Brian G. (Brianron) reviewed on 3/8/2006 + 12 more book reviews

Unfortunately, Cornwell has abandoned the fascinating world of forensic pathology and has chosen to focus on Lucy's personal life, Kay's personal life and self-important beliefs in her own omnipotence and how whoever runs the ME's office has run it into the ground. This book is a hodge-podge of ridiculous story lines surrounding their personal lives. Between Lucy's self-destructiveness and Kay and Benton's strange, masochistic, long-distance relationship where each is revealing some sort of martyr and self-pity streak, what was to be (or should have been) the main story line of the person bent on hurting the ME's office and harming Lucy was pushed aside.

Starting with the second book that Cornwell wrote concerning the French wolfman, she has subverted the pathological issues (which is what I liked about the earlier books) to issues regarding Lucy's and Kay's personal lives. It seems (and now I am being an amateur psychologist) that Cornwell cannot come to terms with the fact that Lucy is a lesbian. Instead of just treating her as a fact or trait in Lucy's life, she has chosen to focus on it interminably, like Cornwell has trouble accepting it or trouble dealing with it.

Overall, this book disappointed me. But, in its defense, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the next one, Predator, which takes all of what I see as shortcomings of Trace and just escalates them. There, she merely adds Marino to the mix. It's sad. I just keep reading each one hoping and praying that she will bring back what was so good about the earlier Scarpetta books.

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