In Unnatural Exposure Dr. Kay Scarpetta is on the hunt for a killer who dismembers his victims. Only this latest victim has a few differences, some minor one major, that will send her investigation into life threatening directions.

Here’s the thing about Patricia Cornwell’s books...the plots are great and the stories are quite fun to read. It’s her characters that are the problem.

First there’s Dr. Scarpetta herself who is perpetually being mistaken for someone who’s average and therefore begins every professional interaction with a game of “DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM!!!” And then there’s her niece Lucy the genius who’s a genius and, oh by the way, did you know she’s a genius. We get it, Lucy is smart and can do anything including learning how to fly a fighter jet just by watching over the pilot’s shoulder during takeoff

This is the first time I've ever given a murder mystery a 5-star rating. Look, I enjoy murder mysteries. They are the candy of my reading material. I don't look to them for brilliant writing or life changing truths.

But this book was genuinely great. Probably one of the books I have enjoyed most this year. Now 8 books into the story I appreciate Cornwell's growth as a writer and the growth of Scarpetta and Lucy as characters over the course of the series. Scarpetta is relatable in her imperfections and relationship challenges. She is also admirable in her intelligence, leadership, take-no-shit, and perseverance.

More than any other book yet this series I felt the most effort was put into the growth of character relationships between Scarpetta and the other central characters (Marino, Lucy, Benton). The chapter where Scarpetta and Marino go to Graceland was my absolute favourite because you really get a window into them as people, in a rare chapter where nobody is immediately threatened and no major plot points revealed.

I also appreciated that the villain had more complexity than most of Scarpetta's villains do. The whole Temple Brooks plotline in two (three?) previous Scarpetta novels really did nothing for me. But this was a plot that was really well paced through the denouement. A truly well done mystery from start to finish that scrimped neither on character nor plot.

Every book in this series is just fantastic! Wonderful, quirky characters, great stories

Re read via audiobook
Story 4 stars**
Audio 3.5 stars**
Narrator n  C.J. Crittn

I listened to this as an audiobook on several long drives this week. Kay Scarpetta was a great companion on my journey.

Unnatural Exposure felt like a couple of different mysteries wrapped into one book as one horrifying crime scene led into a completely different horrifying scenario. And, of course, everything tied together neatly at the end. I always feel like I learn so much whenever I read a Kay Scarpetta book. This time I got to learn about pathogens and the little fishing island of Tangier Island.

There was a definite feeling of suspense throughout the book. I didn't feel that the pace ever slowed. I didn't predict the end until Cornwell brought it to me and then I was slapping my head and saying, "of course!!" So it was very enjoyable.

Personally, I wish there was a little more Marino in this book and a little less Wesley. The interactions with Marino are just way more entertaining than listening to Kay go on about her on again, off again feelings about Wesley. I never did approve of that relationship, so I don't care where it goes. But like I said, that's all a matter of personal taste. ;)

Now to reserve the next installment in the series. I may get through them all yet! Thanks to my public library for providing the listening material so I could enjoy this great book!

I'm finding the lead character very annoying, maybe she's supposed to be, but I'm almost tempted to stop reading, I won't, but probably won't read another book in the series

An annoying OCD main character, and the abrupt conclusion, the series story line was the only reason I kept reading

In Patricia Cornwell's eighth novel to feature Kay Scarpetta, "Unnatural Exposure", Virginia's chief medical examiner confronts a more terrifiying foe than the serial killers she has fought in previous books.

There's still a serial killer in this, but the real threat comes from the killer's weapon of choice: a deadly lab-grown mutant virus, which has potentially global repercussions as the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) aid Scarpetta in hunting down the killer and simultaneously keeping a localized outbreak from becoming a worldwide epidemic.

This book was written in 1997, nearly 20 years before the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time of its publication, the events and threats in the book were purely theoretical in this country. It was akin to science fiction.

Sadly, it's not anymore.

In terms of verisimilitude, Cornwell was frighteningly accurate, which makes this one of her more horrific novels. Edge-of-the-seat does not begin to describe its intensity...

WEEK 7
WORD: FUNDED
BONUS: RESTAURANT
MY LETTER: U for title

Book: Unnatural Exposure by Patricia Cornwell

Finished: January 20, 2013

Rating & Book Review: 2 stars - I've been rereading this series and enjoying it much less than I did the first time around. All the characters are so miserable and unpleasant and unhappy. I keep reading because I haven't gotten to the new-to-me books yet and the letters they start with are awesome for challenges. :D

BONUS WORDS
Funded - page 117 - The facility was funded by the county and about the size of my central office in Richmond.
Restaurant - page 115 - We were walking into the restaurant which was appropriately named Mallards...

Don't let jealousy bite you because it can destroy you. Be content.

This is the first Patricia Cornwell book I've read and I somewhat like it. I love the main character's attitude, namely Dr. Kay Scarpetta. I like that she's firm with a lot of gentleness and kindness to people who needs it.

I hate Ring, too bad the book doesn't say if he's been punished. Maybe that will be in the next Cornwell book.

I just don't like how the book ended. It's like it's cut short and I had no inkling whodunit because if memory serves me right there was no mention of Dr. Phyllis Crowder. Maybe I'm used to other books like this where they give clues as to whodunit and you have to make a choice only to be proved wrong in the end.

No matter, I am still going to read other Cornwell books. That's definite.

This book could have easily done with 100 pages less. Eventually I got tired of the detailed descriptions of technical stuff that was completely irrelevant to the plot. The resolution at the end did not make up for that and was rather underwhelming. I hope the next one will be better.

By this point I found Scarpetta unbearable. She's stopped resembling any human, and become some sort of paranoid superhero. [Of course, someone always is out to get her, but it's different someones all the time]

9/10
A tight mystery, and at least some of Scarpetta’s personal life has cleared up by the end, albeit with a few ongoing loose threads that will carry on into subsequent books.