Rating: 
Summary: Better than her last but still lacking
Review: I bought this book hardcover and wish I hadn't. It definitely held my interest, and was more violent and gruesome, but not as suspenseful as some of her previous books. I read this on the heels of Tess Gerritson's Life Support, which was so very gripping I could not put it down! P of O was just an okay suspense novel - buy the paperback. My humble opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: I liked it but....
Review: I was really excited to read the latest adventure for Kay Scarpetta. I was pleased that it had much of the excitement and intrigue of her earlier stories and I really liked the way she had developed all of her characters to emotional beings rather than these engines of law enforcement. I was completely captivated until the last 50 pages where I think the book petered out. The ending was a bit dramatic and I found myself wishing for more heart-pounding suspense. I'm glad though, that at least this Scarpetta novel leaves me yearning for more!!
Rating: 
Summary: I was disappointed in the long awaited Kay Scarpetta sequel
Review: I have been a major fan of Patricia Cornwell and her Kay Scarpetta series and immediately ordered the book. However, I thought it was too dark and disturbing. Also I didn't thing the story line hung together, the pieces weren't woven in their normal fashion, the personal tragedy was too much and the story went down hill fast from that point. I don't anticipate reading another book in this series.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the Suspense?
Review: Overall, typical Cornwell, which I enjoy. but I must admit, after anticipating this work, I was disappointed. I found it very predictable and run-of-the-mill. Was hoping for some excitement/suspense. Several times, I found myself distracted such that I noticed enough grammatical errors to wonder if it had not been edited before print.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing character development
Review: Apparently, I am not alone in the conclusion that some of the details of the fires were not wrapped up very well. But then, I had a hard time sticking with the plot of the story following the "horrible personal tragedy" experienced by Kay and the others. I was incredibly disappointed with that twist and would be very interested to know what Cornwell was thinking when she did this. I believe our friends in the Scarpetta series deserve better than they've gotten in this book. To her credit, Cornwell did answer an unsolved question from a previous plot, and further resolved the issue of a villian who was sure to seek revenge somehow.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating, Ended suddenly.
Review: I found the book to be considerably less enjoyable than herothers. The characters seemed much less real, overly bitter, and theending leaves many aspects of the Point Of Origin of the fires with too little explanation.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Disappointing
Review: I am extremely disappointed in this book. Plot points are not resolved. Villans are recycled. Cornwell kills off one of the her most attractive, appealing characters. She seems to be setting Marino up to die, and Lucy for a breakdown. The conclusion is so open-ended, I'm sure we'll see the same villanous characters again.
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell fails to light any fires with this tired tale
Review: Point of Origin is disappointing; it lacks suspense, the characters are shallow, and its villains fail to menance us. Add to those flaws the fact that the reader who hasn't read the previous Scarpetta novels will fail to understand many of the tensions and arguments, and you've got a lackluster read. The plot fails to engage us, because Cornwell is clearly more comfortable telling us about the details of how fires build and destroy than she is in creating a believable story. Her characters, the same cast of misfits that have appeared in previous stories, have long worn out their welcome. Pete Marino seems particularly lost ...he's reduced to the role of strutting and fretting as a sidekick, helping with luggage and carry-out food orders, and asking a few questions of suspects from time to time. As for Lucy ... well, aren't we all a little tired of hearing how sad the life of this tall, beautiful, brainy, helicopter-flying, computer programming, gun toting woman is?! Cornwell also forgets that TELLING us isn't as effective as SHOWING us. Her chief nemesis these days, Carrie Grethen, frightens us only because Cornwell recites a list of her prior crimes, and has her appear on camera with dark, evil eyes. Ho hum... Finally, Cornwell's prose here not only doesn't sing, it can't even carry a tune. When Kay reacts to the photograph of a watch worn by Ken Sparkes' ex-lover,his comment is hardly worth quoting: "He smiled and stared. Then he sighed." The book does have villains besides the ones toting the accelerants and knives: the FBI, lawyers, the media, Washington DC commuters, the "public". One wonders what motivates Scarpetta any more ... but not enough to want to continue reading about her. Time to retire this heroine and her pals. The summer has brought heat waves everywhere but between the pages of this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of Cornwell's best
Review: This book reminded me why I used to love to read for fun. I couldn't put it down and found myself waking up in the middle of the night trying to figure out the plot.
Rating:
Summary: Plot twist or emotional manipulation of reader?
Review: Point of Origin is filled with the fast paced, detail oriented writing fans of other Scarpetta books (I among them) have come come to relish. Details that would be gruesome are related in a "clinical" manner that renders them emotionally acceptable. In PoO, the horrific death of a character we have come to care about "personalizes" the crime to an extent I found disturbing. It smacks of an attempt to emotionally manipulate the reader in an unpleasant way. The book's ending is quite implausible--statistically, a murderer would do well to stay away from Kay. (By my count in 7 books I've read, murderer has been killed in 6, often by Kay. . .)
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