Publisher's Weekly Review
The aftermath of the bloodshed in 2010's Port Mortuary figures heavily in bestseller Cornwell's solid if scattered 19th thriller featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. Lured from her home in Cambridge, Mass., to Savannah, Ga., to visit Kathleen Lawler-the woman who molested Scarpetta's recently murdered colleague, Jack Fielding, as a child and later bore their daughter-at the Georgia Prison for Women, Scarpetta angrily realizes that she's been tricked. Ex-Manhattan ADA Jaime Berger wants Scarpetta's help exonerating a woman on death row for the murder nine years earlier of Savannah's Dr. Clarence Jordan and his family. What first seems like a cold case becomes terrifyingly current when fresh bodies start appearing. Scarpetta begins questioning whether the Jordan family slaying is linked to the murders in Massachusetts in Mortuary at the hands of Dawn Kincaid, the brilliant psychopath daughter of Lawler and Fielding. As in other recent work, Cornwell overloads the plot, but Scarpetta's tangled emotional state and her top-notch forensic knowledge more than compensate. Author tour. Agent: Esther Newberg at ICM. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Over the course of the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has taken her heroine from the Richmond, Virginia, medical examiner's office to Massachusetts' cutting-edge Cambridge Forensic Center. As the nineteenth Scarpetta novel opens, she is in a rented car on her way to the Georgia Prison for Women, where she's going to meet with inmate Kathleen Lawler, the mother of the woman who murdered Scarpetta's colleague, Jack Fielding (familiarity with the previous book in the series, Port Mortuary, 2010, would be helpful here). But Scarpetta doesn't anticipate walking into an elaborate if rather unnecessarily labyrinthine conspiracy involving several seemingly unrelated murders that may be connected to the events surrounding Fielding's death. It's a good novel, better than Port Mortuary (which was, in turn, better than many recent Scarpetta outings), but it's still a long way from the quality of the early novels that put Cornwell on the map, e.g., Postmortem (1990) and The Body Farm (1994). Longtime series fans will definitely be intrigued: the book answers several questions raised in previous recent books, and it certainly feels like another step on the road back to prime form for the author although, that said, it should also be noted that, as a first-person narrator (a recent switch in approach), Scarpetta is still finding her voice. Expect rough patches of exposition. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The unevenness of the Kay Scarpetta series has never deterred Cornwell's legion of fans, and it won't bother them this time, either, especially as the author seems to be rounding back into top form.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Manipulation is the major force in Cornwell's 19th Kay Scarpetta mystery, as the chief medical examiner is lured down to the Georgia Prison for Women. The first third of the story consists primarily of Cornwell's painstaking reprisal of the circumstances of the death of Deputy Chief Jack Fielding and the attack on Scarpetta by his daughter, Dawn Kincaid, covered in the last book (Port Mortuary), barely developing this sequel. The interest level perks up a bit with the reappearance of former New York prosecutor Jamie Berger, but that only causes more whining from this supposedly intelligent, strong woman. The usual sidekicks are thinly drawn shadows of their former selves; Scarpetta's Georgia Forensic colleague -Colin Denton is the sole character with any flash of personality. At the end, Scarpetta kicks herself around, and the book blurb's promise of "a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism" resolves quickly and flatly. -VERDICT The Scarpetta franchise is very tired and should be allowed to retire much more gracefully. Reader Kate Reading may be the sole saving grace-familiar with the characters and to listeners-but even she seems weary of it all. Not recommended. ["Cornwell's latest overwhelms the plot with distracting details that contribute little to the overall story.... Fans, however, may overlook these distractions," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Putnam hc, LJ Xpress Reviews, 12/9/11.-Ed.]-Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
