This book cost only a dollar at a recent library book sale. I do like this author and feel very familiar with Kay, Marino, Benton and Lucy. Kay is called in to her former coroner work place in Virginia. Her replacement is rude and doesn’t really want her there. They still try to determine why a young girl really died. In the meantime Lucy’s girlfriend is attacked. A crazy man is on the loose. Danger lurks everywhere it seems, which makes for an intriguing story.

I just don't know. This is the second Scarpetta book I have read (admittedly out of order), and there's something I'm just not getting.

This one begins promisingly enough, with Kay and detective Pete Marino heading back to Virginia to help solve the mysterious death of a 14 year old girl. We meet some creepy people- the new chief medical examiner, for one, and our real bad guy, Edgar Allen Pogue.

"Trace" centers around trace evidence found at three seemingly unrelated crime scenes. One of these, of course, involves Kay's niece Lucy. Lucy has a wicked intellect and is about as self-absorbed and destructive as a PMSing teenager.

The story surrounding the crimes is actually pretty good- but there is too much distraction for this to be a really good book. The CME is thrown in as kind of a red herring- he has some skeletons in his closet, but we never reslove anything with him. You can feel Kay and Benton (her, what? Boyfriend? Husband? I'm not sure what he is at this point) struggling to bury their hurtful past, but no one talks about it and there is no confrontation. Some opportunities for real drama are just skated over.

I've heard the earlier Scarpetta novels are better, but I think I'm done.

It has been a while since I read a Cornwell mystery and looked forward to immersing myself into the story. I was disappointed! Scarpetta jumps into a forensic case back in Richmond VA - a place she had been fired from - without checking out with former co-workers what the team was like currently. What professional does that or even considers helping out at a company they have been fired from! Next, her niece, former FBI agent and now owner of a highly specialized private investigative company, has incredibly lax security around her Florida mansion which allow an intruder to enter and attack an employee staying at the house. The employee also is suppose to be highly trained cop, although she was a failed actress which also led to a credibility gap for the story. Employee is sent to Scarpetta's boyfriend to be analyzed for clues as to who did the dastardly deed which means Scarpetta's vacation with boyfriend is cancelled but boyfriend and niece don't tell Scarpetta, like this world renowned forensic specialist can't keep it a secret.

The entire storyline was not believable and I kept thinking that authors PJ Tracy does it better.

What a hard slog this was. Uninteresting storylines and too much focus on Scarpetta's niece. Preferred when Scarpetta was still the Chief Medical Examiner.

Ugh. I really want to love these books as I remembered the series as one of my favorites, and have forgotten why I stopped reading. So I began again from the beginning and have passed the point where I stopped reading (when Benton died). Unfortunately I am not as enthralled by the series as I was at the time. I thought I had stopped reading because she killed Benton but I think now that I had stopped reading because the books are now formulaic and whiny. I no longer like the characters and find there interactions to be mostly antagonistic and disrespectful. They do not act like friends or respected colleagues. They taunt each other and provoke each other, purposefully. They don't work together to solve crimes, but revolve in the same vicinity each thinking they are the sole reason that a crime will be solved. Even the "couples" (Benton & Kay, Lucy & Kay, Pete & Kay) are dysfunctional.

Taking a break from the series. This one is probably the best one since book two or three in the series but I'm not sure I have the will to carry on with it. I love the genre and was hoping to fall back in love with this author and Kay Scarpetta after abandoning it in the early 2000s. I can see why my late teen self enjoyed these books and was enamored with the main character. I've enjoyed revisiting the world my younger self lived in but my 40yo self has run out of patience for the poor writing and hackneyed plotting. For such a long running series there is a serious lack of depth in the characters, stories and resolution. Like floating on the world's longest mud puddle, tolerable but definitely couldn't be called swimming or satisfying. I think I only stuck with it this long out of curiosity to see how the characters developed and changed with the new technologies. I may come back to it just to satisfy that curiosity but for now, a much needed break.

Terrific storytelling!

I don't like change and was a bit sad to learn Kay and company had moved in different directions. But, wow! This is a great story! Loved the style of the storytelling as well. Going back and forth from different characters POV. Was completely captivated by each storyline and read through way faster than usual! If you're a Kay Scarlett a fan, don't miss this one!

good read

First read: March 2006
Re-Read: July-August 2017

The plot: Cornwell weaves two separate plots together in Trace. The first is from the perspective of Kay Scarpetta as she is called back to her old office in Virginia to help out on a case that the current chief medical examiner doesn't want to deal with. A fourteen year old girl named Gilly Paulsson is found dead in her bed with no obvious signs for the cause of death.

The second plot is from the perspective of Kay's niece Lucy, who has called Benton to help with an attack that occurred at her home, where her work colleague/lover Henri was assaulted by an intruder.

I really enjoyed re-reading Trace. The third person/present tense style of writing was a little disconcerting at first, but I quickly got used to it and began to enjoy the story. I liked the way the plotlines tied together and I still really enjoy reading about the lives of Kay Scarpetta, Benton, Lucy and Marino and everything they go through.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Five years after the dramatic ending of the previous title in this series, Scarpetta's once dead and miraculously restored love Wesley Benton is now in an ongoing relationship with her. Marino, who was nearing his deathbed 5 years ago, has lost weight and quit smoking for the most part.

What's missing is how Scarpetta and the 3 most loved and trusted people in her life: her niece Lucy, Benton, and Marino, restored the trust that must have necessarily been lost during the years of Benton's "death." It is simply not explored.

Even more annoying, the same 3 are yet again deceiving the hapless pathologist through most of this book, and this break in trust is again resolved without any exploration as to exactly how. The story itself wraps up neatly and abruptly, less via scientific investigation and more by personal experiences and internal dialogue, which in my opinion misses the point. The personal dramas, shortcomings, emotional and mental unwellness of this band of heroes is explored ad nauseum and the story itself takes a back seat.

As usual quite readable although I could have done with less familiarity with the bad guys - well, hardly anyone at the end of the day is not a bad guy to one degree or another. I'll keep reading the series, but my journey with Dr Scarpetta may be nearing its end. It's tiresome that her genius, rich, accomplished niece is also an incipient murderer, forever entangling herself in sick love affairs and so full of rage she sees killing people as a viable option to bringing them to a proper justice. It's tiresome that her brilliant, famous love interest is somehow supposedly justified in lying to her on the regular. I'm hoping the next book is more straightforward and less internal.

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3.5 of 5 stars to Trace, the 13th book in the Kay Scarpetta thriller series, written in 2004 by Patricia Cornwell. Trace is midway in the series which has about 25 books as of 2017 when I'm finally writing this review! I'm trying to catch up on all my favorite series, finish writing reviews and then read the latest books which are still in my TBR pile.

Trace is a solid story, as we come to expect from Cornwell, but it has a few issues, too. It's a very emotional book, not only because it's focus starts with a 14 year old girl's death, but also because Scarpetta has just come back from Florida, where she basically ran off to for a "break." When she's back in Virginia, she's suddenly faced with being pulled back into her old routine, having to help the new ME figure out what happened in this crime. Scarpetta is also working again with her former right-hand-man, but something is different about him. She even suspects he may be the killer this time; and he's got some interesting attitude issues towards his former boss. Plus, Scarpetta is on her own, sans Lucy and Benton who are busy elsewhere.

In some respects, we're back to basics with this book, as she tries to solve the crime on her own, fighting with her colleagues the whole way. But she's also a different person, and her instincts aren't as fine-tuned as usual. It's a game-changing book, which ultimately sets the directional change in the series enough to re-boot it a bit. But the mystery itself is still quite diabolical. I wouldn't start with this book if you are new to the series, but if you're a big fan, it's worth the read to see all the changes going on in her world.

n  n    About Men  n
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.

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I found this book while I was in Amsterdam a few weeks ago. It had just been released and I couldn't wait to get it in paperback so I got the brand new hardcover. I just couldn't wait to see if she will redeem herself in this book. After completely changing the style that she writes the Scarpetta series and being severely disappointed in her latest (Blow Fly) this is her chance to win me back. So far I'm not even halfway through but I'm not impressed. It's the same choppy story as the last one, changing view and always in 3rd person. I miss the earlier books where you really could get a feel for Scarpetta and the people around her. It's all so exaggerated now, just can't get into it. I'll give an update when I'm finished.
Update: Only halfway through the book now. Been trying to get through it for a few weeks. It is as lackluster as Blow Fly and I'm having trouble trudging my way through it. I'm hoping there is some sort of climax soon because the book is dull, scattered and boring so far. So disappointed..
Update 2: Nov 10, 2004 - Finished the book last week and feel like it was a complete waste of time. So sorry to see Cornwell take such a massive decline. I will continue to read her books in hopes that she will realize where she's gone wrong and go back to her old style of writing.