- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: GP Putnam And Sons; First Edition edition (Oct 13 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0399150897
- ISBN-13: 978-0399150890
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16 x 4.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 794 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (533 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #537,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
"Please don't go there. The past is the past," sighs New York Assistant District Attorney Jaime Berger, who herself was introduced in Cornwell's last Kay Scarpetta novel, The Last Precinct (2000). Alas, many of Cornwell's fans are bound to agree. One fascinating nonfiction bestseller (Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed) later, Cornwell now returns to Scarpetta, formerly Virginia's chief medical examiner. From the start, however, the formidable author is up against the equally formidable task of getting her charismatic main character off ice and back in action. We encounter Scarpetta languishing in a crumbling little rental house in Florida. She has taken refuge there and become a private forensic consultant after she was driven from her job for her alleged involvement in the murder of a deputy police chief. The violent death of her lover, Benton Wesley, the brilliant FBI psychological profiler, has left her filled with an unappeasable grief. When the coroner in Baton Rouge asks her advice on a cold case concerning an affluent woman found dead of a drug overdose in a seedy hotel, it seems little more than a diversion. Yet it becomes clear that the overdose may be related to a fresh string of serial killings. Also disturbing Scarpetta's somber peace is a troubling letter from someone out to kill her, the sick and obsessed death-row inmate Jean-Baptiste. When Scarpetta is at last allowed to get back to business, she is a feisty, independent powerhouse whose capacity to concentrate and observe rivals Sherlock Holmes's. But too much of this book is bound up in retrospective musings about events in previous books. The great Scarpetta, her fiery crime-busting niece, Lucy, and a colorful supporting cast deserve better.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
BLOW FLY unveils Dr. Kay Scarpetta's new life after leaving her post as the State of Virginia's chief medical examiner. Carolyn McCormick's Scarpetta is believably cool and controlled; she sounds detached even though she's grieving the loss of her former life and her lover, Benton. McCormick does a good job differentiating the other characters, such as the fiery Lucy and the brusque Marino, though her Southern accents occasionally sound a bit thick. This story jumps around in location, which, especially with the abridgment, makes for a choppiness more noticeable at the end. The sound effects of spooky music and swamp noises that appear at chapter openings to provide switches in setting are useful; random helicopter sounds and gunshots that appear out of nowhere are less so. Overall, a decent production that will appeal to Cornwell's many fans. J.C.G. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
DR. KAY SCARPETTA moves the tiny glass vial close to candlelight, illuminating a maggot drifting in a poisonous bath of ethanol. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
DR. KAY SCARPETTA moves the tiny glass vial close to candlelight, illuminating a maggot drifting in a poisonous bath of ethanol. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
I guess I'm one of the few,
By "r_scott_lewis" (Cleveland, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Blow Fly (Hardcover)
I enjoyed this novel very much. I enjoyed the different writing style she utilized in this book, the simultaneous time lines and different perspectives. It was an interesting departure from her normal style. I also liked that a number of long arching story lines were tied in and explained better. My only complaint is the ending, I wanted to keep going and read more, find out more, but the book ended like hitting a wall at high speed. And unfortunately, I'm very impatient and hate to wait for the next installment. I want to know what happens to Kay, Benton, Lucy, Nic...I don't like "To be continued."
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Waste of paper,
By
This review is from: Blow Fly (Mass Market Paperback)
The early Scarpetta novels were ground breaking. Since the appaearance of the WolfMan and his jolly family, this series has gone down hill and beyond. It is doubtful that had this been an unknown author's work, any publisher would have picked it up.The plot, such as it is, is nonsensical. We are supposed to believe that Benton Wesley's death was faked, for the benefit of Scarpetta, with the long term aim of using Kay to bring about the demise of the Chardonneau family by means of convoluted false messages, red herrings etc. At the end of the day, Welsey simpy goes to their home in Baton Rouge and kills some of them - why did he need to forge various pretexts to get Kay there etc, when all he had to do was burst in a la Rambo and shoot 'em up? Underneath this slapdash writing lurks some dodgy political views, namely that good people are justified in doing bad things to bad people if it removes the bad guys (the references to Iraq and 9/11 telegraph this unsavoury viewpoint several times). Clearly Cornwall has nothing more to say about Scarpetta, Marino, Lucy et al and should stop this series now. Sadly, the ludicrously unlikely escape of the Wolf Man means that more yawn inducing antics involving Wolfie going after Kay will ensue..
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not worth reading,
By K L Wilson (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Blow Fly (Hardcover)
SPOILERS AHEADI normally enjoy Cornwell's novels as light relief on a plane, but this one was seriously disappointing. There's only one crime scene investigation, towards the end, of a largely irrelevant murder, and the rest of the book seems to be made up of the guilt and neuroses of the central characters as they all move away from the professional orbits that (once) made them so interesting. The Wolfman (yawn!) and his twin brother Jay are trotted out YET AGAIN as the bad boys of the piece, only to be despatched 'offscreen' at the end. I agree with other readers that the ending was sudden and flat - I convinced myself that I had missed a chapter and resorted to shaking the novel to see if the extra pages would suddenly materialise, explaining what went down at the shack and how Benton killed Jay and what happened to the Wolfman. No such luck. This didn't seem like a cliffhanger, more like a "I can't be bothered" from the author. I shall seriously debate buying any future Cornwell books - "Jack The Ripper" was a shoddy piece of scholarship, and this was lazily written throughout, lacking the taut plot and original characterisation that made the others in the series so enjoyable. A real shame.
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