Helpful Score: 3
I bought this book because I'm a die-hard Kay Scarpetta fan. I never even glanced at the premise but after reading the reviews here at GRs, I wasn't even sure I wanted to read it. I'm very glad that I ignored these reviews and read it anyway. This series hasn't been as good since Kay Scarpetta left the Medical Examiner's Office in Virginia. Our beloved characters fight too much and have way to many personal issues. Before the stories were mainly about investigating unexplained deaths with some personal interactions between them but it was never the focus of the books. Now it is more a series of interpersonal issues instead of investigation. It's still enjoyable but nowhere near as before. I used to wait for the next installment and devour it upon receipt. Now I have to work way way up to the task of reading it. I'm hoping this new endeavor (The CFC) will bring us back to when Marino, Lucy, Kay and Benton actualy worked together as a team and did impressive investigative work.
I love Kay and her crew (Marino, Lucy and Benton) and to hear that they barely played a roll in this one was disturbing...and not true. They feature throughout the entire book. This is Kay's point of view but Benton, Lucy and Marino are keeping her in the dark as to what is going on but they are certainly there.
Also Kay is such a strong-willed, independent and determined woman that the comments about her continued angst throughout the book was shocking. Scarpetta's angst is real as she's started this new business and as the Chief, she's ultimately responsible for everything that happens, she's been unavailable at Dover Air Force Base while unimaginable things have been occurring. She's kept on personnel that should have been fired long ago and now it's coming back to bite her in the butt. Of course, she's second guessing herself and everything she's done because her house of cards is crumbling and there is absolutely nothing she can do to stop it as she's been kept in the dark and Benton has taken over.
I do understand where a lot of the complaints about this book are coming from. From the extreme descriptions of how to fly a plane, I almost expected Kay to have to do this at some point. I found this section and information completely unnecessary and basically filler. It was a section that could have been trimmed down without any detriment to the storyline. Also lots and lots of medical speak which I completely skip over because Kay will eventually dumb it down and put it in plain English for us non-medical people. I know some of this is needed to give it a real-feel but definitely not to the extent presented. All in all, not a bad book. The mystery was new and definitely unusual and though the evidence was presented strangely (out of sequence and all mixed up), I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I love Kay and her crew (Marino, Lucy and Benton) and to hear that they barely played a roll in this one was disturbing...and not true. They feature throughout the entire book. This is Kay's point of view but Benton, Lucy and Marino are keeping her in the dark as to what is going on but they are certainly there.
Also Kay is such a strong-willed, independent and determined woman that the comments about her continued angst throughout the book was shocking. Scarpetta's angst is real as she's started this new business and as the Chief, she's ultimately responsible for everything that happens, she's been unavailable at Dover Air Force Base while unimaginable things have been occurring. She's kept on personnel that should have been fired long ago and now it's coming back to bite her in the butt. Of course, she's second guessing herself and everything she's done because her house of cards is crumbling and there is absolutely nothing she can do to stop it as she's been kept in the dark and Benton has taken over.
I do understand where a lot of the complaints about this book are coming from. From the extreme descriptions of how to fly a plane, I almost expected Kay to have to do this at some point. I found this section and information completely unnecessary and basically filler. It was a section that could have been trimmed down without any detriment to the storyline. Also lots and lots of medical speak which I completely skip over because Kay will eventually dumb it down and put it in plain English for us non-medical people. I know some of this is needed to give it a real-feel but definitely not to the extent presented. All in all, not a bad book. The mystery was new and definitely unusual and though the evidence was presented strangely (out of sequence and all mixed up), I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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