Patricia Cornwell

"Blow Fly"


 In "Blow Fly," Kay Scarpetta stands at the threshold of a new life after her work as Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner has come to a jarring end.

At the close of "The Last Precinct," she knew she would have to leave Richmond if she were to find any peace. She feared that she was about to be fired by the governor.

More alarming, she was hounded in the media and in the courtroom, for what some claimed was her involvement in the murder of a deputy police chief. So Scarpetta packed up her belongings and set out for the warmth and solace of the Florida sun.

I read most of her
books before getting
my library card. All
that money down
the drain. . .
She is settling into a new life as a private forensic consultant and is deep into a case that has left colleagues in Louisiana profoundly disturbed. A woman is found dead in a seedy hotel, dressed to go out, keys in her hand.

Her history of blackouts, and her violent outbursts while under their spell, offer more questions than clues about the cause of her death. Then Scarpetta receives news that chills her to the core: Jean-Baptiste Chandonne - the vicious and unrepentant Wolfman, who pursued her to her very doorstep - asks to see her.

From his cell on death row, he demands an audience with the legendary Dr. Scarpetta. Only to her will he tell the secrets he knows the authorities desire: the evidence that will bring a global investigation to a swift conclusion.

Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and her colleague Detective Pete Marino are left to wonder: After all the death and destruction, what sort of endgame could this violent psychopath have in mind? And could this request be somehow related to the Louisiana case?

Her friends and family by her side, Scarpetta must unravel a twisting conspiracy with an international reach and confront theshock of her life - a blow that will force her to question the loyalty and trust of all she holds dear.

“At Risk”
A Massachusetts state investigator is called home from Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is completing a course at the National Forensic Academy. His boss, the district attorney, attractive but hard-charging, is planning to run for governor, and as a showcase she's planning to use a new crime initiative called At Risk; its motto: "Any crime, any time." 

 In particular, she's been looking for a way to employ cutting-edge DNA technology, and she thinks she's found the perfect subject in an unsolved twenty-year-old murder—in Tennessee. If her office solves the case, it ought to make them all look pretty good, right?

 Her investigator is not so sure—not sure about anything to do with this woman, really—but before he can open his mouth, a shocking piece of violence intervenes, an act that shakes up not only both their lives but also the lives of everyone around them. It's not a random event. Is it personal? Is it professional? Whatever it is, the implications are very, very bad indeed ... and they're about to get much worse.


These are books I have read by Cornwell:

Postmortem (1990) Scarpetta series
Body Of Evidence (1991) Scarpetta series
All That Remains (1992) Scarpetta series
Cruel And Unusual (1993) Scarpetta series
The Body Farm (1994) Scarpetta series
From Potter's Field (1995) Scarpetta series
Cause Of Death (1996) Scarpetta series
Unnatural Exposure (1997) Scarpetta series
Point Of Origin (1998) Scarpetta series
Scarpetta's Winter Table (1998) Non-fiction books
Black Notice (1999) Scarpetta series
Southern Cross (1999) Andy Brazil series
The Last Precinct (2000) Scarpetta series
Isle Of Dogs (2001) Andy Brazil series
Trace (2004) Scarpetta series
Predator (2005) Scarpetta series
Book Of The Dead (2007) Scarpetta series
Scarpetta (2008) Scarpetta series
The Scarpetta Factor (2009) Scarpetta series
Port Mortuary (2010) Scarpetta series
Red Mist (2011) Scarpetta series
The Bone Bed (2012) Scarpetta series