No surprises ... just a thoroughly enjoyable forensic procedural investigation!

books:


	• The Body Farm (Kay Scarpetta) Patricia Cornwell Berkley, 2007 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 126 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Old Killer

Could the murder of Emily Steiner be the most horrific murder that Scarpetta has been asked to solve? Cornwell tells you the chilling story of Emily that takes her to the Body Farm. Is the killer one who has eluded the police in the past? It is a gripping suspense. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"

Qualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersWriting as a Small BusinessNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil WarThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early Settlers

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A solid Scarpetta mystery

This book inspired the nonfiction books "Death's Acre" and "Beyond the Body Farm" as well as novelist Jefferson Bass (actually a writing team). This book pits Scarpetta against what she thinks might be the work of serial killer Temple Gault (one of Cornwell's better villians); however, the plot leads to a more sinister conclusion and involves Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. The book delves into the personal lives of the characters and we see the development of the relationship between Scarpetta and Benton Wesley as well as the triangle of Wesley-Scarpetta-Marino that is evident in other books. Scarpetta's niece Lucy is dealt a devastating blow when her lover betrays her and jeopardizes her job as well as her life, and Marino debates staying in the small North Carolina town that the murder occurs in simply because there he's someone important.

As always, Cornwell's science is solid and the chapter involving the actual Body Farm (the forensic decay research facility is located in Tennessee) is towards the end of the book, but the clues planted in earlier chapters all lead there. This book, together with the four novels that precede it, are Cornwell's best work.

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No surprises ... just a thoroughly enjoyable forensic procedural investigation!

Nothing unique or compelling here! No surprises, intrigue, thrills, spills or chills! Just a good solid police procedural that focuses on forensic investigation and is predictably interesting - no ... let's make that gripping - informative reading coupled with great dialogue and compelling in depth character building in an ongoing series. This is Kay Scarpetta's fifth appearance in the literary world as the consulting forensic pathologist for FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and the series continues to move triumphantly from one success to another.

This particular novel deals with the disturbing murder of 11 year old Emily Steiner. The title of the novel derives from the most interesting part of the entire novel - the details of the research into the scientific minutiae of a body's decay after death. This research is carried out at the University of Tennessee's Decay Research facility, known colloquially as the Body Farm. It is absolutely fascinating and would lead one to wonder how it is possible in this day and age that a criminal actually gets away with anything!

Part of the appeal of Cornwell's writing is that she so effortlessly weaves Scarpetta's professional life and the details of the case at hand into the complex, uncomfortably difficult story of her personal life and the development of the characters around her. Pete Marino, her friend, long-time colleague and undoubtedly frustrated admirer with an unrequited fondness for Scarpetta, wallows in self-pity and begins to unravel as he finds himself in a most unprofessional relationship with one of the suspects in the Steiner murder. Lucy, Scarpetta's niece, is a computer whiz working on an internship at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia. She is charged with violating security and it is clear she is headed nowhere in life until she clears her name professionally and resolves substance abuse issues. Scarpetta herself wrestles with the difficulties of an affair with a married colleague.

Not a lightweight subject, to be sure, but thoroughly enjoyable light reading that will guarantee a break from the workaday world. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

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Descriptive Forensic Thriller...

This is the fifth installment in the Kay Scarpetta series. Kay and Marino are summoned to Asheville, North Carolina to evaluate the murder of a child. The characteristics of the body and the scene are similar to the previous murders by serial killer Temple Gault, who first appeared in Cruel and Unusual. This book is best enjoyed in fact if you've read Cruel and Unusual. Lucy is now working with the FBI at Quantico in a top secret program which utilizes her computer skills, that is until she is accused of breaking in to the system and stealing information. Lucy continues to develop as her own person, one that Kay cannot control and protect. We also see an interesting side to Marino in this one too. All in all, one of the best of the series.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

When an eleven-year-old girl is found murdered, Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia, gets another chance at stopping one of the most heartless and horrifying serial killers of her career: the demented Temple Gault.

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