Schuld von Patricia Cornwell ist als siebter Fall einer der früheren Fälle um Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Pete Morino und ihrer Nichte Lucy.

Hier ist Kay noch Chief Medical Examiner von Virginia und sie vertritt Ende Dezember einen ihrer lokalen Leichenbeschauer und wohnt der Einfachheit halber in dessen Haus.

Scarpetta wird zu einem Schiffsfriedhof der Navy gerufen, um eine Leiche zu bergen. Die Reaktionen der Verantwortlichen vor Ort, allen voran der zuständige Ermittler, sind befremdlich und so wundert es kaum, wenn Kay  sich durch auf dem Grundstück umherschleichende Menschen und zerstochene Autoreifen bedroht fühlt. Sie hat mal wieder in ein Wespennest gestochen und ihr ganzes Team inklusive einem frisch geschiedenen Benton muss alles geben, um die Katastrophe zu verhindern: Ein fanatischer Sektenführer besetzt ein Atomkraftwerk, um radioaktives Material für die Waffen eines U-Boots zu erbeuten! Man muss Cornwell lassen, dass sie es halbwegs hinbekommt, diesen James Bond würdigen absurden Plot, plausibel erscheinen zu lassen. Die Protagisten sind in Schuld zwar noch unverbrauchter, aber man erkennt schon leicht ängstlich die unangenehmen Seiten ihrer Charaktere. Das Verhältnis von Lucy und Kay ist auch hier schon schwierig gezeichnet, ohne dass man so recht erkennen kann, wo eigentlich das Problem liegt. Halt, möchte man rufen, nicht weiter, von hier an geht es nur noch bergab. Wiedergesehen.

Re Read via audiobook
Story 4 stars**
Audio 3.5 stars**
Narrator n  C.J. Crittn

3.5⭐️

Book 7 of 16 in the Scarpetta series. One of the better books in the series.

Beginning with Blow Fly (Book 12), the main characters become increasingly very dark and disturbingly dysfunctional - and too central to the plot.

I started reading the Kay Scarpetta books ‘cos a friend of mine is addicted to them. I’ve been really patient and read seven of them but can’t fathom what it is she gets out of them.

The plot always moves painfully slowly and the reactions of the protagonists never seems real. The relationships false and strained because nobody will actually talk to each other properly. Any issues is avoided and now says what they really think. And some of the plot twists have been utter garbage.

In this book you have KS stands in for one of her local colleagues who is out of town and is immediately at odds with various police/military none of whom she ever takes to task despite being this fiercely strong and independent woman. She then goes scuba diving, a skill which I don’t remember ever being pointed out in the first six books and investigating the death of a local reporter she knows.

Before she’s even established it was a murder she’s being stalked, had her tires slashed and a local cop hassling her. Where did all this come from? A colleague of her is the murdered and it’s all tied in some how.

As the boredom unravels it all turns out that a local religious cult has got into bed with the Libyan’s to help them get plutonium to build nuclear weapons. Quite why this is wasn’t clearly explained. Anyway, the cult take over a nuclear plant and after their charismatic leader (who you never actually meet) accidently kills himself only KS can enter the plant to save the day. Well, KS and the virtually controlled robot Toto (controlled by KS’s niece Lucy). And before you can so much as start to expect an explanation and tying up of the myriad of lose ends the whole thing ends.

No more Cornwall for me.

I got an omnibus edition from the library with only 3 weeks to finish it, so I'll be binging on Scarpetta this month. It's interesting how different they are from what I remember. I first read these some 25 years ago, and back then I was so excited to see a strong female lead character in law enforcement. Unfortunately, these haven't held up all that well. I remember thinking it started out well but the characters became increasingly miserable to the point where I didn't want to spend time with them, but now I see they were that way from the start and it was my perception and awareness that changed over the years. I'll probably finish the omnibus but I'm not sure if I want to keep rereading the series.

The books in this series seem to be getting more far fetched and it was a very meh book. The end felt somewhat lackluster. I may or may not continue with this series.

I did enjoy the book even though you know the involvement of the characters before hand. I’ve been mentioned this in the past few books is that I still do not like the romantic involvement of Kay and Wesley. Wesley have the audacity I’ve been hurt that his wife is living with another man. Did he forget how he was always at work during all the main holidays while his lovely wife kept the house and the family together and while he was away working he had his sidekick Kay that could fulfill his needs. I do know the story gets way out there and the author does contradict herself many times but overall I do enjoy it. I just hope that Kay does not become as the character from Linda Fairstein‘s Alexandra Cooper series. In that series the educated district attorney always threw her self in the middle of everything and without any firearms or other protection. She always save the day and it just started getting too ridiculous. Again, I am hoping this does not get to that extreme even though it’s closely getting there.

Late on a cold winter’s night, Dr. Kay Scarpetta receives a mysterious phone call. Hours later, she is scuba-diving in the murky waters of the Elizabeth River in a Naval shipyard in Virginia, where she discovers the body of a man she knew fairly well.

The victim was a local journalist. The subsequent autopsy reveals that he was killed by cyanide gas, which makes his death a murder. Investigation into his murder takes Scarpetta into some dark territories, involving a death cult with links to Libyan terrorists, a corrupt cop with a personal vendetta against Scarpetta, and illegal arms trading potentially via corrupt naval officers.

Patricia Cornwell’s seventh book in her Scarpetta series, “Cause of Death” is another non-stop thriller.

Like some of the best action/adventure heroes, Scarpetta is incapable of staying out of trouble, and it seems that every misadventure she finds herself in outdoes the last one. Jeez, if she and Jack Reacher ever got together, it would probably precipitate some impending global catastrophe.

What was that?
I read and read and something was happening and someone was going somewhere and then a car and someone talked to someone’s mother and then meetings happened a hotel room, etc, Lucy and then something strange, radioactive, terrorist, what is going on and the book is finished.
This book was so slow from the very beginning and then suddenly so fast at the end, I could not believe how the book suddenly ended. As if, PC was bored writing it and left all the after work to the reader’s imagination. Also, the plot was so complex that I doubted it could be un-twined in so few pages, however PC somehow managed to do it, but the issue remained complex for me. I believe we had everything mixed here in this book and then some miraculous and fantastic ending happened.
To cut it short, just like the ending of the book – I did not like this book. It started with a good murder, which deserved more care, but received a quickie. And I was frustrated with the extraordinary abilities of Kay in this book – she was bringing diving equipment wherever she goes? She is a doctor a lawyer, a terrorist negotiator, a radioactive material expert, a woman, a lover, an aunt, a friend, I am dizzy already. This was the first time that all those skills of KS irritated the hell out of me.

Un caso de la doctora Kay Scarpetta, el séptimo si no me equivoco. Bien, interesante aunque a veces algo lioso con tanto término radioactivo y demás.

I'm starting to enjoy these novels more, as I get to know the characters better. Kay Scarpetta can sometimes be annoying with her whining and mood swings (and occasional silly actions), but she's decent in her job and I am appreciating her skills more than a few books ago. But my favorite character by far is Pete Marino. He's totally the reason why I find these books worthwhile.
In this installment Scarpetta and Marino need to investigate the suspicious murder of a famous reporter. The beginning grabbed me, and while some pace was lost in the middle, the ending was also good.