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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Cornwell's latest after the disappointing Blow Fly has indomitable medical examiner Kay Scarpetta returning to her office in Richmond five years after being fired. This homecoming will cheer fans: not only does the move put Scarpetta on her own turf, it reinvigorates Cornwell's storytelling, restoring some of the spunk lately lacking in her lead character. Dr. Joel Marcus, Scarpetta's replacement as Virginia's chief medical examiner, has summoned her back to help him puzzle through the mysterious death of a 14-year-old girl. Marcus is generally loathed: he's petty, inept, has a secret garbage-truck phobia and harbors an intense hatred for Scarpetta. Meanwhile, Scarpetta's niece Lucy, owner of a fabulously successful private-eye firm, has her own troubles trying to sort out who attempted to kill her friend Henri (short for Henrietta), who's now under psychiatric treatment by Scarpetta's lover in Aspen, Benton Wesley. Lurking in the background is Edgar Allan Pogue, a nutcase who has a thing for dead bodies and a grudge against Scarpetta. It's her job, as always, to connect all the puzzling forensic dots and identify the killer in time to save herself and her loved ones. She does this, mostly, but leaves the reader to puzzle out a few salient points on his or her own. Cumbersome backstory slows the action, but in general the old Scarpetta comes through, at least in the main, and this will be enough to reassure her many fans and carry them over until her next appearance. BOMC, Literary Guild, Mystery Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selection.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Against advice from her niece Lucy, Kay Scarpetta answers a request to return to the Richmond medical examiner's office, the same office from which she was fired, to help with the sensitive case of a dead teen. When she and Pete Marino arrive, they find the new medical examiner to be a vituperative, uncooperative martinet and the office that Kay ran so efficiently in chaos. Two murders, oddly linked, demand their attention. In the meantime, Lucy, still unsettled despite her success with the Last Precinct investigative agency, is having personal problems (there's been an attack on her housemate), which strangely enough find her treading the same path as her aunt Kay. Traces of the smart, dynamic, yet vulnerable Scarpetta of the early novels are in evidence here, and Cornwell has better control of her plot and characters than in her last few efforts, faltering only occasionally when psychobabble weighs things down. The mystery is intriguing, there's plenty of forensic detail, and the ending, though perhaps too abrupt, opens the way for Scarpetta and her associates to proceed in any direction that calls to them. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Her books still sell???,
By
This review is from: Trace (Mass Market Paperback)
The reviews of Trace on Amazon.com, over three-hundred of them, are much poorer than the nine or so here. I thoroughly agree with the Amazon.com reviewers. Cornwell started downhill with Isle of Dogs, a terrible book. After that I only read Blowfly, to give her another chance. I thought Blowfly was nearly as bad. I bought Trace just on spec, expecting little...and got less. Everybody in the book is unreasonably angry, the sub-plots drag on, Benton risks his relation with Kay to work with a totally uninteresting woman (Lucy's ex-lover) and his efforts come to nothing. Marino magically gets the baddie in the end, though it's unclear how. And the baddie is a most unbelievable wacko. A lot of fuss is made over trace elements found at two crime scenes and no real resolution is ever given. A construction worker may or may not have been murdered...who knows and who cares. A most unlikeable Dr. Marcus is introduced, with a weird hang-up, and then dropped. When I finally finished the book, doggedly working through it in case it got better, my question was: Why did I bother? Terrible book.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
NOT good at all,
By Susie Sharon (Orleans, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Trace (Hardcover)
I only gave this book two stars because I am very loyal to this author. Unfortunately, this book is horrible. Blowfly was REALLY bad. This one is also bad, not as much but... I read the other reviews and I believe the book was given okay reviews because the previous book was so awful that this one seems good compared to it! I am so sad that P. Cornwell is continuing to murder the characters that we love so much. I can't stand this anymore and I don't think I will be buying her other books.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
disappointed is not enough of a word,
By penny young (port coquitlqm, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Trace (Mass Market Paperback)
Once again, after reading Blowfly...I had to force myself to read this incredibly boring book. I kept reading, looking for the "punch lines" or the meat of the book. unfortunately, with the ending of the book...there just wasn't one. You had to add your own theory between Scarpetta..Benton..Lucy..and Henri. Talk about no meat. Where was the story?? Why did Henri even go and stay with Benton? What was the sense if Benton and everyone involved knew she was lying? What the hell was Lucy hiding from Scarpetta after everything her and Lucy had been through in the past? I hate it when I read a book, and I am pissed off at the end that I wasted my time. Sorry Ms. Cornwell, but this is the last book that you will suck me into buying. I don't know if your editor is pushing you or not, but I would think that you are professional enough, and have pride in your own writing that this would not be the case.
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