Christmas is around the corner, but the work for Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner never stops, & Scarpetta gets the news that she has been dreading. It looks like Temple Brooks Gault has struck again, with the discovery of the naked body of a young woman found in Central Park. The woman has been shot, no sign of sexual assault, but areas of skin have been excised from the body - Gault's MO. Scarpetta heads to New York with Benton & Marino, & Carrie Grethen reappears, on a case that will ultimately put everyone she cares about in danger.

There's a hint of cat-and-mouse between Gault & Scarpetta in this book. She learns that he is posing as her son & using one of her credit cards (apparently stolen from Lucy's desk at work by Carrie), not only in New York but in Richmond too. He even orchestrates a visit to the morgue where Scarpetta works, & he is also remotely manipulating CAIN, the system Lucy built to enable law enforcement to track related crimes quickly. Busy boy! Both Lucy & Scarpetta try to track him, but Gault always seems to be one step ahead. Personally Scarpetta is struggling with her guilty feelings about her affair with Benton & about not being able to be with her sick mother at Christmas because of the case. Marino has started dating again but his ex-wife wants to reconcile, & Lucy is dating Janet, a fellow trainee at Quantico.

On this re-read I have removed a star from the rating, as compared to the earlier books, this one wasn't quite as gripping. Gault has always seemed a bit of an insipid villain to me, & the ending was a bit of a letdown after all the build-up - it was just far too easily resolved. Scarpetta can be stubborn to the point of ridiculous about her safety at times, & Lucy is just too wonderful at everything to be true. There are one or two technological mentions which show just how long ago this was written, i.e. dial-up modems & pagers. Overall, it's just a little lackluster compared to the first five books.

Re Read
Story 4 stars**⬆️

An excellent read... but then I enjoy most of the Kay Scarpetta books written by Patricia Cornwell.

The name sort of rang a bell... and checked this morning...it was indeed made into a movie. I finished the book quite quickly - as it is an exciting read...demanding that you continue to find out how it all ends. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thrillers.... murder mysteries and 'whodunit's'!

I might just watch the movie now, that I have read the book. I don't like to do it the other way around... since it influences the enjoyment of the book too much!...

i

I found this book disappointing. I haven’t read Cornwell’s books for some years, and had expected more. It started off well enough, and the dialog and writing style is nicely done, as I would expect from a best-selling writer. However, a bit past halfway the plot started to sound contrived and not at all believable. One of my pet peeves is when the main character doesn’t take the obvious easy action but opts for a complex option that is doomed to failure just to make the story more interesting. I also hate it when the writer builds the reader up to a particular question and then never answers it. Why did Transit Authority Commander bring Scarpetta to her home? Why make Scarpetta keep asking that question and never answer it? Does the New York Transit Authority have its own morgue and extensive autopsy laboratories? The reader would not expect this, so if it is true it should have been explained. Why reject an easy capture with only one person at risk and opt for a complex staging including tunnels, traps, and computer networks that the reader knows will fail while putting hundreds of bystanders at risk, including intentionally routing a parade into the area? No, these plot devices may be exciting to some readers, but I found them too contrived and unbelievable. I would not recommend this book. 2 stars at best.

Sa sirotinjskoga groblja
Algoritam, 2013.

Dakle, ovo mi je bilo malo... dosadno.
Radi se o 6. slučaju Kay Scarpette, u kojem joj opet prijeti isti zločinac - Gault. Iz pročitanog se da naslutiti kako ovo nije njihov prvi susret i da se kroz nekoliko prijašnjih romana love, međutim, kako je ovo prvi i za sada jedini roman P. Cornwell koji sam pročitala (a s obzirom da me nije baš oduševio, možda i zadnji), ne bih baš znala o kakvim se tu sve prijetnjama, ubojstvima i zastrašivanjima radi. Uglavnom, Gault je opet na sceni, prijeti, dolazi jako blizu Kay i njene nećakinje Lucy te se svi za njih boje i štite ih. Kay s druge strane, pristaje na zaštitu, ali se odupire ulozi pasivne žrtve, pa tako postaje akter koji rješava taj slučaj i vraća si svoj život.
U romanu se spominje nekakav policijski računalni sistem, CAIN, a budući da je roman napisan još 1995. godine, danas to zvuči tako zastarjelo. Stoga baš i ne volim čitati romane koji su u ono vrijeme govorili o (tada) revolucionarnim tehnološkim dosezima. Također, sam lik Kay mi se tokom čitavog romana nije uspio približiti, i moram reći da mi se ne dopada toliko da bih seriju čitala dalje. Možda griješim, možda se Kay kasnije promijeni (Cronwellica je napisala još 18 romana nakon ovog), ali za sad mi je na listi "probano-nije oduševilo-dajem mu drugu šansu".

4.5 stars

Oh my gosh, since this was a continuation from the last 2 books, I was sitting on the edge of my seat needing to know what was going to happen next. Did I expect the victim to be who they were? Absolutely not! I was also next expecting the ending at all but I definitely wasn’t disappointed. This book had me not want to to put it down because I needed to know what was happening. I definitely can’t wait to see what is going to happen next for Kay and Lucy

Marino remained misogynistic, homophobic and rude. Why is he in every book???

Yawn!

I wouldn't rate this at the top of the Scarpetta series but Cornwell is great at what she does and this is no exception.
If you don't know the Scarpetta series and read this on it's own, there are probably a few too many previous references to be comfortable as a standalone novel.

That aside, there is plenty of action and any novel with a wintry setting will always have my heart.

A high 3 stars.

Soft 4 stars. Continued search for Gault as Scarpetta and Marino head to nyc to try and catch him.

I am liking Kay Scarpetta less and less. She seems bossy, intolerant except to her neurotic niece, and anything but a team member. She chooses to ignore some evidence which is painful to the reader. I felt like shouting at her at times. Why is it that so many main characters do so many stupid things in their investigations which land them in grave danger? I realize that the danger is part of the plot, but there are plenty of danger spots in a real investigation without doing something that your average citizen KNOWS is going to be trouble? This may be my last Cornwell book. (I think I've said this before...but I keep hoping she can get back to the level of her first books.