This series is wild, but the author is masterful at voices—Marino is my favorite— and pacing.

In a turn of events, Kay Scarletta is on trail rather then her usual role as an expert witness. Family and friends have to save her from being found guilty of murder.

Pretty bad in a lot of ways, yet I continue to enjoy this series.

The bad:
- Marino is becoming more of a raging asshole then he is growing as a character/person
- This was less of a procedural than trying to tie up all of the ridiculousness from the last book... and after all those pages, looks like it'll carry into the next book too
- Everything ties together really quickly and nearly at the end which is kind of par for the course by this point but we could move on any time from the conspiracies
- People still have "evil eyes" whatever that means. You always know somethings up where there are evil eyes afoot. It's Scarpetta's tell.

The good:
- I gotta say I enjoyed the focus on Scarpetta's inner psychology here, despite Cornwell resorting to some pretty banal Freudian stuff at times
- I liked learning more about Anna and seeing their relationship grow
- My crush on Lucy is deepening despite the fact that she didn't see as much action in this story
- Scarpetta is now not in favour of the death penalty which was surprising coming from Cornwell. Maybe there's hope for Marino yet...?

Wow! One of the most interesting and complex story lines I've ever read in this genre. Cornwall is really up to par with this one.
I thoroughly enjoyed the intensity of Kay's current dilemma. How her closest friends and alibies quietly stand by her.

The introduction of new, interesting characters and the steadfastness of the existing ones was genius.

Ok, I'm annoyed because I wrote a review, the the GR site went down for service while I was typing and my review is gone. So this is the lazy version which means mostly spoilers, sorry.

What I can say is that this book starts immediately after the last one, with only a 12 hour turn around. I think this books is a bit tedious. I'm really tired of Kay mourning Benton. I cant believe how many chapters that Jean-Baptiste Chardonne interview went on. I can't believe how much time we spent talking about Kay's feelings, and she is still mourning Benton. I'm so over super Lucy who is now a millionaire with her own helicopter and company. It was nice to find out about Marino's son. There is a lot of questions about Kay's sexuality, and I feel like there is a lot unexplained, as to why everyone is out to get Kay. I mean really, she's not that important.

I really called a lot of the Talley stuff in my last review. Being brothers was a nice twist.

This book was interesting but there wasn't enough casework for my liking. There was a continuation of the 'let's judge everyone' theme I've been noticing in the last few books in this series. Also Kay is kind of a horrible friend and very judgemental, so that wasn't super.

I'm in the midst of re-reading this series and am loving being back in this world. I gobbled up these books the first time around and while my taste took a turn, I'm beyond ready to see what happens next.

The Last Precinct is what I would consider the middle a 3-book arc within the series - Black Notice, The Last Precinct and Blow Fly. This book is very conversational in tone which is a big change from the prior book and much of the series up until this point. I liked the pivot and how this story developed.

I'm a fan of how Patricia Cornwell weaves together the books - how past cases and their consequences continue to impact characters in what feels like a very realistic way. These are characters dealing with some depraved killers and some truly horrible cases and the work they do is not something they can walk away from at the end of the day.

I'm such a pusher of this series because I think it's so great. Kay is a great character and I've already read the next in the series (just late in updating my review!)!

WEEK 9
WORD: CHOP
BONUS: CLOUDS
MY LETTER: P/C - for author Patricia Cornwell

Book: The Last Precinct by Patricia Cornwell
Finished: May 3, 2013
Rating & Book Review: 3 stars - Better than the last few in the series by far. The ending actually has me excited to see what happens next.

BONUS WORDS

Chop - page 71 - I lay the onion slices flat and begin to chop.

Clouds - page 105 - The tops of buildings in the downtown skyline have vanished in clouds, the air thick with snow.

Audio

If memory serves, this is the last Kay Scarpetta Patricia Cornwell I've read. The character just is too much of a depressed person that it takes all the pleasure out of reading it. At least for me. Again, it's too bad because the storylines are really good and with plenty of suspense and twisty turns. I hope the author can start writing some novels that are quite a bit more upbeat in the future.

Book Review
The Last Precinct - Patricia Cornwell - 5/5

Every book preceding this one built around a central theme and a pointed crime-solving aspect, but the 11th novel in the series beautifully paints what it means to be the very bruised, flawed and unforgivably human: Kay Scarpetta. Whether this is a battle of psychologically approaching grief and pain, or a matter of dissecting the motivations and mutilations of criminal behaviour, the twists and turns in this book are increasingly elusive. Each chapter ends at just the right moment, each precipice leading to yet another calm but thrilling incline up a slope that Cornwell masterfully navigates. One forgets that she is the mastermind of the story and not a faithful narrator along for the ride as character voice, development, and agenda seamlessly blend between each judicial event be that investigation, interrogation or interpretation. Cornwell at her best, story-telling at its finest.

Spoilers below

- Kay’s sessions with Anna are explosive, teeth-numbingly exposing and an interview any fan of the chief medical examiner would want to peer into.

- The sheer amount of detail on anatomy, law, prosecutions, the federal system, police politics, but also bloody, horrifying murder = to die for. Literally. Hahah. Okay I’m done.

- Her anger toward Benton giving up is cleanly explained and fits in with her personality, because of course the brilliant Kay wouldn’t expect an expert profiler to just put himself in harm’s way.

- Anna is gold, her questions and style of getting her friend to open up are gold, her interactions with all characters are gold. Her backstory is painful yet genuine and one that allows you to see the strength and conviction of survivors as they move on with life. This almost provides Kay with a scaffolding to hold onto as she works through her own distress and hardships, realising how wrong her own assumptions may be but also how possible it is to move past even the worst of plights.

- Buford is an ass and I hope someone pins a painful, uncomfortable tail on him at some point in this series. His cowardice and inability to face Kay all along really paint up the various sublevels of villainy that a protagonist may face.

- The sheer audacity of questioning her and having her be on trial after her years of service to the Commonwealth is something that upset me. Seeing the very system that she’s worked with and in turned against her… just wild.

- Jay we-are-sick-of-him-being-handsome Talley (is that his last name?) is a scumbag and the moment he wanted to hold HaNdS, stroll through PaRiS, eat at a cAfE and sEe Kay, my alarms started going off because something does not bode right about a young, prideful agent. I’m proud as hell of Marino for calling out Kay, because as much as the big cheeseball of a man says dumbshit, he’s not one to attack Kay when he senses something being off. I understand why she’d sleep with Jay, but ugh gosh, Kay your name doesn’t have to rhyme with someone for you to give into a moment of desperate, lustful frolicking!

- Was there chemistry with Jamie and Kay? I cannot tell, but it leapt out at me even when I didn’t read with the intention to see anything more than a professional if not clinical connection between the two of them. Jamie Berger is the complete opposite of Dianne Bray in many ways, and I for one feel that Kay may not have felt anything toward Dianne but her behaviour shifts toward Jamie are significantly warm.

- The special jury at the end is tense and reading a prosecutor work to clear Kay’s name, having the author’s voice narrate what was said than have it actually placed in quotations helped move the pace along smoothly. My heart breaks for Mr Peanut and the little boy in his Sunday suit, Cornwell as usual eschewing a cruel flashlight on monstrous human capability.

- The whirlwind of love/hate relationships between Kay and the people around her in a time of increasing crisis, is so wonderfully explored, with no character losing depth or giving in simply to make things easier for Kay.

- The ending is marvellous, a wrapping up which ties just enough strings, leaving a little more for the next book and much closure in the heart. I audibly breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the jury, and that’s when you know you’ve been in that pressure-held, life-deciding, gut-wrenching courtroom just as much as Kay Scarpetta herself.

Kay Scarlett's gets a lot like wow is me, whilst it's obvious from the story she has good reason to feel that way, it can get in the way a bit