Product Description
When the fingerprints of an executed killer are found at a new crime scene, Dr. Kay Scarpetta takes on her most terrifying case yet. By the author of All That Remains. 250,000 first printing. Lit Guild Main…. More >>
Cruel and Unusual
Written by admin on September 6th, 2010 in Mystery & Thrillers.
Tags: Cruel, Unusual
This book opens with the execution of rapist/murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell and the following autopsy. Not long after murder victims start showing up around Richmond that look like they were committed by Waddell. How can that be? He’s dead. Then his prints show up at a crime scene and to top it off, Kay’s assistant in murdered and the press blames Kay.
As usual PC carries over characters from her previous novels that we’ve come to know. Any second we expect cop buddy Pete Marino to drop dead from his excesses and niece Lucy is still annoying (to me anyway). Thankfully, the descriptions of the murders and the autopsies don’t seem as gruesome as the last one (“All that Remains) and like the last one, this thriller gets five stars, because I just couldn’t put it down.
Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Rating: 5 / 5
In this fourth installment of the Kay Scarpetta series, we find the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia chasing a most challenging miscreant – a murderer with no pattern to his destruction except the intent to play games with the authorities hunting him. The book is a must-read for those addicted to Cornwell’s well-researched suspense novels, since it sets the stage for a showdown in From Potter’s Field. But a major plot hole revealed in the first few pages leaves the reader feeling cheated for the remainder of the novel.
We enter the story with Scarpetta recovering from the death of a close friend. While this development certainly bodes well for future plot twists, it leaves the reader frustrated with the current one. The few details of the death surface mostly at the end of the story and while we’re told of Scarpetta’s devastation, we really don’t witness it. Seasoned Cornwell fans are accustomed to these shallow depths in characterization but it nonetheless puts a damper on an otherwise entertaining mystery.
Rating: 3 / 5
This is the worst of the Scarpetta series. which is quite an achievement seeing as all the others are brilliant. My favourites being the claustrophobic “The Body Farm”, and the superbly dark “Point of Origin”. I have loved all the Scarpetta’s, and read them at least twice over, and i still think this is the worst.
The plot was very complicated, and it all seemed a bit of a mess. The characters were nothing special, and i this is the only book in which Cornwell manage to bore me with her normally insightful computer terminology. It’s too long, and basically i dont think it has any substance. There is a great potential. The idea for the plot is superb, and could well have been one of the best, but somewhere along the line it all slips. I cant put my finger on it, but i just didnt come away from this with the satisfaction i normally get out of a Kay Scarpetta book.
Nevertheless this is still a necessary book to read if you intend to read the entire series. It is one of the major turning points. The first book to feature Temple Gault, who would later lead to Carrie Grethen, Newton Joyce, and all the other catastrophic events which culminate in the next turning point of “The Last Precint”. each one has signalled a new era for Patricia Cornwell, and each one has not been quite as good as the others. But The Last Precint was still much better than this. It is, admittedly, very clever, but far too complicated, and im surprised it got the CWA’s gold dagger.
nevertheless, i have given it two stars purely because it is such a major point in Scarpetta’s life. You must read it if you intend to read the entire series, but dont expect to enjoy it as much as you do the others.
Rating: 2 / 5
I stumbled upon this book quite by accident and thought I’d give it a whirl. I never expected to fall in love with a character and an author quite so quickly! From the first page to the last, it’s a can’t-put-down book. I love the idea of having a fingerprint from a recently-executed criminal show up at a new crime scene. And I love how they determine throughout the whirling pace of the book how this could be possible and who the real killer is. Great ending, superb characters and dialogue. Cornwell is a mistress of her field and has great credentials — having worked for a medical investigator — to boot! Anyone who hasn’t read this book should drop everything they’re doing and read it.
Rating: 5 / 5
This was my first Patricia Cornwell novel and I must say I was blown away. I never thought I’d warm up to a modern mystery writer the way I did with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, but Ms. Cornwell has displaced them both in my heart.
C & E was by far the most fascinating book I’ve ever read. I sat up until the wee hours of the morning reading this wonderful novel, devouring every word, as I couldn’t go to bed until I had finished it. The only disappointment was the ending. The killer came out of the blue, and there were too many loose ends.
The story and characters were first rate and I intend to read all her other books. It’s been a long time since I found an author I would be willing to pay hardcover prices to read.
Rating: 4 / 5