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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This one was good to listen to, but not quiet as interesting as the others. Especially after the big drama from the previous three books. In this one we are following two different scenarios that are happening at the same time. One in FL with Lucy and Benton, and one in Richmond with Kay and Marino. Little do they know that their investigations are tied to each other. I don't like that Lucy is still getting herself into trouble. You would think she would be making better decisions by now with all the drama she has been through. She is still a badass though and I love reading about her. IN this one Kay has come back to Richmond to help on a case after losing her job as the chief medical examiner there. Her and Marino partner up to solve a case about a little girl who died. Originally thought to have died from the flu. Lots of drama and bad decisions in this one. I didn't like the plot in this one as much as others but it was still interesting to listen to. I do like it when you get POVs from other characters including sometimes the killer. That way you know what they are thinking and doing and wonder when your main characters will catch up to them. I will be continuing with the series.

She does it again with another book that you just can’t put down.

Great book! I can’t get enough of!!!

Trace by Patricia Cornwell is a Scarpetta Novel. Patricia Cornwell writes this story in three settings like: South Florida; Richmond, Virginia; and also in Aspen. The story mostly takes place in Richmond, Virginia, in modern time. It’s written in third-person omniscient, but the story mainly revolves around Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Everyone calls her Scarpetta. The story starts when Scarpetta returns to Richmond after five years to help on a case.

I like this book because it is about solving cases and getting down to the truth. Scarpetta is the meaning to getting down to the bottom of things. She is smart and always right most of the time, and that is way everyone respects Scarpetta instead of their new boss.

After Scarpetta left Richmond five years later when she returns, Chief Medical Examiner, new boss, takes over her old job. His name is Dr. Joel Marcus. Dr. Marcus is the one who called Scarpetta to come back to Richmond to work on the case of fourteen-year-old girl who died of no cause and no evidence why she died. Dr. Marcus blames Scarpetta for everything that goes wrong in his life.

Scarpetta and her friend, Marino, are the ones who are trying to figure out why Dr. Marcus wants Scarpetta to come back to Richmond if he doesn’t know her. Also why how does a fourteen-year-old girl die if she doesn’t even have a reason or evidence of why she died. . Marino has a very different presents when he walks in the building. “’That’s enough, please,’ Dr. Marcus snaps. ‘This is not a beer hall.’” Dr. Marcus says to Marino when they first meet. In search for answers, they come across some weird and mysterious people. They come across the FBI agent, Karen Weber, who is beautiful but starts in the case and misses everything up.

Scarpetta also gets clues from her on the edge boyfriend, Benton. Benton is also working on a case and is in Aspen, but doesn’t tell Scarpetta anything about it. They have boundaries and respect one another’s boundary. Benton’s case is about a girl who works for Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy, who gets raped at Lucy’s house. Lucy thinks everything is as bad as it seems. “’Just some punk interested in you car, and you have to turn it into an international incident.’ Says Rudy.”

The theme of the story is everything has a solution; even though, it may not be there in plain sight. Benton starts to notice that the case he is working on is some how connected to Scarpetta’s case. The only thing is that the cases are nothing alike.

As Scarpetta drifts more in the case, she begins to realize that the fourteen-year-old girl was killed. The person who killed her has killed before. The killer also used to work with Scarpetta.

The killer is very hard to find. Killer’s prints aren’t in the computer, and the killer doesn’t seem to care to leave evidence. The problem is the evidence is hard to find, but killer wants people to know that there is a killer. The evidence is spread between three different cases. The killer is mostly concern with Scarpetta and Lucy.

Trace is a really good book to read. It’s not that easy or advance to read, but is hard to understand but the characters seem to cover the confusing parts in the end. The only way to find out who killed the fourteen-year-old girl and who is stalking Lucy life is to read this wonderful book.