Cause of Death

I enjoy murder mysteries and whodunnits. This book is part of the Kay Scarpetta series, to which I am addicted. I have to ration myself to one book in this series per month, so I can get on with the rest of what I have to do! I just can\’t put these books down once I start reading them! Patricia Cornwell builds tension with the development of the crime investigation, and couples it with the medical science of the coroner. Her books are very informative and very believable. I wonder if the offices of the FBI profilers really are set up in the basement, and that they run a super secure hotel, basically, inside FBI headquarters. Hmmm.. Whatever, this series fascinates me. However, any medical examiner/coroner who gets into as much trouble as she does, simply could not hold this job for any length of time. It sure is fun to see how she pulls out of harm\’s way. However, the people who work with her aren\’t always as fortunate. Each book in this series is a real page-turner.

SPOILER ALERT: I am a Scarpetta series fan and recently started reading the entire series again from book 1. Somehow I had missed reading Cause of Death years ago and just read it for the first time. I was disappointed in this one. I usually can somehow connect with the new characters introduced, whether the victims or their families. I usually feel at least sympathy for them or dislike of the villain. These characters drew no feeling from me. I don’t think they were nearly as well-developed as her characters usually are. The storyline itself felt like there was a big piece missing. It went from Scarpetta being followed and in danger, and you think Roche is going to be a major character and be dangerous for her, to a brief mention that he’s been suspended, and you never hear anything about him again. What happened to Captain Green? The ending to the entire book was extremely abrupt with details left hanging. What happened to The Book? Who has it? Scarpetta was so worried about how it would affect Lucy, but again, suddenly everything switches to the hostage situation and The Book is never mentioned again. The storyline was all over the place with a lot of loose ends left over. I’m still a big fan, however, and continue to be intrigued by the series. It was still a good read, just not quite the caliber of the first 6 books in the series. A lot of questions were left unanswered.

*Bestselling author Patricia Cornwall has shined again with her seventh novel of one of her favorite heroines, Dr. Kay Scarpetta solving another great mystery. ………Covering for a doctor in a small fishing village known as Chesapeak, chief medical examiner of Richmond Virginia Dr. Kay Scarpetta was awakened by a strange phone call. Refusing to give a name, the caller tells her that there has been a homicide at the Inactive Naval Ship Yard and she is needed at the crime scene immediately. Approaching all obstacles from the military, Kay still had jurisdiction and she was not leaving without a body. Putting on a diving suit and ignoring all insults from the men in question, Kay went down into the water to retrieve the victim. To her surprise, she wasn\’t prepared in what she was seeing as she looked into the dead eyes of Ted Eddings. Infamous as an investigative reporter, Kay not only liked the man but she had the highest respect for him as well. So, why was Ted in a diving suit snagged onto an old sub doing in a military ship yard? As the body was brought back to the morgue, she was joined by her old friend homicide detective Pete Marino and he too was suspicious of Eddings death, especially after Kay told him he died of cyanide poisoning. When threats are made by the military including a seedy detective, Kay decides to return to her home in Virginia where she and Marino can continue their investigation. At Ted\’s apartment though, more mysteries start to surface when they discover armour-piercing bullets commonly known as \”cop killers\”, bullets only law enforcement would have including the military. What was Ted Eddings into? Was it a story? Or something worse? When someone close to Kay is violently murdered while driving her car, they do the only thing they can. They call profiler SS FBI agent Benton Wesley. As acting consultants themselves for the FBI, Marino, Kay and Benton are once again reunited as a team but before they probe any deeper, Kay is shocked by revelations she has unraveled on her own but before she can tell anyone all the clues slowly start to surface scaring her into oblivion. Between a crazy egostistical holy man, a creepy bible, uranium, cyanide, the military, a \”cop killer\” encased into a man\’s brain, betrayal, corruption and an evil killer that will stop at nothing until he gets to his prey. Can Kay get to Wesley and Marino in time before thousands die? She has to try, there\’s no turning back not now. Three things she\’s positive about. Who to stop and who to warn with her gaze and more importantly, who\’s arms she wants to run into. Now, only to get there in time before the clock runs out!…….thank you♡♡

Heh, I forgot it goes along quite well and then its like Cornwell hit a brick wall and was like \”I\’m done with this story\” and just ended it. Kind of like the next book in the series (unnatural exposure) did the same thing it went so far then wrapped up faster then, well at least I, thought it should. This folks if you are reading out of order is really where we start getting Lucy the can\’t hold a job trauma drama\’s because we\’re starting with the first job for her. And yes she\’s in full on Lucy the brat mode in places that was funny in the first book, and not overly useful the rest of the books including this one. But she\’s there to move the story along, so that\’s all good. Lucy comes by that bratty trait honestly, Scarpetta herself shows it a few times in the story. Then you got Agent Wesley out of character towards the end. Over all you\’ll need it if you\’re reading the entire series. I got this on Kindle as somewhere is my 1st edition I got when I was 14. The \”eh I\’m done with this\” move on Cornwell\’s part is more obvious almost 15 years later then it was to my 14 year old self when I was wondering \”um…so that was it?\”

Having acquired the first eleven Scarpetta books for 99p each in Kindle format, I’m catching up on this series which I’ve meant to do for several years. I’m finding them very entertaining and well written and thoroughly enjoying the experience. But what was supposed to be the climax of this book was too much to take. It involved a completely barking take over and subsequent freeing of a nuclear power plant, all four of Patricia Cornwell’s main characters playing a lead role. It was so ridiculous, enjoyment went out of the window. And this authors detailed knowledge of guns doesn’t sit very easily on this side of the Atlantic either, particularly in the light of recent events, many years after the book was written. But in the main I’m still enjoying the series.

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