Historia impecable, pero personajes previsibles, muy estereotipados. Buena relación suspense-thriller con un toque de terror sutil.

What a disappointment! I've read and loved all the Scarpetta books but this one was terrible. The story is told very erratically. At times I'm confused about who and what Cornwell is referring to. She has too many hers and his. I feel like I jump from one scene to another without knowing how I got there. She uses unfamiliar vocabulary and abbreviations, discusses procedures in unnecessary detail, and gives minute descriptions that are not pertinent to the story.

Her characters are so dysfunctional as to be unbelievable. People I used to like refuse to talk to each other and now find their lives a total mess. Even more aggravating is that the plot was interesting but did not live up to its promise. I already own the next book in the series so will probably give her one more chance. I hope it is better.

Not as good as her earlier work.

Absolutely love this series, Kay Scarpetta, Benton, and Marino keep me reading. I love their dynamic and, as I've said before, even though these are set decades ago I am still finding them fascinating. Yes, liberties are taken, the above-mentioned never seem to get older, Kay Scarpetta is a one-woman crime-solving machine, but they are incredibly addictive.

I have read every book in Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series. For the past four or five books, I've been wondering why I keep coming back - they're getting worse. This book is the worst of the lot by a large margin. I found it to be rambling and oftentimes incomprehensible. The conclusion felt rushed - like Cornwell spent so much time trying to add unnecessary detail to the story that she had to wrap everything up quickly and in an unsatisfying fashion.

That said, I'm apparently incapable of learning from my own mistakes because I plan to read the next (and most recent) novel in the series, "Scarpetta". I've heard that the "old Cornwell" is back with the latest novel, so I can only hope for something better than "Book of the Dead". Cornwell certainly set the bar pretty low with this novel, so it's hard to imagine that she can't improve.

Besides, there is one major cliffhanger at the end of "Book of the Dead", and I'm a sucker for a good cliffhanger...

I've not been too happy with Cornwell's last few books and was glad to see a return to Scarpetta and friends. As usual a rushed ending, but overall a good read. Looking forward to the next one...again!

Heel erg omschrijvend, veel woorden weinig verhaal. Rare plottwist.

Qué horror, no tengo palabras...

Ugh. What is WRONG with Patricia Cornwell? This book stinks. And in the spirit of throwing myself on a grenade (reading it so you don't have to) I will review this one.

First of all, Cornwell continues her de-evolution of her characters that started somewhere about "The Body Farm." She totally jumps the shark when she resurrected Benton several books back and “The Book of the Dead” continues her new tradition of incomprehensible plot, incomprehensible character motivation, dialogue that lies flat as road kill, and a world populated exclusively by misogynists, racists, bigots, psychopaths, sociopaths, homicidal maniacs, thugs, morons, and, in general, all-around misanthropes. I read this (and, sadly, I DID read the whole thing) and I kept saying to myself: What? Who? What??? This makes NO SENSE! Even the title is a throw-away. Book of the Dead? Huh? What?

SPOILERS (if you care) -- Scarpetta is as pedantic and self-righteous as usual, Rose is dying of cancer AND having an affair with Scarpetta's competition (??), Benton is jealous of some idiotic Italian cop for NO APPARENT REASON, Dr. Self is back, and is manic-depressive (I know, big surprise), and is foul as ever. But the worst is Marino. Poor guy. Patricia hates him, apparently. He used to be just slovenly but a good investigator, and loyal, and a "good guy." Now he's a motorcycling nutjob -- whacked out on steroids and has a seriously psychopathic nutjob girlfriend who constantly whispers poison in his ear. He's also turned into a complete moron. He talks about the "Hinelick" maneuver, and the "Dewey Decibel" system. When was Marino ever dumb? Now he has the IQ of lettuce. Oh, and the worst? While drunk one night, he attempts to rape Scarpetta. What? WHAT??? Argh!

So here's my theory and I have two possible scenarios, each of which are equally likely, I think. 1) Patricia has gone insane. Or perhaps is simply off her meds (Wikipedia says she is bi-polar, which explains a bit.) Or 2) Paticia is dead and her books are being written by committee by her publisher who recognizes a cash cow when he sees one. Either way, I am done with her and her incomprehensible books. If you haven’t read any of Cornwell’s novels, start with the first one, and STOP at about the fourth or fifth. Blah.

This one failed to interest me from the start. The plot's boring, the pace to slow, the characters all bland and undeveloped. Shocking since Patricia Cornwell is quite an established author. I expected much more than this.

My mom passed this book on to me. I kept reading it, despite the embarrassingly bad dialogue, ridiculously inept portrayal of various psychological disorders, gratuitous violence and convoluted plot. Kind of like when you order a lousy meal at a restaurant and continue to pick at it, as if it's somehow going to get better. I can only blame my idle curiosity for wondering how it would turn out. Shockingly, the ending revelations were preposterous. I don't blame Ms. Cornwell so much as I blame myself for refusing to stop the madness.

Finished this a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't until I heard the name 'Dr. Marilyn Self' that I remembered I had read this before, because I remembered how much I hated her. She is truly one of the worst (carelessly evil) characters I have ever read in fiction, in terms of the casual way she destroys fragile people.

As for the rest of the regular characters, a lot of things that have been brewing throughout the series finally blow up and it isn't pretty. Along with catching the serial killer that's loose in this one. I always enjoy Scarpetta stories, and this one was still good, though it ended up being an unintentional re-read