Rating: 
Summary: Time to retire
Review: I have always rated Patricia Cornwell highly, but her books are definitely on a downward curve. I think that after the first two or three she ran out of ideas and new villains. In her new book coincidences abound, departed villains return to terrorise and the usual right wing platitudes abound. I think it is time to retire Scarpetta and think of something new. If Paretsky could do it so can Cornwell.
Rating: 
Summary: 10 Cornwell combines intrique and compassion. spellbinding
Review: Cornwell is back. After a subpar Unnatural Exposure, she has naturally exposed real human emotions of evil, greed and private glimpses of fragile human hearts. Cornwell is maturing and her readers will absorb her new depths.
Rating:
Summary: Cornwell is at the top of her game
Review: Dr. Kay Scarpetta is still the Chief Medical Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia. When needed, she is loaned to other agencies due to her deservedly sterling reputation. Life has dramatically changed for both Kay's lover (Benton Wesley) and her niece Lucy. Unable to cope with the intense scrutiny that the FBI provides to a gay woman working on a top secret project, Lucy transfers to the ATF. Benton has also left the agency to become a private consultant. Just when Kay and Lucy are happy with their significant others, a shadow from their past descends on them. Sociopath Carrie Grithen, Lucy's first lover, has escaped from a maximum security mental facility. She gives notice that she plans to obtain revenge from the three people who sent her up (Kay, Benton, and Lucy). As soon as the reader becomes complacent that Patricia Cornwell could not possibly surprise them anymore, the talented author releases POINT OF ORIGIN, a novel that contains one of the most unexpected but plausible twists in years. With a simple action, the focus of the characters radically change as the more vulnerable side of Kay surfaces. Harriet Klausner END
Rating: 
Summary: Scarpetta should retire or try hormone replacements
Review: Kay Scarpetta, the gun-toting, classical-music loving, brilliant, beautiful and seemingly ageless (by my calculations she should be about 88 years old by now) medical- examiner-one-woman-crime-buster from Virginia is back and involved in another intricate over-the-top-you-gotta-be-kidding-me story involving helicopters, fire, metal shavings, bathing caps, an escaped loony bent on revenge, sexy weapons and of course, her troubled genius-of-a-niece Lucy, who with each book seems to be more of a walking screw-up than a genius. The usual lengthy and unnecessary explanations of scientific and technical procedures abound, as do the unintentionally hilarious philosophical exchanges between the ever-crusty Pete "Yo" Marino and Dr Kay about good and evil (always with the just right amount of self-righteous indignation). The prose is workmanlike, the books read more like research papers and the proffered psychological insights are nowhere near as penetrating as they first sound. Nothing new here unless you count Kay's lusty appraisals of her niece's bod-is there some wierd lesbotic incest thing happening here? No doubt there will be another book on its way that will probably explore this further. She's also tired, whiny and bitter. Personally I think the good doctor should just slap some oestrogen patches on her butt and give it up. END
Rating:
Summary: A Page-Turner
Review: POINT OF ORIGIN is better than the last Cornwell novel, and I liked the last one. I was lucky to get an advance copy of POINT OF ORIGIN (my uncle works at a newspaper that gets review copies). The book involves murder and intrigue, and I had to keep guessing what was going to happen. It is the best thriller novel I've read since THE SHAPE: A NOVEL OF INTERNATIONAL SUSPENSE by Craig Furnas. Patricia Cornwell is supposed to be a real unlikable person, and so that always makes me hesitant to partake of an artist's work if the artist is a jerk. But Cornwell's skill as a suspense master makes me set that "rule" aside. It's good POINT OF ORIGIN is coming out in the summer, because POINT OF ORIGIN is perfect summer reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Cornwell is a superb writer.
Review: This is more in the nature of a "customer comment" than a review(there are plenty of reviews already). I finished this book at 1 a.m. today and had nightmares the rest of the night. I thought it was extremely well written and one of PC's best efforts. I just read all the customer comments and now, upon reflection, it is obvious that she left some things out. How the fires started is never explained and admittedly, that is a big hole; but the quality of the writing is far superior to most books of this genre. It is hard to believe PC actually wrote Hornet's Nest which I found unreadable. Writing a series is obviously difficult, and she keeps up the quality better than most other authors do. i will recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a sophisticated, intellectually challenging read and doesn't mind the dark and sinister atmosphere.
Rating: 
Summary: Formula and stereotype trump logic
Review: Warning, some of this may be a spoiler. The book is full of stereotypes. The young brilliant lesbian helicopter pilot/computer genius/cop. The male slob police captain. The overweight public defender who could have used a bra and is Jewish to boot (it apparently doesn't occur to Cornwell that some people who are accused are innocent, or that everyone has the right to counsel so defense counsel are all villains in her view. Racially stereotyped villians.) Worse than that, the plot doesn't hold water. A foal survives a fire in the stable. A lot is made of that early in the book. Then it's dropped. An escaped mental patient is able to follow and anticipate Scarpetta's every move. How did that happen? Worst of all is the stupidity of the police. A horse ranch burns. A burned car is found on the premises. A body that does not belong to the ranch or the car is found in the bathroom. The owner of the ranch early on tells Scarpetta who the person killed likely is. No attempt is made, apparently, to trace this woman's life or look for connections (such as did anyone she know own such a car) for a few weeks until Scarpetta goes out and does it herself. In fact no one ever attempts to find out who the car belongs to until it just happens that, when they find who the killer is they realize (wow!) that, hey -- this person owns that type of car. But, of course, if the police had any sense and, in investigating a murder by arson looked for who owned the car that didn't belong there, they would have found the killer in a few hours and this long book would have ended without the endless whining of Scarpetta about the state of the world and how horrible it is that people are in it that cause her to do what she does for a living. But of course, it's hard to credit the criminal genius Scarpetta is pursuing with being diabolically clever when that person leaves an auto at the scene of the crime. Give me a break!
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Charaters
Review: The knowledge that Patricia Cornwell has in forensic science and inside knowledge of the FBI and ATF is incredible. Reading this book, (along with the others) you are opening yourself up to an incredible education in the science of a forensic pathologist. I often have to remind myself that these characters are fictional, although i guess that is what a good author should make you do. I should hope that someday these books would be made into a TV miniseries or even a huge movie series. It would be a huge blockbuster and reach out to other audiences that perhaps do not read so much.
You're doing an increible job, Patricia Cornwell, I hope there is only more to come.
Leah
Rating:
Summary: Well, I'm done...
Review: ...no, not with the book, but with Patricia Cornwell. Done, done, done. Psychotic deranged serial killers who can keep it together enough to outwit, outfox, outplay and outlive the entire FBI and ATF? What is this Carrie person -- the boogey woman? Kaiser Soze? And Lucy -- no, no more please. Uncle! She is such a high maintenance whiny pill, like Meadow Soprano. Am I the only one who finds the aunt-niece relationship between Lucy the Pill and Kay the Wonder Woman to be a little -- well -- ooky?
This book was so lame I can't believe Patricia Cornwall actually wrote it, but I am going to finish it so I'll give it 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Formula and stereotype trump logic
Review: A very enjoyable read in the Kay Scarpetta series, although a bit weaker story than some of the others. Still, well worth your time to read.
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