Rating: 
Summary: Kiss of death
Review: What a huge disappointment, I eagerly awaitied the publication of this book & managed to beg a copy off someone which I sat down to devour. What can I say without ruining the plot for those of you who haven't read it (unlike some of the other reviewers listed)? Firstly, how stupid can Benton be? Secondly why does everyone Scarpetta gets involved with meet a very gruesome end? She should come with a public warning - 'do not get involved with me or you will face certain death by scalping or a terrorist bomb'. Thirdly, like other reviewers I did not like the recycling of former baddies, it takes away the suspense, which after all is the whole purpose of reading books of this genre & I have had enough of Carrie Grethen and her 'evilness'.Lucy is just SO unbelieveably irritating, I find it a struggle to read about her. And enough is enough, Scarpetta's worship of her neice borders on the obsessive & is totally unhealthy. It's a shame that she has escaped the fate of all the other characters who've been associated with Aunt Kay. In previous books we were subjected to endless unecessary detail about computers. Lucy the genious, has managed to transform herself into an expert on helicopters & points of origin -argh. Please why must she continually be the main feature of the storyline, why can't we see her on the periphery for a change? Lucy is a dull, tedious, one dimensional humnourless nerd. Scarpetta isn't much better, the pair of them are real social misfits. The best characterisation by far must be Marino although it's clear that Cornwell sees him as an object of fun & ridicule. Scarpetta at times behaves like some religious nut, condeming smoking, disapproving of Marino's lifestyle & caffeine intake & forever ranting on about evil. She is SO moralistic it's galling to read. In fact she gets more judgemental, pious & sanctimonious by the book. I think I'll give Black Notice a miss unless Lucy has done a vanishing act & there are some new more rounded, three dimensional charcaters. Like some of the other reviewers, I also wonder whether the seeds of some same sex experiences are being sown for Scarpetta.
Rating:
Summary: yech.
Review: This is my third Patricia Cornwell novel and she's 3 for 3. You can't say I haven't tried. Stupid story, meandering plot and a testament to the mediocre tastes that make a book a best seller.
Rating: 
Summary: Nerve-wracking
Review: I agree with some of the comments that Kay Scarpetta needs to lighten up. She's been a little more depressed and gloomy with each new Cornwell novel, so much so that I'm beginning to blame Lucy who needs to start growing up. I was teary-eyed at the end. I have read all of Pat's novels and they're all good but my favorite and I think the scariest was From Potter's Field. Temple Gault was something else but when Carrie teamed up with him it was even scarier.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing . . .
Review: i'm a big fan of cornwell's, but this book didn't do it for me. i didn't buy the fact that carrie is so brilliant that every single thing she does is on purpose so that scarpetta finds out about it. lucy needs a kick in the head.
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell is good even when she not in top form
Review: I ordered Point of Origin, Triumph and the Glory, and Left Behind three weeks ago and finally got time to read them. Point of Origin was the best of the three, probably because I like mysteries better than anything else. Kay Scarpetta is one of the great fictional characters of the last several years, I can really relate to her. The plot is pretty contrived in spots but Cornwell is so skilled at what she does that the overall effect of the book is still laudatory. I just ordered her new one and am primed to read it next.
Rating:
Summary: What's happening?
Review: I have been a fan of Patricia Cornwell since her first book, but lately her plots are weak. She turned Kay into an unlikable character. She does not act like the public offical that she is supposed to be. Her plot lines are also getting similar; Kay loves a character then he dies. The book does provide some good medical information, but the characters are getting too strange. If you want to read some good medical trillers, read the previous books. They have better plots and characters.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing but sadly abrupt
Review: I loved the gore, but Cornwell has this disturbing habit of bringing in the heinous murderer right in the last 10 of the 300 pages. The fun is in kicking yourself for not having known all along that X was the bad guy, not in finding him at the very end and having him dashed to pieces.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing but sadly abrupt
Review: I loved the gore, but Cornwell has this disturbing habit ofbringing in the heinous murderer right in the last 10 of the 300pages. The fun is in kicking yourself, and not having known all along that X was the bad guy, not in finding him at the very end.
Rating: 
Summary: BEST OF ALL!
Review: Ok, I'm 14 and most people don't see 14yr olds reading this stuff, but I do. I must say of the books that I've read from her, this is by far her best. To be completely honest, I have four more pages and i will be finished, my fourth P.C. book in the last two weeks. I love her style of writing and will definitely be ordering still more of her books in the future... all in all... I, by all means, reccommend this book to any and everyone!
Rating: 
Summary: Adverbs/Barbara Bush Dedication
Review: I can live with a Barbara bush dedication, although it's no big draw for me. The adverb syntax is cumbersome. "She sweetly said" could be "She lilted," "She sang," "She chirped," etc. However, the book is worth reading given the successful use of reverse foreshadowing--we obsess with her about Marino's health, then Benton bites it. Still, Cornwell should spend more time constructing her verbs so she doesn't have to bog us down with her adverbs.
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