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Scarpetta | 
| Author: Patricia Cornwell
Publisher: Little, Brown
Category: Book
List Price: £18.99
Buy New: £9.49
You Save: £9.50 (50%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 33
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.9
ISBN: 0316733148
EAN: 9780316733144
ASIN: 0316733148
Publication Date: November 27, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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| Customer Reviews:
 Patricia Cornwell - Scarpetta December 4, 2008
Blimey! After two or three novels of near-incomprehensible chittering, I'd nearly given up. But here - at last - is a glimmer of hope for Cornwell fans. It isn't the clarion call that PC is back to form (not near - even though i give it 3 stars one of those is generous, an extra bonus because I wasn't even expecting to be prepared to give this one) but it's a good enough start. At least, Cornwell seems to have a handle on her characters again, seems to be getting to grips with them once more. After years of turmoil, and not seeming to know what to do with them, every single one of them became a cipher entirely without resemblance to their earlier selves. But here she's settling them down a bit, given them a bit of permanence, that bodes well: Scarpetta and Benton are maried; Lucy seems content and embarks upon what seems a new and hopefully healthy and vaguely permanent relationship; Marino is drying out and finds himself in a similar situation to Lucy, and Berger pops up again, a character from the last half-way good Scarpetta novel, The Last Precinct.
The plot, at LAST, is coherent and followable. The sentences, at LAST, make sense and don't drown in their own vagueness. The main characters' motivations at LAST ring mostly true. At LAST Cornwell has stopped altering the characters circumstances in each book (from Louisianna to New York to Florida to Charleston) as if she's desperately trying to find somewhere they fit in. The changes in this one seem (and, I hope, are) more permanent.
That's not to say it's a great book, or even a good one. Those who found the werewolf killer too much to swallow will certainly raise an eye at the "midget murderer", and those who long grew tired of the constant picture of Scarpetta as persecuted and obsessed-over won't appreciate things here a lot more. That all still stands. However, there's something here that made me very glad: the whole thing actually makes sense for once. You can read a sentence and know what it meant. You can follow the plot. You can understand why a character acts as they do. Which is definitely a step in the right direction. Even some flights of what seem typical Cornwellesque-looniness (Marilyn Monroe, the dwarf being stalked) turn out to be pleasingly rational and actually have a point in the plotting.
I'm not going to get too hopeful: there's still a way to go (the only way back, I'm still certain, is for Cornwell to start first-person narration again), but Scarpetta at least is significantly better than the past few incoherent, impenetrable outings for the famous doctor.
Bottom line: Not great, but noticeably better.
 YES! This is more like it! December 1, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
"Scarpetta" is the return to form we have all been waiting for! I started the book yesterday, and I'm now halfway through, but I wanted to share my first impressions. I think this is Ms. Cornwell's best Scarpetta novel since "The Last Precinct". Her writing seems tight and focused again; from the outset, the characters and the reader plunge into the investigation, and there's none of those awful (in my opinion) 'inside the killer's mind in real-time' sequences that ruined books like "Predator" for me. Here, the reader discovers things with the characters. I'll post again when I've finished the book, but the first-half is very promising. Thank you, Ms. Cornwell!!
Comments by Michael Calum Jacques author of '1st Century Radical'. November 27, 2008
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
For those readers as yet uninitiated with Patricia Cornwell's writings, it is probably worth pointing out that Kay Scarpetta is the author's main protagonist in her series of crime novels, of which this is the latest, the 16th, in fact, as far as this reviewer is aware. Cornwell's 'Scarpetta' series of novels are noteworthy for her employment of 'up to the minute' forensic technology. The novels constitutes also, to some extent, a genuine, progressive series being interlinked with 'peripheral' characters (and not so peripheral ones, such as Pete Marino, Lucy Farinelli, and Benton Wesley et al) occasionally reappearing or being revisited.
Briefly, the fictional Dr. Kay Scarpetta was born in Miami, Florida and is of Italian parentage; she witnessed the death of her father from leukemia, and this has haunted her ever since and, as a pathologist, this spectre is imported into her professional life. This is a key element in Cornwell's Scarpetta novels and a key to understanding what appears to be a predominance of forensic and 'scene of crime' detail.
It is impossible to predict accurately whether or not the new reader, unacquainted with Cornwell's works, will be smitten by her hallmark features and style. Much emphasis rests upon forensic and pathological matters - with which the authoress is thoroughly at home in a professional manner. The books indulge in detail of the particular crime scene, victim etc. and Cornwell's characterization is usually detailed and often quite intricate. The reader is rarely, if indeed ever, allowed to stray far from the proximity and vulnerability of human mortality. Readers and fans, already familiar with Cornwell's works, will certainly be delighted with this one!
In this plot, as the eponymous title suggests, it is Scarpetta herself who becomes the focus of a killer's - and of a stalker's - unwelcome and unworthy attentions. She has left her forensic pathology practice in South Carolina, and accepted an assignment in New York City. Therein she is asked to assess an injured house patient - the forcibly restrained and cuffed Oscar Bane - in a psychiatric clinic. Bane has specifically requested to be treated by Scarpetta. Suffice it to say, without giving anything away, that the good Dr Scarpetta gets slightly more than she'd bargained for!
This was a riveting read with many interesting social and psychological themes thrown in for good measure. This reviewer is happy to commend this book to all who are not overtly phased by the peculiarities of the darker, human psyche.
Michael Calum Jacques (author of '1st Century Radical: the shadowy origins of the man who became known as Jesus Christ')
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