Shifting gears, Patricia Cornwell pens a novella that introduces readers to a new character with many unique features. Winston Garano works for the Massachusetts State Police, assigned to liaise closely with one of the most power-hungry women who possesses the title of District Attorney. With her eyes on the Governor's Mansion, she will stop at nothing to get a leg up, literally. While Garano is studying at the National Forensics Academy, he is summoned back from Knoxville to attend to some pressing business. The DA has decided she wants to toss her hat into the ring for the upcoming gubernatorial race and needs an edge. She's created a new program she calls At Risk, utilising the up-and-coming technology of DNA analysis and seeks to apply it to an old case that might earn her praise and recognition. Funny enough, this case is a murder down in Tennessee, which will allow Garano to continue his studies while bolstering the DA's image. Dismissing it, Garano mumbles to himself and prepares to head back south when a violent crime hits close to home and he receives a mysterious phone call about this new case, both of which propel him into action. Working alongside a fellow classmate and current Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent, Garano slowly commences piecing it all together. However, the crime in Massachusetts stinks to high heaven as well, forcing him to spend some time looking into this. What was an attempt to help smaller police forces may be a political battle for Massachusetts Governor and Garano cannot be in the middle of it. Cornwell does well in showing off her new crime minion in this shorter story, pulling readers into the fray with the greatest of ease.

It is said you write what you know, which is how Cornwell created and mastered such a wonderful character in Kay Scarpetta. With Winston Garano, things flow nicely and his backstory is one that is surely intriguing, but even with a hook such as his mixed African America/Italian heritage, he does not hold a candle to the great Scarpetta. I felt as though the story sought to skim the water, a filler, perhaps, between writing assignments, as it does not have the pizzazz for which Cornwell is known. I admit to using this novel to fill a small period of time before I launch myself into a larger project. The development of characters is decent enough and the story flows smoothly, though it seems to drift along in spots, as though there is nothing to hold it together and no impetus to draw the story out into areas not foreseen. I did not feel connected or pulled in to see more about Garano as I might have with other characters. That said, it is not a horrid piece of writing by any stretch of the imagination. I'll finish things off with the follow-up novella and be able to offer something more cogent at that time.

Kudos, Madam Cornwell for attempting to branch out, though perhaps this is more a means of idling as your next Scarpetta masterpiece came to you.

Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

1.5 stars.

Take the author's name off the cover and I would have never guessed this was written by the same woman who wrote the Scarpetta series. It has an amateur-ish feel to it - badly written, badly drawn characters and plot holes bigger than last year's worn out underwear. For instance, why would Lamont announce the first case for the "At Risk" (stupid name for a taskforce) when she hasn't even read the case file? She acts like the case has already been solved (DNA evidence isn't a substitute for police work - they still have a case to prove). And why does she think anyone would care about a 30 year old cold case from a different state? Lamont comes off dumber than a bag of hammers. And this is what I was thinking in the first couple of pages. It doesn't really get any better.

I gave it 1 star for actually finishing this novella (stretched out in my copy by large margins to a bloated 300 pages) and a 0.5 star because it makes me want to go back to Cornwell's earliest novels to find out why I thought she was a good writer in the first place.

Good

I was in the mood for a light bon bon of a book to help me through a miserable cough/cold/allergy/ whatever and this did the trick. Entertaining characters, Machiavellian plot, a smattering of forensics—all good.

The more I read her books, the less I like them. The plots are becoming way too far out. This book is less interesting, than her Scarpetta series.

I am a huge fan of Cornwall's Scarpetta series and this is no different.

Win is such a loveable character, especially since he saves a DOG. If that doesn't say it all I don't know what does. I found Monique to be an interesting character, and am curious to read The Front to see how her story is resolved. Huber and Toby were the perfect criminal master minds- pretty typical that I thought they were really cool but there you go

First read: 2007
Initial rating: 2/5
Initial thoughts: boo this isn't a Kay Scarpetta novel :(

I have always felt I didn't give this series a fair chance, and now eight years after I first read it I remember exactly nothing about the plot, so I'm going to re-read with the full awareness that this is a different series and it should be judged on what it is rather than what it isn't!

Re-read: May 2015
New rating: 4/5

Thoughts: This was an unusual crime novel in that the crime was almost a side plot to the action going on in the main characters personal lives. I enjoyed it a lot for the most part.

Things I didn't like; the use of present tense throughout, and the weak female characters - there was Sykes who put her own career in jeopardy to help out Win with the cold case murder just because she has a crush on him, and Monique who was horrible to Win despite everything he did for her (she did become slightly more sympathetic towards the end but it was too little too late for me).

Things I liked; fast moving plot, the main character Win was likeable and I loved his interactions with his Nana, who is a psychic. Any scenes with Miss Dog in them :)

[I just discovered that a made-for-TV movie of At Risk was released in 2010 - it only has a 4.3 rating on IMDb but it might be interesting to see how this very short novel translated to a film.]

I LOVED Post Mortem and ended up buying a copy of this book at a garage sale when I recognized the author's name.

Name or not, this book seems like it was written by an entirely different author. I've never liked present tense as it usually comes off as rushed and informal. I wasn't a fan of the third-person omniscient POV, especially in a murder mystery, and this book was even more jerky and annoying by jumping into the heads of random non-characters like the governor and his limo driver. I thought I was stupidly misunderstanding the plot, but when I came to the reviews I realized it definitely wasn't just me. This honestly felt like a Patterson and I am NOT a fan of Patterson.

Also, literally all of the female characters in the book are cougars falling over themselves to chase after stupid sexy Winston Garano. A friend with cripplingly low self-esteem ruins her career and schooling to follow him around like a puppy and take his orders, all while hopelessly in unrequited love with him. Scarpetta was the epitome of lady badass in Post Mortem, so this was hard to read. Bleh.

I would say that 30% of this book deals with what Winston Garano is wearing or how handsome he is. I mean, sure there is a cold case to solve... minor political intrigue... possibly unrequited love... and even current crimes (like the rape of a main character - quickly turned into a non-issue) that one might think would take precedence in the reading. One would be wrong. How handsome that man is... How mysterious his past... how much he knows both.
The initial crime itself is "solved" almost as an after-thought. The only reasons I will read the next book in the series are that I own it already and I am hoping that there was more to the storyline that may appear in it.

I don't understand what the point of this book was. I really didn't like the style of writing. It felt like the outline of a TV show or movie with sentences half constructed. It couldn't seem to make up it's mind which story it was telling, which was a shame because it held promise. But in the end the cold case wasn't much of a case (especially as the man supposed to be investigating it palmed it off onto a colleague). The DA was awful - in fact most of the characters were awful, apart from Win's Nana.

Bit of a waste of time really.

Patricia Cornwell normally writes serial killer stories with heavy reliance on forensics. Here she has tried to write something like a political thriller with a murder mystery to go along. Both were weak, to say the least. Nothing great to write about. Just +1 to my have-read list :)

This is the first Vincent Garano novel, which is a welcome change from the usual Kay Scarpetta! I have gotten tired of those and hoped for another character to be more interesting. Not so much.

Winston is a Massachusetts state investigator who was mysteriously sent to Tennessee to take a CSI training course, although Massachusetts has a lot of CSIs. Then, just as mysteriously, he is called home by his boss, District Attorney Monique Lamont. She wants him to investigate a 20-year old murder - in Tennessee! It seems it will help her run for governor somehow. The how is not ever really made clear. A lot of peripheral characters are involved, none of them very interesting, except maybe the older woman Winston has met and spent time with at the training course.

I was glad we were listening to this as we made a short trip, because had I been reading it, I probably would not have finished.