Depraved Heart: A Scarpetta Novel (Kay Scarpetta)

 

I've finished "Depraved Heart" the 23rd book in her Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell.

Product Description

Patricia Cornwell delivers the newest engrossing thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece Lucy. But how can it be? It’s clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago.

As Scarpetta watches she begins to learn frightening secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That film clip and then others sent soon after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her confused, worried, and not knowing where to turn. She doesn’t know whom she can tell — not her FBI husband Benton Wesley or her investigative partner Pete Marino. Not even Lucy.

In this new novel, Cornwell launches these unforgettable characters on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the mysterious death of a Hollywood mogul’s daughter, aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and videos from the past that threaten to destroy Scarpetta’s entire world and everyone she loves. The diabolical presence behind what unfolds seems obvious — but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that’s the message they send when they raid Lucy’s estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life.

In the latest novel in her bestselling series featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell will captivate readers with the shocking twists, high-wire tension, and cutting-edge forensic detail that she is famous for, proving yet again why she’s the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer.

Product Details
Series: Kay Scarpetta (Book 23)
Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition first Printing edition (October 27, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006232540X
ISBN-13: 978-0062325402

My Review:

3/5

Flesh and Blood: A Scarpetta Novel (Kay Scarpetta)

 

I've finished "Flesh and Blood" the 22nd book in her Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell.

Product Description

It’s Dr. Kay Scarpetta’s birthday, and she’s about to head to Miami for a vacation with Benton Wesley, her FBI profiler husband, when she notices seven pennies on a wall behind their Cambridge house. Is this a kids’ game? If so, why are all of the coins dated 1981 and so shiny they could be newly minted? Her cellphone rings, and Detective Pete Marino tells her there’s been a homicide five minutes away. A high school music teacher has been shot with uncanny precision as he unloaded groceries from his car. No one has heard or seen a thing.

In this 22nd Scarpetta novel, the master forensic sleuth finds herself in the unsettling pursuit of a serial sniper who leaves no incriminating evidence except fragments of copper. The shots seem impossible, yet they are so perfect they cause instant death. The victims appear to have had nothing in common, and there is no pattern to indicate where the killer will strike next. First New Jersey, then Massachusetts, and then the murky depths off the coast of South Florida, where Scarpetta investigates a shipwreck, looking for answers that only she can discover and analyze. And it is there that she comes face to face with shocking evidence that implicates her techno genius niece, Lucy, Scarpetta’s own flesh and blood.

About the Author

In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventure prize - the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year.

Today, Cornwell's novels and now iconic characters, medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, her niece Lucy and fellow investigator Pete Marino, are known all over the world. Fox 2000 is actively developing a feature film about Kay Scarpetta. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Patricia has written a definitive account of Jack the Ripper's identity, cookbooks, a children's book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and two other fiction series based on the characters Win Garano and Andy Brazil.

Cornwell was born in Miami, grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston.

Visit the author's website at: www.patriciacornwell.com

Product Details
Series: Kay Scarpetta Series (Book 22)
Hardcover: 369 pages
Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (November 11, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062325345
ISBN-13: 978-0062325341

My Review:

3/5

Dust (A Scarpetta Novel) Hardcover

I've finished "Dust" the 21st book in her Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell.

From the world’s number-one bestselling crime writer comes the extraordinary new Kay Scarpetta novel.

Massachusetts Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta has just returned from working one of the worst mass murders in U.S. history when she’s awakened at an early hour by Detective Pete Marino.

A body, oddly draped in an unusual cloth, has just been discovered inside the sheltered gates of MIT and it’s suspected the identity is that of missing computer engineer Gail Shipton, last seen the night before at a trendy Cambridge bar. It appears she’s been murdered, mere weeks before the trial of her $100 million lawsuit against her former financial managers, and Scarpetta doubts it’s a coincidence. She also fears the case may have a connection with her computer genius niece, Lucy.

At a glance there is no sign of what killed Gail Shipton, but she’s covered with a fine dust that under ultraviolet light fluoresces brilliantly in three vivid colors, what Scarpetta calls a mineral fingerprint. Clearly the body has been posed with chilling premeditation that is symbolic and meant to shock, and Scarpetta has reason to worry that the person responsible is the Capital Murderer, whose most recent sexual homicides have terrorized Washington, D.C. Stunningly, Scarpetta will discover that her FBI profiler husband, Benton Wesley, is convinced that certain people in the government, including his boss, don’t want the killer caught.

In Dust, Scarpetta and her colleagues are up against a force far more sinister than a sexual predator who fits the criminal classification of a “spectacle killer.” The murder of Gail Shipton soon leads deep into the dark world of designer drugs, drone technology, organized crime, and shocking corruption at the highest levels.

About the Author

PATRICIA CORNWELL’s most recent bestsellers include The Bone Bed, Red Mist, Port Mortuary, and Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper — Case Closed. Her earlier works include Postmortem—the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year — and Cruel and Unusual, which won Britain’s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel of 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American author.

Product Details
Series: A Scarpetta Novel (Book 21)
Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (November 12, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399157573
ISBN-13: 978-0399157578

My Review:

3.5/5

The Bone Bed (A Scarpetta Novel) [Hardcover]

I've finished "The Bone Bed" 20th book in her Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell.

Product Description

A woman has vanished while digging a dinosaur bone bed in the remote wilderness of Canada. Somehow, the only evidence has made its way to the inbox of Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, over two thousand miles away in Boston. She has no idea why. But as events unfold with alarming speed, Scarpetta begins to suspect that the paleontologist’s disappearance is connected to a series of crimes much closer to home: a gruesome murder, inexplicable tortures, and trace evidence from the last living creatures of the dinosaur age.

When she turns to those around her, Scarpetta finds that the danger and suspicion have penetrated even her closest circles. Her niece Lucy speaks in riddles. Her lead investigator, Pete Marino, and FBI forensic psychologist and husband, Benton Wesley, have secrets of their own. Feeling alone and betrayed, Scarpetta is tempted by someone from her past as she tracks a killer both cunning and cruel.

This is Kay Scarpetta as you have never seen her before. The Bone Bed is a must read for any fan of this series, or an ideal starting point for new readers.

About the Author

PATRICIA CORNWELL’s most recent bestsellers include Red Mist, Port Mortuary, and Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper — Case Closed. Her earlier works include Postmortem — the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year — and Cruel and Unusual, which won Britain’s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel of 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American author.

Product Details
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (October 16, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399157565
ISBN-13: 978-0399157561

My Review:

The Bone Bed returns Kay Scarpetta back to her roots with a very truly terrifying case.  It's like a continuation from "The Last Precinct with a strong, independent no-nonsense vulnerable older Scarpetta.  It was a more personal journey for Kay with her noticing that she is no longer a 20 or 30 year old anymore.  She is having problems with Benton her FBI husband who is keeping secrets about his relationship with a new partner, Marino with his new Twitter obsession and Lucy her niece.

As Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta investigates a case where a woman has vanished while digging a dinosaur bone bed in the remote wilderness of Canada she connects it to recent crimes at home - gruesome murder, horrifying torture and trace evidence from an ancient turtle the last living creature from the dinosaur age.

This was a terrifying and dark book with Scarpetta trying to figure out a riddle which involves a severed ear, an ancient but endangered leather back turtle and a dead mostly mummified woman's body from the cold bay.

5/5

Red Mist (A Scarpetta Novel) [Hardcover]

I've finished "Red Mist" the 19th book in her Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell.

Product Description

The new Kay Scarpetta novel from the world's #1 bestselling crime writer.

Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings. The murder of an Atlanta family years ago, a young woman on death row, and the inexplicable deaths of homeless people as far away as California seem unrelated. But Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding's death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it.

About the Author

Patricia Cornwell is one of the world's major international best-selling authors, translated into thirty-six languages across more than fifty countries. She is a founder of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, a founding member of the National Forensic Academy, a member of the New York OCME Forensic Sciences Training Program's Advisory Board, and a member of the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital's National Council, where she is an advocate for psychiatric research. In 2008 Cornwell won the Galaxy British Book Awards' Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year - the first American ever to win this prestigious award. Her most recent bestsellers include Scarpetta, Book of the Dead and The Front. Her earlier works include Postmortem - the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year - and Cruel and Unusual, which won the coveted Gold Dagger award in 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American writer. 

Product Details
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition first Printing edition (December 6, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399158022
ISBN-13: 978-0399158025

My Review:

Kay's former Deputy Chief Jack Fielding was murdered, shot in the head by his daughter Dawn Kincaid with Kathleen Lawler who molested Jack when he was 12 years old.  

Kathleen has requested that Kay come talk to her and it's urgent.  When Kay arrives she is given a note with a mobile phone number which she calls.  She is shocked when she finds out it's New York high profile District Attorney Jaime Berger and her niece Lucy's ex-lover.

She learns that Pete Marino is involved too and then when Kathleen is killed there is an investigation that involves everyone including her FBI profiler forensic psychologist husband Benton and her niece Lucy.  During Kay's investigation she uncovers a conspiracy that involves the local prison.

There were a lot of twists and turns that made you learn towards a certain person as the killer but were they actually the one though?

3/5