Black Notice - Kay Scarpetta, Bk 10 Author:Patricia Cornwell As winter grips Richmond, Virginia, an air of somberness pervades chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta's world. Her beloved niece Lucy is involved in a dangerous undercover police operation in Miami, and auntie fears for her life. A tyrannical new deputy chief, Diane Bray, wants to get Kay's department under her jurisdiction. Meanwhile, ... more »back at the office, someone has tinkered with the e-mail system, stealing Kay's identity, and sending off slanderous and hurtful messages. Emotionally battered, Scarpetta fears she is going insane. Or, could it be that someone is deliberately sowing this harvest of sorrow?
Despite her personal problems, Scarpetta is still the reigning diva at the department of death. She is sent to investigate the putrefied remains of a man found inside a container ship, "eyes bulged froglike, and the scalp and beard were sloughing off with the outer layer of darkening skin." Kay finds strange, animal-like hairs on the man's clothing--the same hairs that she discovers on a murdered store clerk a few days later. In actuality, the bizarre killings extend well beyond Virginia; whoever killed the Richmond victims also butchered people in France. Kay and police captain Pete Marino are whisked off to Paris where they must collect top-secret information from a Paris morgue, and avoid becoming victims themselves.« less
Just another great book in the Scarpetta series. This would be #10 and going strong. The books has plot twists and keeps you guessing at who is the real killer until close to the end.
Patricia Cornwell is not one of my favorite thriller authors: but the forensic approach is interesting as is the international flavor. The killer is too savage, her view of the world too cynical, corrupt and I don't care for the demonic stuff.
I always enjoy Patricia Cornwell's books. I loved the story line of this book and I know you will too. Just the right amount of suspence with just the right amount of romance. Enjoy!!!
I loved the first five books of the series, but they became waaay to hit or miss, Scarpetta was less likeable, and Lucy was constantly being shoved more into the series. This books for me marks the area where the books moved from being forensic/csi type thrillers into the almost James Bond like, globe trotting adventures, with vast shady criminal armies, double dealing cops, characters coming back from the dead, and more far fetched cliches. Spoiler...don't ready past here.....................How many times can Cornwell have the villians attack her hero in her own house in the last chapter??? Book 1,2,3 all ended with villian attacks in her house, the only difference was who shot the bad guy...Marino/Scarpetta/ect......and then to repeat it again after 9 books???? It's almost like a Naked Gun type of gag with a long line of thugs/villians/assassins lined up to Scarpetta door awaiting there turn while a hugh neon sign flashes "Scarpetta Lives Here! Kill her Now, while she is making pasta!" It's Cornwell's default ending to 1/3 of these novels.
Patricia Cornwells Kay Scarpetta is a character who becomes addicting. Smart, Funny, brave, and tough she is a character who sticks with you, and you will find yourself wanting to read the whole series. Chapters are on the shorter side so the book is easier to digest.
I have always enjoyed her books, mostly. This one is good when she is writing about the case, but the sections where she is dialoging with herself or one of her character friends. most of those are goofy, dumb, and irrational. If Patricia had written this book in the beginning of her career she would not have one, or this book would have been different.
I hope she gets over her writing fuzziness with the rest of her books.
