Book of the Dead (Kay Scarpetta, No 15)
by Patricia Cornwell
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Book Reviews of Book of the Dead (Kay Scarpetta, No 15)
Book Review: The more I read about Kay Scarpetta...
Summary: 3 Stars
The more it seems as if the author has some hidden agenda in writing her stories. Granted, I'm still entertained by them, and have been reading them since I was 17 or so. However, certain things as time has gone by have struck me. One: Nobody can ever do as good of a job as Scarpetta, and even those she has trained lose their abilities and skills when her presence is no longer around. This is carried past the point of absurdity. Two: Other characters are always obsessed with Scarpetta- women, men, it does not matter. They want to kill her, be her, be better than her, and stop at nothing in this single-minded obsession. My question is, why??? I can only think that Ms. Cornwell has some deep-seated narcissism wherein she'd like to be Scarpetta, or has created this alter ego to fulfill these desires of being on top of everbody else, all of the time. Perhaps she's trying to get back at somebody through her books- just a feeling.
Third: I do not see any growth in the characters- they may find themselves in different situations or in new relationships, but their fundamental personalities and ways of reacting never change. I used to like Lucy, but now she's just an angry, unhappy woman. Marino has gone downhill, and it seems it's because he can never have Scarpetta (again, back to everyone being obsessed with her).
This book in particular has shown me how far the books have both progressed and not progressed over the years. It was hard to take the book seriously, although I did enjoy it in parts. Ms. Cornwell has a fine writing style but she's using her stories as a vehicle for something else.
Book Review: This is the work of an awarding-winning author?
Summary: 1 Stars
I too have never submitted a review but after discovering how bad it is I felt I just had to add my impression of this piece of work.
I agree with many of the complaints express on this site by other readers. I find it very choppy to the point of being frustrating with a rambling, poorly defined storyline. Cornwell just drops readers into conversations and situations with no set up at all. It is actually disorienting ...like when you walk in the middle of a conversation or event in real life. She also has many characters with few being very well developed and seemed to be short on coming up with creatively differing names. I found several characters were given very similar names that contributed to confusion.
What amazed me most are the sentence fragments. When I learned grammar I believe that one of the rules was: sentences had to contain a subject and a verb. I don't know, have they changed that rule? Is it a `creative writing' thing?
I also find this book boring and long on conversations that really don't seem to go anywhere but to express over and over again the character's (and perhaps the author's too) political views of which I could not care less.
The bio in the back of the book lists a number of awards the author has won, pointing out some very distinguished British awards never won by any other American author. If this is what they consider work worthy of such awards, then I question the awards.
Book Review: Super heroes and serial killers
Summary: 3 Stars
The beautiful city of Charleston ought to be a great place to set up a new practice, but for Kay, nothing seems to be working out the way she'd hoped and planned. She's received plenty of referrals, but family and staff have never been in such disarray. As Kay develops her phenomenal forensic skills, emotionally she's frozen solid. But at least she's functioning as brilliantly as ever, professionally. It's a different story for her friends and relations. Marino, the ever faithful, chafes under her authority, and has evolved into a version of the Incredible Hulk. Talented, techno-wiz niece Lucy now behaves as a version of Wonder Woman. The love of Kay's life, Wesley Benton, is as distant, physically and emotionally, as ever, in spite of the heirloom engagement ring he's just presented to Kay. And her beloved personal assistant, Rose, seems ominously ill.
These personal disasters are given equal prominence with the horrific serial murder case that Kay and company are attacking, a complex, multi-tentacled situation that involves celebrities, the military, and long-buried family secrets. In Book/Dead, Cornwell made the choice to emphasize character over plot, and while her characters are indeed vivid, the plot suffers from fragmentation and reliance upon a set of implausible linkages. Still, the murders are compelling, and this is a story worth finishing. Loose ends left dangling in the final chapter will no doubt be picked up in the next Scarpetta entry.
Book Review: More About Character Than Murder Mystery
Summary: 3 Stars
As my first real foray into the crime genre as a reader this book was strangely less about having a mystery to solve and more about the fragility of the main characters as they struggled to deal with whatever baggage they'd accumulated (presumably) from the previous Scarpetta novels. While the writing is good quality and the characters are developed well enough there's nothing particularly hopeful or even likeable about them overall, despite some hints of interesting tensions in how they relate at times.
But I thought a crime novel was primarily occupied with solving a murder, or if not, a close second. And it's a wonder the main protagonists solve it apart from a good dose of being in the right place at the right time. You feel that Scarpetta's enemies have the upper hand most of the way, to the point that regardless of the ending you won't really think better of these people - the solving of the murder is secondary to their chaotic lives, a pyrrhic victory at best.
I enjoyed the writing style most, and I believe that saved the book from being merely adequate - it was a sufficiently enjoyable read but I wouldn't call this any more than an average novel.
Book Review: Characters are simply not believable.
Summary: 1 Stars
I've read every Scarpetta book in order and I have grown increasingly annoyed with Scarpetta's characters. I expect an author with a series like this one to develop and layer their characters. Instead, we have a fantasy world where the latest technology, fast cars and personal heliocopters are the norm. Scarpetta is perfect. I can't see any flaws in her. She is gorgeous, cooks perfectly, gardens perfectly, is all-knowing. I much preferred Scarpetta when she was dealing with budget cuts and worried about her family. Lucy is insufferable. Marino is a caricature. She also introduces an African-American character who is literally a stereotype. I was seriously expecting him to refer to her as "master." I don't know...I was really frustrated.
As for the plot...it started promising enough. The murder of a wunderkind tennis champ and a psychopath on the streets of Italy. Okay, sounds good. However, I just can't get over how every man is dying to with lust for Scarpetta and travel is just a heliocopter away. Cornwell would do well to return to her roots. By the negative reviews here, it is clear that her audience is not connecting to her characters any longer.