es hat sich ganz schön gezogen. Die Story war nicht sonderlich spannend. Eindeutig nicht mein Lieblingsbuch der Reihe

Second time through this series. I love the suspense and the way Cornwell weaves the storyline. Some of the technical jargon is overly explained for my taste, but I can see how it could be needed for others. I continue to recommend this series to those who enjoy crime dramas.

Just finished, but not ready to rate or review b/c it left me frustrated in so many ways.

Patricia Cornwell is on fire! Well, not really, but some of the victims in her ninth Kay Scarpetta thriller "Point of Origin" are on fire, and---based on Cornwell's gift for clinically graphic descriptions of murder, torture, and mutilation of human bodies---fire seems like the worst possible way to die.

The book literally starts with a bang, as Chief Medical Officer Kay Scarpetta is called to examine the aftermath of a housefire of one of the wealthiest men in America. The house and the neighboring horse stables---along with dozens of prize horses---were wiped out in seconds by a powerful conflagration, source unknown. All evidence points to arson, though. The charred body of a young woman is found on the property, making it murder, too.

When another intense housefire happens shortly afterwards, Scarpetta and the FBI are now on the manhunt for a serial killer, one who happens to be a pyromaniac.

On top of that, Lucy's former lover (and the late serial killer Temple Gault's protege), Carrie, has escaped from prison, with clear designs of revenge against Scarpetta and her niece.

Another exciting, and fiery, thriller from Cornwell.

Boring...No, wait. I stand corrected. It's not boring. It's B-O-R-I-N-G!!!! Did she really have to copy-and-paste from the manual on how to operate a helicopter?!?! And I don't even want to mention "the big finale". That's simply laughable. This was my first of Scarpetta series, and let me tell you, it will be THE LAST ONE.

Thank heavens, I finally finished the damn thing. I never thought I would!

It's hard to tell what put me off most.

Was it the way Dr Scarpetta was unnaturally fascinated by her niece's body?

Or maybe it was the sudden and illogical death of Benton? Granted, I didn't read the first 8 books (had I know there were 8 previous books, I would have never read this one) so maybe there were reasons mentioned in other books that justified the sudden killing of Benton. But to me, a newby in Dr Scarpetta's world, I was totally taken by surprise. It felt like Cornwell was stuck with her story and the only way out was to kill off one of the characters.

But do you know what irked me the most? The irregular pacing of the book. The actual crime is committed pretty much at the beginning of the story. A 100 pages in and they're slowly though surely carrying on with their investigation of the fire. I was about halfway through and they were STILL investigating the bloody fire. And suddenly, around page 300 or so... Tadaaa! It suddenly all made sense to Dr Scarpetta, there's a quick Carrie take, and finished the book is.
Not sure I explained it well, but eh... To me the whole book felt bumpy and rushed and, like I said, very irregularly paced.

So why did I pick up the damn thing in the first place? Because of the title. Every time I visited the English section of my local library, I kept coming across this book. And every time the title seemed to leap out at me. I (mistakenly) thought "Point of Origin" sounded rather mysterious. Mysterious my a...

I don't think I will be picking up any Patricia Cornwell books any time soon.

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 can't even with what happens in this book...I refuse to believe it, and I am sure I will see this person again and with good reason.

Just arrived from Germany through Bookmooch.

One you've read one book by Patricia Cornwell, you won't find anything different or so original in the following books.

Number Nine in the Series. Ok, you've read a series of mystery books before. Is it ever a good idea when the same serial killer shows up for the third time (at least)? And the killer just happens to be the former lover of the lesbian niece? Desperation thy name is Cornwell.

Een onbekende vrouw komt om bij een brand in het huis van een mediatycoon. De eigenaar was niet thuis, hij was ook een paardenfokker en meer dan 100 paarden zijn ook omgekomen in de brand.
Het vuur was in de badkamer begonnen en het is een raadsel hoe het op zo'n plek zo fel is beginnen branden dat het hele gebouwencomplex in de as werd gelegd.
En wie was de vrouw? Waarom is ze vermoord? Want het wordt duidelijk dat ze eerst vermoord werd voordat de brand aangestoken werd.
Kay Scarpetta wordt op de zaak gezet.
In de boeken van deze reeks interesseert met altijd weer de moordzaak het meest, ik kan me niet echt inleven in de achtergrondverhalen van de hoofdpersonages Scarpetta, haar nichtje Lucy, en Benton Wesley. Alleen over inspecteur Pete Marino lees ik wel graag.
Toch 3 sterren waard vind ik.

Aussie Reader's Challenge: 2019 Annual Series Challenge - Read book #7, #8, #9 and #10 in the Kay Scarpetta Series

Aussie Reader's Challenge: 2019 Winter Challenge - Women's Equality Day is 26th August so read a book with a strong independent woman

I first read this book about 20 years ago and I am reading it one last time before I send it off to the second hand book shop to find a new forever home (or just a home where it will be read and past on).

This was more of the same - but this is unfortunately one of my least favourite Scarpetta books. Serial Killer Carrie comes back to haunt them all (YET AGAIN) and the resolution of Carrie and all those years (aka books) of torment was just wrapped up a little too quickly for my taste (in a paragraph or two????). I have also read further than this so I knew the twist at the end of this book  Benton dying  so it had less impact this time around especially given that  Benton is "resurrected" in later books  .

This book was also about fires (thus the title) and I found the idea of all those horses being burnt really distressing (it is always the animal scenes that do my head in) and I confess that I didn't find the forensic aspect of this book as interesting as I usually do in her books as the fire talk just didn't engage me as much. I also felt like there was a lot of info dump especially when someone may be explaining something very obvious to another qualified professional and you are like "this so does not sound authentic" as you know the real purpose is to explain to the reader as professionals in the field would not talk to each other like this.

This was a quick read at just over 300 pages and I am keen to continue my re-read of this series and at long last get to later books in the series that I have not read yet (I think there are over 20 of them now!).

Audio version of this book