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: #14107 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

Why are her books so popular?
I was given this book and I read it whilst on holiday. I've never read a Patricia Cornwell book before and judging by this one I won't read another.
It started off reasonably well and then became pretentious and tried to blind the reader with science and gobbley-gook. Then suddenly, as if the writer had reached the quota of words required for a novel, it was all over in 5 or 6 pages with no explanation of why the murderer acted the way he did and no use of all the high-tech science and investigations of the proceeding several hundred pages! I re-read the last few pages as I thought I might have missed something vital but I couldn't find it.
Maybe I've missed something somewhere but I can't help feeling there are far better crime books out there; don't waste your time on this!

Disappointing - again!
As a fan of Cornwell and Scarpetta for many years I still keep buying the new books desperately hoping they will get better again but yet again, with "Book of the Dead", I am sorely disappointed. As another reviewer has written, Scarpetta is becoming characterless and if Cornwell is not careful she will become too dull to read at all.

The plot looks promising at the start but soon loses momentum and becomes muddled and uninteresting. The saga with Marino is left open but not even as a cliffhanger - it just fades away. There is no "reveal" at the end to clear up the loose ends and most importantly, why it all happened, and I was left wondering whether I was really all that bothered anyway.

She needs to get back to the "Body farm" & "From Potter's Field" quality - and fast!

This Must Be One Of Her Worst Books Ever !!!!!!!
I have been a huge fan of Patrcia Cornwell since her first books with Kay Scarpetta .. But it's now obvious that she has promised the "Agent" too many books a year, this is utter rubbish, very difficult to follow (I even purchased the audio cd in case it was all the Italian names that were confusing) .. but I had to give up on it, the plot is so full of holes you could drive an atriculated dumper truck through them .. concentrate on ONE book a year and may be you will get your fan base back... I will not be buying any new books from Ms Cornwell....