Trace - Kay Scarpetta, Bk 13 Author:Patricia Cornwell Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing from south Florida, returns to the city that turned its back on her five years ago. — Scarpetta travels to Richmond, Virginia, at the odd behest of the recently appointed Chief Medical Examiner, who claims that he needs her help to solve a perplexing crime. When she arrives, however, Scarpetta finds that nothing... more » is as she expected: her former lab is in the final stages of demolition; the inept chief isn't the one who requested her after all; her old assistant chief has developed personal problems that he won't reveal; and a glamorous FBI agent, whom Marino dislikes instantly, meddles with the case.
Deprived of assistance from colleagues Benton and Lucy, who are embroiled in what first appears to be an unrelated attempted rape by a stalker, Scarpetta is faced with investigating the death of a fourteen-year-old girl, working with the smallest pieces of evidence -- traces that only the most thorough hunters can identify. She must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak -- and to reveal the sad truth that may be more than even she can bear.« less
To be honest, I was disappointed. This book did not compare to other Scarpetta series books. It seemed to be all background with no climax. There was never any sense of suspense or danger. Pretty boring for a Cornwell novel.
Kay Scarpetta series. After a houseguest of Scarpetta's neice is attacked, the hunt is on to determine not only who the assailant is, buy why he has targeted Lucy, and whether the strange death of a young girl in Virginia is connected to the case.
All of the Patricia Cornwell books are great. This one has action, adventure, & murder.
Kay Scarpetta is a great character. Any of you that like Forensic Files will love these books.
LARGE PRINT!
Now freelancing from south Florida, Dr. Kay Scarpetta returns to Richmond, Virginia, the city that turned its back on her five years ago. Investigating the death of a young girl, she must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak-and to reveal the sad truth that may be more than even she can bear.
An intriguing cast of characters, with Dr.Kay Scarpetta at the forefront. I really had a hard time putting this one down. A good book for people who enjoy forensic/crime novels.
This was one of the best Kay Scarpetta books I felt. I thought the author went into Kay's charachter in a lot more detail than in her previous books. I also liked the way Moreno was portrayed as i had also listened to a later book in which they kept on referring to him but I felt I had a better sense of him in this book(warts and all)
Back in the day, I used to read all of Patricia Cornwell's books until she started to get off track of the actual murder mystery and more into the romance, etc., and then I stopped reading her. After many years, I thought I'd try her again to see if she's gotten any better. Sad to say, I think she's gotten worse, if that's possible. For instance, there is a scene where she's back in Virginia, in the morgue where there are bodies being autopsied. One is a very old man and another is an obese woman. Cornell goes on and on using derogatory and disrespectful terms to describe the obese woman, even during times when it's obviously NOT necessary; yet she doesn't give the same negative or insulting comments about the old man, whereas she certainly could have...very easily. Cornwell's prejudice against large/overweight people really screams out in this book. Whereas I'm an average-sized person, I know and love a variety-of-sized and aged people, so this really ticks me off.
Alas, I finished listening to this book on CD, which, even though it is NOT abridged, had plenty of...skipped...areas that didn't make sense or follow the logical path. I found myself backing up on the CD and listening to certain parts again, asking myself, "What did I miss?" and yet it was never there. It leaves the reader wondering how in the world did we jump from one scene to the next.
What COULD have been a good story and thriller turned into plain old crap with Cornwell's biases and bad writing, not to mention the poor editing job. I will never try Patricia Cornwell again, which is too bad, as years and years ago when she first started out, she was quite good. Perhaps the fame and fortune attacked her ego? Oh well, there are so many other, better authors out there to explore!
Dian D. (diandp) reviewed Trace (Kay Scarpetta, Bk 13) on
Had stopped reading Cornwell books for a while ... thought they were becoming stale. However, this one is classic Cornwell! All the characters were back and involved. Loved Marino's part in it.
