3.5⭐️

I started reading this without knowing that it was the eight (or so) book in a series. So somre of the secondary storylines and characters weren't familiar to me since I hadn't read the other books. That made this story a little akward in places.

It is narrated by the same person that does the Stephanie Plum series so it took a while to get used to her voice not being Stephanie's. The books was a bit wordy and techincal in places. Also, there were quite a few secondary characters that were hard to keep straight. The ending seemed a bit abrupt although I really thought the identity of the "bad guy" was unexpected.

Overall, this was a good book and I will try to go back and read some of the others in the series.

My first Scarpetta book, and I am pleasantly surprised.
Scarpetta, a pathologist has headless bodies all around her, but one particular body has her confused, an elderly woman practically starved to death, dismembered and headless does not fit with the other bodies. What adds to her confusion is the fact that not only is this lady an elderly lady but she has been decapitated and dismembered covered in some thick oilcloth, she finds fibers attached to the sawed off bones, the victim has some strange pustules on her back.
Then Scarpetta starts receiving messages from the killer, deadoc.
Whilst the investigations are in progress, a woman is found dead with terrible pustules all over body, which points to the dreaded smallpox, supposedly eradicated. Tangier, where the woman is found, is quarantined.
Everyone works frantically on every lead to contain the disease as well as to find the killer, who by now is spreading the smallpox virus through tampered facial sprays.
The killer remains online a minute longer than is safe for him and is located and what follows is shocking.
But Cornwell does leave a few loose ends, what happens to the original kller who had decapitated around 10 bodies. Somehow there is no mention of him/her.
Although we are left in awe of technology, it is scary that the same technology is available to terrible criminals.
Scarier is the thought that biological warfare is so much more dangerous than any other warfare.

This started as a 4 star for me.....I like Scarpetta in these novels, but this was the first book of the series where I was intrigued and invested in discovering who the 'bad guy' was, and what was happening.

However, as it progressed, I was annoyed at the handling of the unknown disease....there was no way Scarpetta would have been allowed to roam out in the public a couple of days after been exposed to an unknown disease. The bad guy sprung from nowhere and I wasn't convinced there was any proper motivation for the murders, so at that point it dropped to a 3 star. Not a bad series, but it does feel dated.

After the last Scarpetta book, which I one starred, I was worried about this, the eighth in the series. Five headless and limbless bodies turn up in Ireland... and four similar corpses turn up in Virginia! During the investigation of this likely serial killer Scarpetta has to cope with an unscrupulous rival, a budget freeze and a possible biological warfare threat! Almost back with a bang, good to see the series still alive and kicking!

3.5! Would have rated it four stars, but the ending was a little weird.

--

Still unclear if these are all the same person??
Also, Kay, GO SEE YOUR MOM.

Kornvelovu često upoređuju sa Tes Geritsen zbog načina pisanja i dubioze ulaska u svetu one medicinske strane, obdukcije, analize mrtvog tela i slično. Gotovo odmah se prepozna autorkino umeće pisanja, žanr kojim dominira. Priča je krenula lepo, razrada je delovala veoma zanimljivo ali je u jednom trenutku autorka malo skrenula sa puta te je moja finalna ocena 3⭐️.
Svakako ću i dalje čitati njene romane.

It's odd reading this in 2012, fourteen years after its publication; it must have seemed absolutely up to the minute in '98, with its online goings-on (on AOL!) and its virtual-reality recreation of the crime scene by Scarpetta's whiz-kid niece. And the supervirus/biological terror fears of our time (whether it be AIDS, which is specifically referenced, or bird flu, which is not) are skilfully exploited. But one is constantly just slightly jolted by the careful explanations of technological things that are every kid's playground this scant decade later; and also by the deep, deep sadness surrounding an HIV positive status, which is still treated in Cornwell's text as an automatic death sentence. And I winced at the assumption that the niece's lesbianism absolutely *had* to be kept quiet so as to preserve her FBI/military job; though maybe that wince still isn't entirely gone in the States.

Anyway, I won't spoil the ending. It's a classic old-sins-come-back-to-haunt-us one, and a not terribly obvious villain. Really I wasn't reading it for the solution of the mystery anyway; more for that strange sense of culture shock. Cornwell isn't in my top tier, mostly because her autopsy scenes are a bit too graphic for me (she no doubt appeals greatly to the CSI crowd), but this one didn't lose my attention for a minute. And that despite the fact that I am less than enthralled by a protagonist who can't seem to make up her mind amongst several highly presentable suitors.

This was the best Dr. Kay Scarpella nook that I have read so far. The action moved rapidly and teh tension was built skillfully. There had been 5 grisly murders ten years prior in Ireland and as the book opened, there had been 4 more in America. The bodies had been dismembered, leaving only a trunk. As the novel unfolds, however, there are enough differences to make it likely that this newest case has been done by a different killer than the one or ones who had done the nine previous ones. When Dr. S did the autopsy on the latest victim, she noticed pustules that looked very much like smallpox.Soon enough, Dr. S began getting disturbing messages from "deadoc." Her niece, Lucy, now all grown up, a computer expert and FBI agent, assists Kay in unraveling the mystery. If you like fast paced thrillers and mysteries and books with a strong femal character, this is a book to try.

This was the one I stopped at when I originally read this series, and I very much remember why: it combines three elements of previous and later installations, namely someone politically trying to frame Scarpetta plus terrorism and someone threatening Lucy because lesbians and makes a hash out of all three. Wingo is a welcome and poignant reappearance, as are the events of the very last chapter, which hint that Scarpetta may be able to finally move forward with her life and quit being so self-centered and snappish with everyone.

In related news, did anyone wind up giving a fuck about the 9 random torsos in Ireland and Virginia? Because the end of the book kind of points to "Nope!".

I'm giving this series one more book to get its act together.

Here's why.
As the series progresses I found that the events surrounding the central character Kay Scarpetta cause the mood throughout the book to become darker and darker. It seems nothing good ever happens to Kay which left behind a depressing feeling for me.

Maybe others have had a different experience with this series so if you are enjoying them, by all means keep reading it as there are many more to come!

Lucy is still the only person at the FBI that seems to have seen a computer before.