Product Description

The 'book of the dead' is the morgue log, the ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to have a new meaning. Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues offer expert crime scene investigation and autopsies to communities lacking local access to competent death investigation and modern technology. It seems like an ideal situation, until the murders and other violent deaths begin. A woman is ritualistically murdered in her multi-million-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is found dumped in a desolate marsh. A sixteen-year-old tennis star is found nude and mutilated near Piazza Navona in Rome. Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones before her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names - and the pen may be poised to write her own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36735 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10
• Released on: 2007-10-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Review
'Classic Cornwell territory with...a sharp political element that will ensure the book isn't on George Bush's bedside table' Daily Express 'Serving up an Ace....Cornwell is firmly back on the money here.' Daily Mirror 'Patricia Cornwell is the queen of gritty, grisly, crime fiction writing and her latest offering doesn't disappoint. Book of the Dead will keep you gripped throughout' Heat "The reason we read novels about the forensic investigation of crime is not artistic decorum but a fascination with how things work. This is what Cornwell has always provided, and it is an area in which she does not disappoint." Times Literary Supplement 'Hannibal Lecter, eat your liver out. Tersely written, elaborately plotted and crammed with research, Cornwell's writing has always been hard-boiled - but this one would crack a paving stone if dropped.' The London Paper 'Vivid anatomical details and expert forensic knowledge come together in Cornwell's new thriller.' Herald

Pioneering pathologist Kay Scarpetta (Trace, 2004, etc.) goes up against a wraithlike killer whose self-appointed mission is to "relieve others of their suffering."Practice, practice, practice. If only 16-year-old South Carolina tennis phenom Drew Martin had stuck to the court instead of going off to Rome to party, her tortured corpse wouldn't be baffling the Italian authorities, headed inexplicably by medico legale Capt. Ottorino Poma, and the International Investigative Response team, which includes both Scarpetta and her lover, forensic psychologist Benton Wesley. But the young woman's murder and the gruesome forensic riddles it poses are something of a sideshow to the main event: the obligatory maundering of the continuing cast. Wesley still won't leave Boston for the woman he tepidly insists he loves. Scarpetta's niece, computer whiz Lucy Farinelli, continues to be jealously protective of her aunt. Scarpetta's investigator, Pete Marino, is so besotted by the trailer-trash pickup who's pushing his buttons that he does some terrible things. And Scarpetta herself is threatened by every misfit in the known universe, from a disgruntled mortician to oracular TV shrink Marilyn Self. Cornwell's trademark forensics have long since been matched by Karin Slaughter and CSI. What's most distinctive about this venerable franchise is the kitchen-sink plotting; the soap-opera melodrama that prevents any given volume from coming to a satisfying end; and the emphasis on titanic battles between Scarpetta and a series of Antichrists. Proceed at your own risk. (Kirkus Reviews)

Heat
`Patricia Cornwell is the queen of gritty, grisly, crime fiction writing and her latest offering doesn't disappoint. Book of the Dead will keep you gripped throughout'

Daily Mirror
`Serving up an ace...Cornwell is firmly back on the money here.'

Customer Reviews

self indulgent twaddle
i am a best selling author. i can write any old rubbish and people will buy it. sadly i did. never again. this is just nonsense produced by a writer who seems to have an enormous chip on her shoulder. to quote a carry on film "they've all got it in for me"

Absolute Tripe!!
Unfortunately Cornwell has lost the plot! Her books are (now) awful & badly written. All the characters are so unlikable, the story is pure codswallop and... well, in a nutshell, just not readable.

The Final Straw....
I've read all PC's novels. The Scarpetta series started off well, got even better after 2 or 3 books, to the point where they were genuine "can't put down" thrillers. This is continuing a recent trend of deteriorating quality - now it's more a case of "can't pick up". Seriously, I haven't even finished this book yet and it's been in front of me for months. I keep re-reading, stopping, starting, trying to get into the book but it just isn;t happening. I'm determined to finish it but entertaining it is not!!! I don't care what the media reviews are of her next book, I just can't take any more of this. Bye, Kay - it was good while it lasted!!