Disappointed

It’s been a while since I’ve last read a book from the Scarpetta-series by Patricia Cornwell. I wasn’t very impressed with her latest books. I did buy the newest ones and I thought it was time to give her another try. Well, I was kind of disappointed again!

Scarpetta starts very, very long-winded. The first 200 pages are nothing more than Scarpetta examining Oscar Bane, the murder suspect and Scarpetta and Benton discussion what Marino did to her in the previous novel and how this might affect their current case. It is only talk, talk, talk. After 200 pages the action very slowly takes over. Around page 300 another murder takes places. And around page 400 Lucy gets such a brilliant inspiration that the story can be concluded within 50 pages. This inspiration came kind of out of the blue. The previous chapter you were reading about a discussion the whole police team about how to find the murderer. The start of the next chapter sees Lucy on the roof examining video streams and discovering the murderer. Out of the blue, yeah. It felt like Cornwell getting out of control of the story and she needed an excuse to round up. The only reason I finished the book, is because a friend of mine said the book would improve later on. Well, it did some, but not so much. The twist of Lucy finding the murderer really killed the whole book for me. Early on in the book it was pretty obvious who the murderer was, which makes this twist was too easy and too lazy. Oh and of course Oscar wasn't the murderer - something that was quite obvious from the start. Then why waste 200 pages on his character...

Fantastic Fiction (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/patricia-cornwell/scarpetta.htm) describes the book as: “Throughout, Cornwell delivers shocking twists and turns, and the kind of cutting-edge technology that only she can provide. Once again, she proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthral.” Twists? Turns? Entertain? Maybe they’ve read another book than I did. I still have 3 more Scarpetta-books to read (The Scarpetta factor, Port mortuary  and Red mist), but I think it will take a long, long time before I try anything by Patricia Cornwell again. For now, I prefer Tess Gerritsen over Cornwell. Sorry.

All in all disappointed again.