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All That Remains, Benton Wesley, Black Notice, Blow Fly, Body of Evidence, Book of the Dead, books, Cause of Death, Cornwell, Cruel and Unusual, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Dr. Scarpetta, Dust, From Potter's Field, Kay Scarpetta, Lucy Farinelli, medical examiner, novel, Patricia Cornwell, Pete Marino, Point of Origin, Port Mortuary, Postmortem, Predator, Red Mist, review, Scarpetta, Scarpetta novel, The Body Farm, The Bone Bed, The Last Precinct, The Scarpetta Factor, Trace, Unnatural Exposure
Hey, y’all!
This book review is going to be on the Dr. Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell. It’s also going to be a little different than the reviews I’ve already done, simply because there are so many of them. As far as I know, there are 21 Dr. Kay Scarpetta books. I’m still working my way up to the most recently released book, Dust. I’ve read up to the 14th book, Predator. Even though I obviously haven’t read all of the books yet, I feel like I’ve read enough of them to be able to write this review. A good thing about these books is that you don’t necessarily have to read them in any particular order. If you planned on reading them all, it would be easier on you to read them in order so that you can stay up to date on Dr. Scarpetta’s life & not get confused. However, if you only want to read a couple, you can just grab whichever ones sound most interesting to you. For example, I read the 4th book in the series first, & then I decided to start reading the series in the order that it was written. I have to warn you that you will probably want to read them all once you’ve read one. Cornwell takes researching for her books very seriously. She’s an inspiration. If Scarpetta does something in the book, chances are Cornwell has done it. For example, when Scarpetta went scuba diving in one of the novels, it was described in such amazing detail that I wondered how she could have known so much about it. Sure enough, Cornwell had gone scuba diving so that she could write about it to the best of her ability. Cornwell is so dedicated to her work that you can’t help but to admire her. A word of caution – These books are not for the faint-hearted or those of you who get queasy easily. Anyway, here’s a quick overview of what you can expect from the Scarpetta novels –
Dr. Kay Scarpetta is best known as the brilliant Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia at Richmond. She is also known as one of the top forensic pathologist in the country. Her cases pull her into several white-knuckling, dangerous situations. Along the way, we are also introduced to the FBI profiler Benton Wesley, Kay’s niece (who happens to be a genius) Lucy Farinelli, and the never-boring homicide detective Pete Marino.
With this mix of characters, Cornwell manages to completely enthrall you with her nail-biting stories. If you like murder/mystery novels, you NEED to read these. I have since become a huge Patricia Cornwell fan, & I just can’t get enough of her. Her writing style is fantastic, her descriptiveness is wonderful, & the tone of all of her Scarpetta novels are amazing. I fully intend to read her other books after I’m finished with all of the Scarpetta novels. Dr. Kay Scarpetta has become one of my favorite fictional characters. I like to joke with my husband that we’re friends. Every time we watch anything like Unsolved Mysteries, I always make a comment about how Dr. Scarpetta would’ve solved it already. Even though I haven’t finished all of the Scarpetta novels that have been released yet, I really just wanted to spread the word about them. I feel like they’re so great & I wanted y’all to know about them, if you didn’t already, so that you could check them out! Again, these books are wonderful & I 100% recommend them. I have nothing negative to say about them. I truly believe you’ll enjoy them as much as I did/do!
Xoxo