Absolutely love this series, Kay Scarpetta, Benton, and Marino keep me reading. I love their dynamic and, as I've said before, even though these are set decades ago I am still finding them fascinating. Yes, liberties are taken, the above-mentioned never seem to get older, Kay Scarpetta is a one-woman crime-solving machine, but they are incredibly addictive.

This one was a bit disappointing. Dr. Scarpetta is called back to Virginia to consult on a case. She is not wanted by the present director. While there, she confronts some old demons, some memories she does not want to confront. Her niece, Lucy, gets into a problem due to a romantic issue. But Dr. Scarpetta is not really as well drawn as usual in this book.

This was my first Cornwell novel-and quite possibly my last. These characters were impossible to like. It was hard and choppy switching between which character was narrating. There seemed to be a lot of tension between all the characters but most of it went unresolved.

The delivery was choppy and I felt like I was having to reread things multiple times before it made sense.

The plot was also choppy and weak. Cornwell spent way too much time and put way too much detail into unimportant things (like the “Eise picks”...WHO CARES?!) but breezed over concepts or plot parts that would have expanded the story. For example-what was the point in the Marino/Paulsson “sex game”?? Cornwell spent way too much time on something that had a tenuous (at best) link to the rest of the story. It felt like she was trying to push a sexual angle onto the story and it didn’t need it. The story as a whole didn’t flow. Or connect.

And the ending was one of the most anticlimactic endings I’ve ever read. Such a letdown. I pushed through this book hoping the end would make up for the beginning and middle. I should have known that the ending would be just as blah as the rest.