Book of the Dead
Scarpetta (Book 15)
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4.1 • 406 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Scarpetta, an all-new Original Series, is out now on Prime Video!
Enter the chilling and captivating world of Dr. Kay Scarpetta before Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis bring the mystery to life onscreen.
“The new audience will be compelled by the characters, crimes, and mysteries that are the trifecta of Patricia’s masterful storytelling… and a warning……there WILL be BLOOD.” – Jamie Lee Curtis
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Dr. Kay Scarpetta must solve a string of murders more baffling—and terrifying—than any that have come before.
The Book of the Dead is the morgue log, the ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to acquire a new meaning.
Starting over with a unique private forensic pathology practice in the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, seems like the ideal situation for Dr. Kay Scarpetta and her colleagues, Pete Marino and her niece, Lucy. But then come the deaths . . .
A sixteen-year-old tennis star, fresh from a tournament win in Charleston, is found nude and mutilated near Piazza Navona in Rome. The body of an abused young boy is dumped in a desolate marsh. A woman is ritualistically murdered in her multimillion-dollar beach home. Meanwhile, in New England, problems with a prominent patient at a Harvard-affiliated psychiatric hospital begin to hint at interconnections among the deaths that are as hard to imagine as they are horrible.
Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never has she seen anything like what she’s facing now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names—and the pen may be poised to write her own. . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Cornwell's 15th novel to feature Dr. Kay Scarpetta (after 2005's Predator) delivers her trademark grisly crime scenes, but lacks the coherence and emotional resonance of earlier books. Soon after relocating to Charleston, S.C., to launch a private forensics lab, Scarpetta is asked to consult on the murder of U.S. tennis star Drew Martin, whose mutilated body was found in Rome. Contradictory evidence leaves Scarpetta, the Italian carabinieri and Scarpetta's lover, forensic psychologist Benton Wesley, stumped. But when she discovers unsettling connections between Martin's murder, the body of an unidentified South Carolina boy and her old nemesis, the maniacal psychiatrist Dr. Marilyn Self, Scarpetta encounters a killer as deadly as any she's ever faced. With her recent switch from first- to third-person narration, Cornwell loses what once made her series so compelling: a window into the mind of a strong, intelligent woman holding her own in a profession dominated by men. Here, the abrupt shifts in point of view slow the momentum, and the reader flounders in excessive forensic minutiae. (Oct.)
Customer Reviews
I hope this series continues because I only have one book left to read.
A great read, even if it was hard to follow in places. I have one book left in the series to read.
Book of the Dead
Just when I thought I was seeing some of the old Patricia Cornwell, the book ends leaving me hanging, which I’m certain the purpose is to make sure the next book picks up where this one left off to insure the purchase of the next book. I feel exploited so it’s not likely I’ll continue to follow her.
Cornwell’s Very Odd Fever Dream
The author seems to have written this mid-range book after waking from an unpleasant fever dream. The characters are cartoonish or wooden. Marino in particular has devolved from the paunchy ignorant balding cop of earlier to a raging testosterone-filled investigator constantly on the edge of sexually assaulting Scarpetta. Benton is over the top jealous, and Lucy has become an angry creeper. The serial killer and his creator are deeply repugnant. I’ve read less than a third of the Scarpetta series but in this one she seems to be trying out a more free-form tone. She’s writing in present tense and most chapters open with a fragmented phrase, like the caption of a photo or a journal entry. On a positive note, Cornwall has toned down her embarrassing “colloquial” dialogue that she used to attach to uneducated cops and persons of color. Ugh to this entry in the Scarpetta universe.