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Kay Scarpetta #13

Trace

patricia cornwell

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Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing from South Florida, returns to the city that turned its back on her five years ago. Richmond, Virginia's recently appointed chief medical examiner claims that he needs Scarpetta's help to solve a perplexing crime. When she arrives, however, Scarpetta finds that nothing 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 Scarpetta dislikes instantly, meddles with the case.

Deprived of assistance from colleagues Benton and Lucy, who are embroiled in what 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 ...

401 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 2,2004
Series
Kay Scarpetta
Places
the united states of america, 

This edition

Format
401 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
June 28, 2005 by Berkley
ISBN
9780425204207
ASIN
0425204200
Language
English
Characters More characters

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for patricia cornwell

patricia cornwell

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Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, in 1990 while working as a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. Postmortem, was the first bona fide forensic thriller. It paved the way for an explosion of entertainment featuring in all things forensic across film, television and literature.

Postmortem would go on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventure prize – the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. To date, Cornwell's books have sold some 100 million copies in thirty-six languages in over 120 countries. She's authored twenty-nine New York Times bestsellers.

Patricia's novels center primarily on medical examiner Kay Scarpetta along with her tech-savvy niece Lucy and fellow investigator Pete Marino. Celebrating 25 years, these characters have grown into an international phenomenon, winning Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development.

Fox 2000 bought the rights to Kay Scarpetta. Working with producer Liz Friedman, Marvel's Jessica Jones and fellow Marvel EP and Twilight Saga scribe Melissa Rosenberg to develop the film and find Scarpetta a home on the big screen.

After earning her degree in English from Davidson College in 1979, she began working at the Charlotte Observer.

Cornwell received widespread attention and praise for her series of articles on prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte. From the Charlotte Observer, Cornwell moved to a job with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia – a post she would later bestow upon the fictional Kay Scarpetta.

When not writing from her Boston home, Patricia tirelessly researches cutting-edge forensic technologies to include in her work. Her interests span outside the literary: Patricia co-founded of the Conservation Scientist Chair at the Harvard University Art Museums. She appears as a forensic consultant on CNN and serves as a member of Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital's National Council, where she advocates for psychiatric research. She's helped fund the ICU at Cornell's Animal Hospital, the scientific study of a Confederate submarine, the archaeological excavation of Jamestown, and a variety of law enforcement charities. Patricia is also committed to
funding scholarships and literacy programs. Her advice to aspiring authors: “Start writing. And don't take no for an answer.”


Social and Digital Outlets

http://www.patriciacornwell.com

https://www.facebook.com/patricia.cor...

https://twitter.com/1pcornwell

https://instagram.com/1pcornwell/


Other areas of expertise & interests
Forensics | Forensic Technologies | Ballistics | Weapons | Explosives | Pathology & Autopsies | Crime | Historical and Unsolved Criminal Cases | Jack The Ripper | Helicopter Piloting | Suba Diving | Archaeological Excavation Experience |

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
33(33%)
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28(28%)
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
PurpleKn1ght
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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I enjoyed this, although I'm not sure if it's me, or if it's Kay Scarpetta, but these books just don't seem to be as gripping as they used to be.



I think I liked Kay a lot better as the CME than as a freelance person. And I don't like Lucy any more either. Maybe all that money went to her head, or something. But she was a lot more interesting a person when she was younger.
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escapaz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Although I'm a big fan of Cornwell's Scarpetta series I had great trouble getting into this book.

Scarpetta goes back to Richmond after 5 years to help solve the case of a young girl found dead in her bed. She is called by the new Medical Examiner who reveals himself to be a less than competent man with a few skeletons in his closet. At the same time Benton is in Aspen trying to help a member of Lucy's team who was attacked in Lucy's house, having had to cancel the vacation plans he had with Scarpetta.

I think my main problem with this book is one that I have been feeling in the last books I read in this series. What I enjoyed the most was Kay's observations about life and people, her private life details like cooking or choosing the right wine, it gave the books a sort of an intimist feeling that I enjoyed very much, unfortunately that is absent here.

Then I never quite understood about the new medical Examiner - Dr Joel Marcus - what's his agenda, what is he hiding? There's some build up regarding his character in the beginning but then nothing. And Lucy keeps getting into to trouble and trusting/loving the wrong people. I have some trouble believing someone as smart as her, that has already been burned once by a sociopath lover would fall for that again. And asking Benton to solve her problems for her. I'm a bit annoyed with the Benton character, he is supposedly in love with Kay but he has pretended to be dead for a number of years leaving her to mourn and now he cancels a vacation to spend his time trying to help someone less than worthy, it seems everyone is important except for Scarpetta.

And the mystery about who was behind those deaths was a bit lost in the middle of all this. I never did understand the murder's motivation and there were too many loose ends that seemed to be important and were never tied up at the end. A C.
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Humbby
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Trace is such a pretentious, and bad hardcover.

The novel insists on expounding unnecessary theories in painful details. It really goes to great lengths to describe medical methods and equipment in highly professional terms. Not that I am not grateful about it. But it truly comes across as excessive. In the process of it getting theoretical and academic, the book seems to forget that the biggest goal here is to provide a good story.

Between laboriously trying to look expert, and the interminable but empty words, Trace becomes such a pretentious b-word. Say, its 100 first pages that are not telling anything at all. I mean, 100 pages is by no means few. So, to me, it seems like the book is putting out as many chapters and pages as possible, not because they serve a good purpose but because that thickness would defly make the book sell at a high price. It’s such an offensive accusation I’ve just made there, but until there’s a better explanation, I am just too furious to deny my hunch.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
beantrbl
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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This was my first Cornwell novel-and quite possibly my last. These characters were impossible to like. It was hard and choppy switching between which character was narrating. There seemed to be a lot of tension between all the characters but most of it went unresolved.

The delivery was choppy and I felt like I was having to reread things multiple times before it made sense.

The plot was also choppy and weak. Cornwell spent way too much time and put way too much detail into unimportant things (like the “Eise picks”...WHO CARES?!) but breezed over concepts or plot parts that would have expanded the story. For example-what was the point in the Marino/Paulsson “sex game”?? Cornwell spent way too much time on something that had a tenuous (at best) link to the rest of the story. It felt like she was trying to push a sexual angle onto the story and it didn’t need it. The story as a whole didn’t flow. Or connect.

And the ending was one of the most anticlimactic endings I’ve ever read. Such a letdown. I pushed through this book hoping the end would make up for the beginning and middle. I should have known that the ending would be just as blah as the rest.
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21kkn
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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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.
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MrTazocin
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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What a hard slog this was. Uninteresting storylines and too much focus on Scarpetta's niece. Preferred when Scarpetta was still the Chief Medical Examiner.
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Lerrete
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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Dr Scarpetta is portrayed once again as a superb analyst of both the human body and the enivronment in which she and her subjects reside. Marino continues as her foil but brings about a more germane touch to the human side of life as opposed to just the scientific world of forensics (which are as ever full of intriguing detail). We have three parallel stories evolving in this book. Scarpetta and Marino investigate the death of a young girl. Scarpetta's niece Lucy is in a world that to me seems unrealistic and is more of a James Bond type scenario, rather than one of reality and then linking the the stories together is a character called Edgar Alan Pogue Yes, he is psychologically challenged but I could not believe in him at all. As the main threads are drawn together for the latter part of the book it all ends quite suddenly and more like a damp squib than an exciting tense conclusion.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
Boqk
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 25,2025
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The story follow the adventures of forensic pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta, sacked five year previously from her Chief Medical Officer position. Returning by invitation as a consultant pathologist following the mysterious death of a fifteen year old girl she and all the experts are stumped. There is no obvious cause other than that she was in bed with the flu.

This book sits as book number thirteen in the popular twenty-seven book series on Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner.

This was my first Patricia Cornwell novel so I have no other book by this author to compare it with. There were two different stories running in parallel. The first is the forensic puzzle Dr Scarpetta is trying to solve and the second involves Dr Scarpetta's niece living in a completely separate city. They are woven together such that I kept wondering how they related to each other. This was eventually revealed when the vital missing pieces of the puzzle were uncovered.

I look forward to reading more of American author Patricia Cornwell's work.
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