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.
Rating: 
Summary: A little weaker, but still good
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.
Rating:
Summary: Superb medical mystery; a plot twist I could do without.
Review: As usual, Patricia Cornwell has written a wonderfully exciting medical mystery that kept me glued from beginning to end. I enjoyed this book because of its plot direction and end-of-my-seat suspense. Additionally, the reappearance of a previous character, Carrie, brings an entirely new element to this story - previous readers know this character and want some type of resolution, especially me! Patricia Cornwell resurrects previous characters, namely Benton, Marino and her niece, Lucy. I, for one, love these characters and always want to read more about them. Furthermore, this book truly rounded out these characters for me, as I learned more about them in this particular novel. Finally, the author is not afraid to take chances with her work; while I may not always agree with her plot twists on a personally emotional level, Patricia Cornwell definitely knows what she's doing!
Rating:
Summary: It was good, even for a 'bad' book by her
Review: I don't consider myself a big fan of hers, though given this I sure have read enough of her books. The are well written, well researched, great plots. I don't even mind that all her female characters are all superstars (a lot of women are superstars ). The negative for me was the whining, the doctor and her neice are big whiners. I will read another book by her.
Rating: 
Summary: Same Old, Same Old...
Review: I love Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series! Every book is so interesting. This book is as terrific as the rest, however, I was just as shattered as Kay, Lucy and Marino regarding the final victim of Carrie Grethen (or it is her final victim after all???). I was so angry and hurt! A testimony to the affect and quality of these novels on this reader, and, I'm trying to say this without giving anything away, is that I cried unabashedly for the last three chapters and then, was unable to even start the next book. I may have to wait a few months to take on Black Notice without, again, sobbing through the book. I am easily sucked into the worlds presented in books, but rarely are my reactions this intense.
One thing, though... Hey Patricia Cornwell! Is Kay Scarpetta EVER going to be happy???
Rating:
Summary: Classic Cornwell!
Review: I read a lot of the reviews for this book, and I really don't agree with most of them. I think that this book is an extremely good example of Ms. Cornwell's chilling writing. The dialogue and the plot are crisp and the detail is incredible. We find out a lot about fire investigation in this book. Yes, I admit Ms. Cornwell does get rather graphic and "over-the-top" in her violence, but that is what makes a Kay Scarpetta book so Unputdownable. I do agree with others, that readers must read this series in order. A lot of what happens in each book is a take off from what happened in a previous one. It would be confusing if you started partway through. Also, the character development progesses with each book, so the reader needs to get inside Kay's head and see things in the way she would have. In this book, we see a previous villain come back to haunt Kay and the people that she loves. Kay is called in to a fire investigation where a body is found burned beyond recognition. The more she digs into the case, the more disturbed she becomes and she realizes that she is dealing with true monster who probably had committed many murders before this one. Also, the more she digs, the more it becomes apparent that an old nemesis (Carrie Grethen) is somehow behind these terrible crimes. Her, Benton, Lucy and Marino set out to find a killer and one of the truly evil people that she has ever encountered. Before the final twist of the plot at the end, Kay suffers a very personal tragedy. We will have to read how that has affected her in the next installment.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Cornwell!
Review: I read a lot of the reviews for this book, and I really don't agree with most of them. I think that this book is an extremely good example of Ms. Cornwell's chilling writing. The dialogue and the plot are crisp and the detail is incredible. We find out a lot about fire investigation in this book. Yes, I admit Ms. Cornwell does get rather graphic and "over-the-top" in her violence, but that is what makes a Kay Scarpetta book so Unputdownable. I do agree with others, that readers must read this series in order. A lot of what happens in each book is a take off from what happened in a previous one. It would be confusing if you started partway through. Also, the character development progesses with each book, so the reader needs to get inside Kay's head and see things in the way she would have. In this book, we see a previous villain come back to haunt Kay and the people that she loves. Kay is called in to a fire investigation where a body is found burned beyond recognition. The more she digs into the case, the more disturbed she becomes and she realizes that she is dealing with true monster who probably had committed many murders before this one. Also, the more she digs, the more it becomes apparent that an old nemesis (Carrie Grethen) is somehow behind these terrible crimes. Her, Benton, Lucy and Marino set out to find a killer and one of the truly evil people that she has ever encountered. Before the final twist of the plot at the end, Kay suffers a very personal tragedy. We will have to read how that has affected her in the next installment.
Rating:
Summary: I kept up the page turning...
Review: Like many popular novels, this one is an easy and fairly quick read despite the fact that Cornwell often gives way too much detail and information in places. Near the beginning of this work she introduces a manager at a local motel that has red hair and a cat named "Pickles". She tells us why the cat is named Pickles, and if I could ask her, I'd wonder why she bothered. Somebody apparently likes Vidalia onions too, so what? I think some of the attention to detail, like what's for dinner and what color a meaningless characters shirt is, could have been left out.Cornwell does a good job of back story and I was surprised to find that a character from 'All That Remains', the only other novel of hers I've read, had died off in one of the previous books. By the end of this one, I decided that there was a plot line that Cornwell doesn't seem to escape from; Scarpetta is a bit of a loner and lots of her friends die including one in the the book I just mentioned. I suppose it propels readers into the next book, who will die next? But I find it too contrived. I never liked the premise of that tv show 'Murder She Wrote' either, how many people have someone around them get murdered all the time? In 'All That Remains' we have too many coincidences. Perhaps that is often how crimes are solved, through lucky breaks and the like, but here it was too much. And I really didn't care for the ending, it was too sudden and didn't have much suspense. It seemed like she decided it was time to end the book, so the killers just showed up and started shooting. Another complaint I have is simply that she leaves some issues unresolved. In the beginning of the novel, there is a black foal that has mysteriously escaped death and we are lead to believe this is some kind of foreshadowing, but it never gets resolved. Also the character that seems to be important at the beginning, the big-wig rich guy, ends up being almost meaningless, even though we are lead to believe he has some importance. A huge issue in trying to solve the crime, how the fires started and how they get so big, gets tons of play, but we never get told what actually happened. This was the biggest error of the book, I felt, there was all this drama building up about how they couldn't figure out how the fires got started and then we are never told what actually happened. One of the problems of writing from only one viewpoint, in the first person, is that it is sometimes awkward to describe events that the protagonist doesn't know about first hand. I'd give Cornwell an "A" for how she handles this technique, but to leave out something so important seems unforgivable. She does explain how the fire starts, but it is akin to saying they "used a match" she left out how they got so hot when that question was a huge story point to the fire detectives. And of course the characterization of Lucy was too much. If Cornwell wants to write about a computer genius, beautiful and perfect, able to do calculations in her head that everyone else needs a calculator for, able to fly helicopters, be a fire investigator, FBI agent, and so forth, perhaps she should make her the protagonist as she is almost like a female James Bond and she shouldn't be playing second fiddle. Despite my complaints, being picky and looking for faults is a character trait of mine, I'm still going to give this book a 4. In the field that it is written in, it is above average. I'd recommend, however, starting in the beginning of the series, unlike myself, as I think that would make the stories run together more smoothly. I'd also point out that this type of writing probably appeals more to female readers, but I'd venture to say I'll read more, they are certainly entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: The saga of human maturity continues and entertains as well.
Review: Many readers have panned Cornwell's Point of Origin as not keeping within the genre' and being too involved with character development. To my way of thinking, this is precisely what the author intended. Those of us who have read all of the Scarpetta episodes, and have any sort of memory, do not need fresh starts and predictable thrillings. We have unanswered questions from the past and this book nicely ties up loose ends and gives us an update on the principle characters. Kay and Lucy are the pivotal personalities and it is gratifying to watch them behaving in a realistically unfinished manner. Those who focus in on picky little details and find fault with occasionally inaccurate nits are missing the whole reason for this series. Whether or not Cornwell wants to admit it, we are watching the evolution of the author's personality as she reflects upon the adventures of her characters. True growth occurs only through reflection. Even though the incidents portrayed in the novel are fictional, we need to realize that all writing is irrevocably filtered through the experience and world view of the author. A few hours spent with Kay and Lucy, every year or so, gives us an update on Patricia Cornwell who has been so gracious as to share her opinions about things that matter to her. Unlike authors who grind out thrillers with no particular personal involvement, Cornwell has the courage to invite us into her home. The person of Kay Scarpetta may seem to make snap decisions and jump to conclusions on occasion and for those readers who do not know her, she may seem to be incompletely formed and her reasoning, flawed. Cornwell has been criticized for moving too rapidly in these instances. In my opinion, she is giving her long-time readers the benefit of brevity where it is appropriate. I could go on but you get the point (no pun intended). I give this book two thumbs up, using both hands, and say to Patricia Cornwell: keep up the good work, I enjoyed our time together and I am looking forward to our next meeting.
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