The Last Precinct

In this book, Dr.Scarpetta gets a letter from Benton Wesley a year after his death, delivered by Senator Lord. She is then called to the scene of a decomposing body and then goes to Paris where she makes the mistake of sleeping with an ATF agent. When a killer shows up and attacks her and she blinds him it leads to changes in her life.

This book picks right up from the previous installment, Black Notice, so I recommend that you read that one first. The first few chapters are a bit tedious as Kay Scarpetta goes through a lot of introspection from almost being murdered in Black Notice. I was hoping for more action and it slowly comes around, but not to the same suspense as the earlier books of the series that made me turn page after page. I think if you are a Scarpetta series fan, you\’d like this book, as you\’ve been bringing the history of Kay, Benton, Lucy and Marino along with you. I think many reviewers here are a bit harsh, even though this is not as good as the first few in the series. If you are new to the series, this would probably be a 3 star book.

Cornwell is fast becoming my favorite contemporary author as she pulls all the loose ends together to connect the players and their actions concerning the violent murders that have taken place in France and now New York and Richmond. Beautiful artistry! I\’m sad that I\’ve finished this one. I am binge reading the series. Magnificent!

Patricia Cornwell\’s last book \”Black Notice\” left me, as many of her other fans, a bit disappointed. There was less of the usual complexity, the unexpected twists and turns in the plot, the richness of the characters. Like her heroine, Kay Scarpetta, the reader had not recovered from Benton Wesley\’s death, and Black Notice offered no relief, not many explanations and no insight into Kay\’s dealing with the loss of her lover. In \”the last precinct\” we finally get all of the above and much more. It is a very gratifying book on every level. We find out many new sides to Kay\’s character and revisit her relationship with Wesley on the backgound of a harrowing tale that picks up where the last book left off. It seamlessly leads us into a complex darkness we suspected but did not find in \”Black Notice\” where solutions seemed too obvious to be really true. As the story races on and we are drawn in deeper and deeper we realize that \”Black Notice\” was really the beginning of another great multi-novel story as Cornwell has crafted before when she created the evil Temple Gault character, Kay\’s nightmare that ended in a NY subway. Cornwell also skillfully builds new charcters on the good side of events: there is the prosecutor from New York and the psychiatrist friend who we will undoubtedly meet again. At the end of this extremely involving and suspenseful story we are once more, as in her best books so far, left craving for more and wondering where Kay will go next and what darkness lies around the corner.

I liked The Last Precinct written by Patricia Cornwell. As a matter of fact I read it twice by mistake. I had evidently read it the first time it came out and when I saw it listed again I got it. Although parts were really familiar, some I was able to read twice and it was like reading it anew. The character Dr. Kay Scarpetta is a great character. She is many- faceted, with a family of interesting characters and friends. Her scenes are intense and the sinister characters are chilling. Although I might read it again (hope not as the really familiar scenes will be too much) I would definitely recommend it to anyone. I don\’t want to forget her detective friend and often pain in the butt, Pete Marino, he could have a book of his own.

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