots are yet to be found to fit the characters. So here's my answer to the mystery. What's it all about, Andy? Why did she do it? My guess is that Ms. Cornwell started to write A TV SERIES, and came up with this one, catchily entitled, complete with visuals, full of double entendres, and loaded with meaning and doubts. The book, like a good TV drama series or evening soap is full of : Is she or isn't she? Will he or won't he? Do they or don't they? It's what addiction's all about. I can hear America saying: " Turn on Channel 4 honey, it's time for HORNET'S NEST, tales of the Richmond Blues, or Babes with Arms." So I now am waiting for the show ----- to be made in Toronto, and aired at 1 AM after Letterman and Snyder, Koppell and Maher. It will be an opportunity to lose sleep watching video instead of reading Cornwell. WIth all I have said, I can only presume that TV turned her down and rather than lose all that hard work, she made the treatment a novel. Just between us Cornwell addicts, I've read all of Scarpetta, too, enjoyed them and yet wondered when the author would be done with all those accurate and gory autopsy details. I've been there. Done that. Enough of the blood and scientific scalping. So I did look forward to a new setting. Ooops! Sorry! We all make mistakes, and learn from them. I wish Patricia Cornwell well with a new set of characters, and hope they will be as good as her original series. BAM BAM and Chou!

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Summary: Absolutely Abominable
Review: I bought the audio version of the book because I have a long commute to and from work and listening to books on tape "usually" make my rides more enjoyable. NOT THIS TIME! At first I thought maybe it was the reader (Chris Sarandon) and I apologize for all the terrible things I thought and said about his reading. Now I realize it was just the absolutely abominable text he had to work with. Since we now know that Ms. Cornwell is gay, I think the fact that she was trying to write about male/female relationships was the major problem. In the Kay Scarpetta books, it's the murder to solve, not the relationships that take center stage. In this book, it's husband and wife, male and female relatinships that she concentrates on and obviously she doesn't have a clue. Instead of providing me with relief from stress when driving this book raised my blood pressure to dangerous levels. A warning from the surgeon general should be attached to each copy

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Summary: A disapointing addition
Review: Patricia Cornwell's newest addition to the literary world is a striking disappointment when compared with the glory days of her Kay Scarpetta novels. Hornet's Nest is a mishmash of underdeveloped charaters and unfulfilling plot lines. The book follows many threads throughout its long 350 or so pages; Virginia West, a Deputy Chief in charge of investigations with the Charlotte police force could have been the highlight of this book but her character is never brought to light. We see her in snatches surrounded by other characters and places. She has a crazy cat and dates ocassionally and may have a crush on the reporter, Andy Brazil who has been assigned to ride along with her for reasons never fully defined. Andy, a wannabe (volunteer) cop and newly assigned police beat reporter has many demons - his alcoholic mother, the policeman father he lost to random violence when Andy was ten, obsence phone calls from an unknown woman, and the unwanted affection of a fellow male reporter. Andy and Virginia never quite come together as a couple even though the reader yearns for some sort of connection between any of the characters. Judy Hammer, Charlotte's Chief of police has a slovenly, unmotivated husband who withers before her eyes. There are many other characters floating throughout this book who never seem to touch the pages long enough for the reader to get any kind of grasp on them. Additionally, the storylines are presented in such a hodgepodge way that in the middle of focusing on one aspect of the story you are immediately thrown into another without the slightest hint of a transition. I am a huge fan of the Kay Scarpetta novels and was eagerly looking forward to Hornet's Nest but found that I had to force myself to read even a few pages at time. Refund, please!

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Summary: She can do so much better!
Review: Flat, plotless writing, unbelievable situations, and unreal characters. I have read and enjoyed every Kay Scarpetta novel. It is hard to belive Ms Cornwell really wrote this stinker. Every main character is either female, or a loser?? Andy Brazil, ace reporter, breaks down and cries because someone breaks into his story files?? What a weenie! Not that crazy about the cat, either. Roy Neal