An interesting read with plot twists and turns that kept me hooked. I love Kay Scarpetta and how you see the world through her eyes. It's fascinating going through the forensics and seeing how everything ties together. The fact that she's strong and sassy helps too.

A must read book for fans of police procedurals.

As other reviewers have noted, the title 'The Body Farm' is a bit misleading since it doesn't come into the plot until near the end, and then it is as a sidebar, but its graphic descriptive inclusion and the good Dr. Kay Scarpetta's enthusiastic promotion for donating bodies for science totally rocks if icky science rings your chimes.

I had to laugh - the author Patricia Cornwell gave readers a high-minded dutiful social message while at the same time satisfying us mystery readers in our queasy quest of seeking ewwwww entertainment and learning about police work and criminal law/science topics.

This series must be read in order - start here: Postmortem. Mixed into the plot of Dr. Scarpetta's public life of autopsies, vengeful serial killers, and bastard politicians obstructing her and the police, are a vividly dysfunctional gang of police friends, lovers and family who pop into the middle of her cases causing stress and distress.

In this book, much happens to Kay's favorite relative, Lucy, who is now a young adult. She is a genius computer-science geek who has been severely warped by Kay's self-involved low-life drama-queen sister, Dorothy, a fiction writer. Lucy wants to follow in Kay's footsteps as a crime fighter, so she is an intern of sorts in an FBI program at Quantico, Virginia.

Kay's relationship with her mother is fraught with the issues which commonly occur between an uneducated elderly woman of conventional housewife concerns and an extremely educated daughter who is swimming in upper level problems of government and leadership responsibilities. Adding to the difficulties is the physical distance between Kay's mother, living in Florida and Richmond, Virginia, where Kay is headquartered.

Captain Pete Marino, Kay's friend as well as a cantankerous police officer Kay works with in many cases, has been living in a manner designed to shorten his life, as a recent divorce has increased his rage and depression. He is jealous of Kay's lovers, despite that the relationship between himself and Kay has been strictly professional. Kay is gun-shy of relationships in the first place, but unfortunately, she has fallen in love with a married FBI agent, Unit Chief Benton Wesley, in this book.

Eleven-year-old Emily Steiner, a delicate small-town child, has been found dead. The mutilations on her body appear to follow the pattern of Temple Gault, the serial killer we met in the previous book in the series. Anything related to Gault has the attention of the FBI - and Dr. Kay Scarpetta!

"People like me intended no irreverence when we called it that, for no one respects the dead more than those of us who work with them and hear their silent stories. The purpose is to help the living. "(277)

As a reader that have never read another book in this series, I found that i was lacking a lot of context, and was hard to keep up. I feel like there is too many plot points, which became too confusing. I did enjoy the ending though.

This book was a medium read, as it took me about 3 days to read.

I would recommend it to anyone into mystery novels 18+!

Entertaining read, esp. for the fan who likes 'forensic detail,' because Cornwell always has that in spades. And clubs and hearts, too. That's where she excels as a writer: she knows her stuff.

In this one the MC, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is helping out on a case involving the death of a young girl - kidnapped and found dead days later on a fairly isolated trail. There are clues a'plenty, but none of them seem to go together, so it's up to the investigators, with Kay in assistance, to put them together. This is one story I hadn't a clue as to what was going on - and Cornwell does scatter the clues around if you know where to look ( I DID NOT.)

To bungle up the evidence further, one of the lead investigators is found dead in his house - with parts of the child in his freezer. Oh yes, I said that, but it's not so much a spoiler as it happens early on in the book. As Kay struggles to untangle this mess, she's also dealing with a messy family situation as well. (Oh, and there are a couple of men messing up Kay's emotional life, too. )

Now I like these books, but I do feel that's it in interpersonal relationships - and dialogue - which is the weakest part of any of the Scarpetta books. Or maybe it's just that I find the lead - Kay herself - so cold. Not that a forensic expert should be all warm and bubbly, but wow, she needs to lighten up a bit. She's like a female John Wayne: take no prisoners, don't ever smile, and walk like you own the place.

(And I do wish Kay would use her forceful personality more when it comes to dealing with her narcissistic sister. Kay takes it and takes it and takes it...)

Anyhow, that's my single criticism of the series: me don't like Kay much. But what Kay gets mixed-up in - and the final resolution of this book, that was great.

Four stars.

“The Body Farm” is Dr. Kay Scarpetta's fifth novel, published in 1994. Her dear niece's age has been hastily augmented to twenty-one. I was certain Lucy was under twelve in their 1990 introduction. I dislike violence, crime thrillers, forensics, even sad or tragic novels. I abhor reading about horror or grief. The personal perspective of Kay's teammates, family, friends, and my familiarity with them make all her series exceptions. When one wants content that is more serious than light mysteries, stepping past the lines of non-grotesque, standard adult mysteries occurs. Patricia Cornwell's novels are a successful effort in higher tolerance.

I ask authors to cease hurling cat deaths into fiction. This will always deduct a star but especially with the horrific addition so pointless and arbitrary to the novel. The main victim had died and that depraved act could not torment her. Besides the animal death deal-breaker and difficulty I had, believing the murderer identity and motive against feline and humans; the pace was fast and multifaceted. I traversed 374 pages in a rush of interest that never waned.

An additional, necessary criticism is that a major plot point and suspect was untouched and unexplained. If it was a red herring, a major series criminal should not have been used. That criminal's plot, pertaining to Lucy's FBI training, suggests that his unwarranted appearance sets up a succeeding novel. The heroine having an affair rattles my respect; no matter what the state of her paramour's marriage might be. Although his wife is a seldom-appearing cardboard figure, she is highly likeable. It seems I come to three stars anyway. The pace, complexity, and personal urgency were written well, keeping emotions and interest high. I look forward to Patricia's next novel, after my habitual break to absorb other tones of fiction and non-fiction.

In the fifth mystery/thriller, Cornwell has introduced so much about which praise is deserved. Picking up the threads left in the previous novel, Scarpetta has agreed to advise the FBI on some of its cases, to create a better mechanism by which to catch the seediest. Scarpetta's niece joins her at Quantico, on an internship and seeks to forge her own paths. With the murder of a young girl, all fingers point at the elusive serial killer who got away in 'Cruel and Unusual', leaving Scarpetta to determine how to catch him and use the clues left at the scene to piece it all together. While on the hunt, another suspect comes into her crosshairs and leaves the group wondering if this down and out individual might be allowing his alter-ego to appear. The murder of an investigator under awkward circumstances leaves new questions unanswered. Meanwhile, Scarpetta must juggle the case with an out of control niece who digs up trouble of her own and whose actions could cost Scarpetta more than she's ready to give up. Masterful storytelling and a plot that does not give the reader the chance to breathe make for the perfect novel.

Cornwell continues to build up the storylines for Scarpetta, as well as injecting a plethora of information about the characters involved. These are not simply breadcrumbs to sate the curious reader, but full-on feasts that are addressed masterfully and thoroughly with each novel's release. The reader can see major progress with all characters involved and are left to hope that this does not stop, as the series continues to progress. As the title suggests, use of the famed Body Farm in Tennessee does play a key role in the story and it is a great opportunity for readers to learn a little more about the facility. That said, nothing tops the Jefferson Bass series, penned by the created of the Farm, filled with intricate details about this place and the types of things that Cornwell only began to discuss.

Kudos, Madam Cornwell for treating readers to yet another powerful mystery, where questions outweigh answers.

I'm usually a bit of a stinge when it comes to star ratings and very rarely give out 5s.
This is definitely worth a 5. I've never read this author before and very rarely read this genre. But the setting (Autumn in the US east coast mountains), the characters and the investigation absolutely spoke to me.
This was very easy to read, not so easy to put down and I would recommend to anybody, particularly those who don't usually read this genre.
Will be following this author going forward.

I was looking for something new to read, a crime series I could get into...unfortunately this is not my cup of tea. Scarpetta, the main character was really unlikeable, an arrogant, boring, emotionally void, judgemental kind of woman (whilst still maintaining dubious
indulgences of her own, Scarpetta has it off with a married man throughout the book without a single qualm) who big upped herself in all depts. The plot isn't bad, just poorly executed and with little finesse. Cornwell seems to have many fans so maybe I'm just too picky, but I won't bother with her other books, despite this being an easy and light read, I just didn't warm to a single one of her characters (except perhaps for the dead girl) and found the writing style clunky and lacking in detail. And did anyone notice the lack of explanation in the final pages for the sexual abuse of the girl? Or did I miss something there? Meh. Life's too short!

Solid plot development with some crucial, highly intense scenes such as the descriptions of bodies post mortem and the murders that were dotted throughout. The reader has the pleasure of experiencing Scarpetta’s personal journey with her family and colleagues, but these side plots do not distract from the main issue she is dealing with. Although the murder of a child is a sensitive subject, it is dealt with accordingly and Cornwell writes in such a way that one cannot feel offended nor as if this angle had been chosen for shock factor, as is common with writers grasping for a trigger to grab attention.

The only reason I would not give this 5 stars is simply because the ending felt slightly rushed. Not too rushed that the main issue could not be solved in an exciting and mind tingling manner, but the other deaths mentioned did not reach a satisfying conclusion (this usually is not a problem but it had been strongly hinted that they were of some importance to the principal case) and the different suspects of the crime did not offer us an explanation by the end either.

Not to end on a bad note; I would highly recommend this book.

This is the first PC novel I've read and I was very disappointed. First of all, I hate her style of writing. She tries too hard. The first paragraph of the first page had me rolling my eyes:

"On the sixteenth of October, shadowy deer crept to the edge of dark woods beyond my window as the sun peeked over the cover of the night. Plumbing above and below me groaned, and one by one other rooms went bright as sharp tattoos from ranges I could not see riddled the dawn."

I mean come on. Maybe I'm just difficult to please, but I found this so obnoxious. Oh and how she portrayed southern accents was slightly offensive (maybe this bothered me because I actually am a North Carolinian but whatever)I dont know anybody who says, "Lordy lordy, this is a mighty big problem" im paraphrasing, but still she actually used phrasing such as that. insert major eye-roll.

Scarpetta is annoying and unlikeable as a main character. Well, most if not all of the characters are unlikeable; i never became emotionally invested in any of them (i concede that i might need to read more of the series for that to happen...). I didnt like how Scarpetta was essentially this genius who figured everything out, yet lacked common sense or basic rational thought. for example, she saw the serial killer she had been hunting and instead of drawing her weapon and contacting police/fbi/f***ing anybody she runs back to her car to call her married lover. Seriously wtf? I can't think of one thing i liked about her.

Also, I felt like a huge part of the book was Scarpetta just flying/driving somewhere. All she did was fly from DC to Asheville to Richmond and back again;it became so unnecessarily tedious.

And finally the plot itself was slow-paced and messily resolved. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

3.5

The Body Farm held so much potential with its two interwoven stories and yet ended both on such anticlimactic notes. And why, oh why, does Kay Scarpetta, a forensic pathologist who should know better, keep killing suspects who would be brought to justice if she weren't so trigger happy?

Like pretty good but 3/4 through and it felt slow and i got annoyed