Red Mist

I had taken a break from Kay Scarpetta due to the direction Mrs. Cornwall had chosen to take her character. I found the paranoid, nobody believes in me, nobody trusts me, suspicious nature of Kay to be annoying and really baseless judging by the behavior and interactions between her and her loved ones we are privy to in the books. So, because I LOVE the stories and the way that Kay solves the mysteries with her forensic ability combined with her sharp observations, I tried the next book hoping maybe Kay had returned to her former more confident, strong self but alas, she still felt it was possibly all her fault, and that no one was taking her serious or listening to her. I understand the need to personalize Kay as somewhat vulnerable but this Kay is so insecure and suspicious that it\’s hard to respect her anymore. Just my opinion and I will continue to read the remainder of the series but I have to space them apart to get a break from \”woe-is-me\” Kay.

*Absolutely loved it!….Bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers another nail-biting suspense in this high tension thriller. Impossible to put down from beginning to end!…..After six grueling months since the murder of her deputy chief Jack Fielding, Dr. Kay Scarpetta had all intentions to get as many details as she possibly could about his his life, when she finds herself driving to the Georgia Prison for Women to meet a convicted offender of a cold-blooded killer. Against the advice of her forensics psychologist husband Benton Wesley warning her not to go because he felt she was being manipulated and set up by others, Kay is determined to hear what this woman has to say, but once there, she is not only stunned in what she hears, but soon after, she discovers suspicious connections that effect her both personally and professionally especially after learning shocking information about a Savannah family who was savagely murdered years before. And like she flipped on a light switch, other frightening killings are committed making her realize that Jack\’s death and the previous attempt on her own life was not only a means to an end, but the beginning of something far more sinister and destructive. As the truth begins to unravel, Kay discovers the possibility of not only a chilling conspiracy, but the potential threat of terrorism, and even though the red mist from the past still haunted her dreams, she knew without a doubt she was the only one who could stop a devious plot once and for all!…..

The first four fifths of this book could be the best Scarpetta novel in a long time. There is a single, coherent plot. There are realtively few minor characters. There is real mystery about what happened. The procedural parts of the book get back to the medical examiner material that Cornewell knows so well. The writing is tight and we do not have to spend too much time with Lucy and Marino. The Georgia Medical Examiner is particularly endearing. Cornwell can write. Then there are the last twenty pages, where Cornwell rushes to finish the book as soon as possible by telling us everything that Scarpetta figured out in a moment of inspiaration. In first year writing class, we are told, \”Show, not tell.\” This is a terrible example of \”tell, not show.\” Cornwell could have usefully dropped about 100 pages from the first four-fifths of the book (articularly the parts where she is beating up on herself for various imaginary sins) and added about 100 working to solve the mystery. Have her interview the suspects. Have her go to the scenes of the crimes and the suspicious locations. Have the police and the FBI actually find some clues. Have Lucy actually go through some of her sneaky information-gathering processes. Throw in a few discoveries from California and Massachusetts bit by bit. Build a little suspense, rather than relate Scarpetta\’s paranoid worries. Put her in some real jeopardy. Cornwell was never particularly good a writing action. Her strengths were character, procedure, and atmosphere. But at some point, a mystery writer needs not only to create a mystery, but to solve it. This mystery is solved more or less by a deus ex machina. We don\’t know how she did it. It is almost as if she wrote much of a good book first, did not know what to do with it, and attached her outline to the end of the book in lieu of a solution.

Like other reviewers I have read this series since book 1. They used to be fast paced and engrossing. This book drones on about botulism etc for page after page. This adds absolutely nothing to the story. I find myself skipping through all of this to the next bit which actually is part of the story. Book is unbelievably boring and will probably be the last book I read by this author, despite my previous loyalty. There are now much better new authors with stories which are as good or better than this very old and tired format. Feels like the author is now sitting back on her laurels and turning out substandard stories to make money from loyal fans. James Patterson, in my opinion, is now doing the same. I’m moving on to new authors who are working hard and delivering stories which are way better than we are getting from books such as this.

With so many reviews, I have no need to make mine long… I just wonder why I carry on spending my hard earned money on the Scarpetta series. Yet, I have a morbid fascination with Kay Scarpetta but I do not like her anymore. She is not the Kay of the beginning of the series. She is actually very unlikeable and again, so judgemental. and so wallowing in self pity \’\’poor me, I am so good to everyone\’\’ or righteous \’I know better than everyone else\’\’… Why?

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