Red Mist
A Scarpetta Novel
-
-
3.9 • 1.4K Ratings
-
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
With high-tension suspense and cutting-edge technology, Patricia Cornwell—the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer—once again proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthrall in this remarkable novel featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.
On her quest to find out exactly what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months before, Scarpetta drives to the Georgia Prison for Women to meet a convicted sex offender and the mother of a vicious and diabolically brilliant killer. Against the advice of her FBI criminal intelligence agent husband, Benton Wesley, Scarpetta is determined to hear this woman out.
Scarpetta has both personal and professional reasons to learn more about a string of grisly killings: the murder of a Savannah family years earlier, a young woman on death row, and then other inexplicable deaths that begin to occur at a breathtaking pace. Driven by inner forces, Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding’s death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale.
And she is the only one who can stop it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The aftermath of the bloodshed in 2010's Port Mortuary figures heavily in bestseller Cornwell's solid if scattered 19th thriller featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. Lured from her home in Cambridge, Mass., to Savannah, Ga., to visit Kathleen Lawler the woman who molested Scarpetta's recently murdered colleague, Jack Fielding, as a child and later bore their daughter at the Georgia Prison for Women, Scarpetta angrily realizes that she's been tricked. Ex-Manhattan ADA Jaime Berger wants Scarpetta's help exonerating a woman on death row for the murder nine years earlier of Savannah's Dr. Clarence Jordan and his family. What first seems like a cold case becomes terrifyingly current when fresh bodies start appearing. Scarpetta begins questioning whether the Jordan family slaying is linked to the murders in Massachusetts in Mortuary at the hands of Dawn Kincaid, the brilliant psychopath daughter of Lawler and Fielding. As in other recent work, Cornwell overloads the plot, but Scarpetta's tangled emotional state and her top-notch forensic knowledge more than compensate. Author tour.
Customer Reviews
Good mystery!
I love Kay Scarpetta mysteries
Not much to this book to cost list price !
Not worth the price!
Better than the last one
Almost back to normal
Aside from all the medical, legal and psychological experts missing the obvious “twin” answer that becomes apparent to the reader almost immediately, this was a refreshing return to solving mysterious deaths for which we used to all read the Scarpetta series. Kay’s progression seems choppy and some times not well derived but she gets to the truth eventually. Sadly, the story is still mired in a world in which everyone wants to take down, kill, frame and ruin Kay Scarpetta – a plot that is increasingly getting monotonous and incredibly unbelievable. The story further diminishes the expertise and street smarts of Marino even as Agent? Doctor? Therapist? Husband? Benton Wesley’s role becomes less and less defined. I was glad to get back to Kay using her unique talents and education to investigate but disappointed that it seems to be at the expense of the other characters’ participation and further growth. Lastly, thank you for finally introducing a Scarpetta colleague who is normal, friendly, and has no ulterior motive to destroy her – now we know there is at least one in the vast Cornwellian world.