Customer Reviews

The Scarpetta Factor

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm such a Scarpetta fan, but this novel is soooo boring. I find it a difficult read, as it doesn't flow. I will finish it sometime this week- but I started it at Christmas 2009!! I agree that in the last 2 novels the writing hasn't been there- it doesn't intrigue me. Maybe Patricia should take some downtime and "go back" to her creative roots- roots the brought us From Potter's Field and Post Mortem and create novels that are complex but exciting at the same time.

I too found this book disappointing. I read it to the end but it was more of a soap opera concentrating on the personal problems and emotional baggage of the main characters. The gripping forensic mystery element was missing for me. I hope that Patricia Cornwall returns to the formula used in her early books which I ould not put down.

Almost 600 pages and the story is not worth 60. There is no mystery or suspense. The story takes place over 24 hours. To say that it looks at the personnal baggage of the characters is stretching it. There are crimes which seem to have very little to do with the story. The fact that the culprit is discovered seems to be just a by-line. The suspects who do appear beg the question - why bother? In the end they just do not have anything to do with the solution. Save a forest and don't buy this book.

I have read several of Ms. Cornwell's books in the past and I note that, in my view, they have declined in quality over recent years. This one is almost twice as thick as a normal novel and I could not get past the first fifty pages even though I tried three times.

I can't explain exactly why, but I have the feeling of an organ grinder cranking out the verbage within a fixed formula, much like a tune on a player piano. There is nothing new here, it's the same old, same old without even any further exploration of the cast of characters.

Perhaps I'm just spoiled by the wonderful writing of the late Steig Larsen or by the likes of Michael Connelly and Ian Rankin. Against this tableau of quality, this novel just doesn't cut it.

I like Patricia's books very much but I find this book a bit borring towards the end.