Pros: Quick moving plot that pulls you forward wondering what can possibly come next!
Cons: Cornwell destroys the ending! It sputters to a pitiful and unsatisfying end.
The Bottom Line: This book starts off with the bang you expect from Cornwell. She has proved a master of surprise, but reaches the end limping instead of remaining strong!
pokemonsick's Full Review: Patricia Cornwell - Blow Fly
I love Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series of novels and looked forward to the release of this one with anticipation.
This review will reveal major details of the plot.
Ok, Patricia. You got me. You really did! No where did I ever expect that you could convincingly bring back the character of Benton Wesley an FBI profiler. You had seemed to kill him off permanently in an earlier work, yet somehow you managed to regive him life. You put him in the witness protection program! I was very interested in finding out who was in on this fact and why because it was obvious the main character Kay Scarpetta was not!
Benton Wesley was the long time lover of Kay and in an earlier novel she had scattered his supposed ashes over the ocean from a helicopter piloted by her niece Lucy. As she is a medical examiner who throughly looked into Benton's "death" it seemed to be a given. Her life seemed to shatter and fall apart after this event.
First up you throw at me that Kay's closest friend Pete Marino, a detective, knows that Benton did not die. Then you make it very clear that her niece Lucy knew as well. Later you even let us in on the fact that her friend Senator Lord is in on it as well.
I have to figure this is going to be good and we are going to have an incredibly ticked off medical examiner who will feel that those closest to her have betrayed her when this all comes out. Couldn't wait for the fireworks to begin.
The novel opens in a bar with Dr. Kay in Florida where she is teaching and trying to establish a practice as a consultant. We are introduced to the character of Nic Robillard a female cop from LA who will come into play again later in the book. Nic and Scarpetta share a conversation about a set of serial murders taking place in her hometown.
Next up we are reintroduced to Jay Talley, the brother of the notorious serial killer Jean Baptiste Chardonne who posed as an FBI agent in earlier works and slept with Kay. It later came out he was nearly as evil as his twin brother and in this novel is completing his first murder this time around. Women he calls lambs. Chardonne is in prison awaiting his date with death having been sent to death row for trying and failing to kill Dr. Scarpetta and for brutally killing and mutilating many others. He is known as le Loup-Garou (the werewolf) due to an inherited condition which causes his body to be almost entirely covered with hair and causes deformation of the sex organs.
Lucy is off to Poland to interview (we believe) Rocco Caggiano the bad news son of cop Pete Marino. He is the attorney for the Chardonne family, a very powerful family in France as well. He has been red tagged, declared a fugitive by interpol. This was done based upon facts Lucy provided to them which she received in a letter she believes is from Chardonne and was sent from his jail cell. It seems she is off to capture him.
Dr. Lanier a coroner in Baton Rouge is introduced next. He is sent a letter from Chardonne question the death of a Charlotte Dard which took place in his jurisdiction. Chardonne refers him to Pete Marino for help in reopening the investigation into this death. Much later we find out that this is Nic Robillard's mother. Marino expresses little interest in helping, but during the conversation with Lanier vouches for Dr. Scarpetta who he later reaches out to for help.
Bev Kifflin Jay's accomplice from earlier works is still with him and up to no good as well. Rudy, niece Lucy's partner in the Last Precinct is in Poland as well.
Marino is in Boston to see Wesley about how poorly Scarpetta is doing, and to let him know what is up with Chardonne as he too has received a letter stating that he will reveal all his secrets before death if Scarpetta comes to visit him prison. He tries to convince him Kay needs help, but Benton seems not to care and in the end tells Pete he never wants to see him again.
All the main character's are now in place for the story to proceed. Some letters are indeed from Chardonne, others are from another source. I will not reveal any further details from the plot beyond this point until we reach the last few chapters.
The plot has managed to keep me spellbound through its many twists and turns. We have arrived at the point where the climax draws near and Kay comes face to face with Benton. I can't wait for the explosion that I am sure is coming!
Problem is it doesn't. Cornwell seems to rush to end the book. Most of the action that needs to take place to bring the book to a close is never described. It takes place as if this were to be a movie off camera. Benton sums it up in a paragraph or two for Kay. Kay is left sitting on the stairs with Benton cupping her face. Huh?!!! Where are the scenes where Scarpetta demands answers and confronts her loved ones? Where is the fire of the Dr. Kay we love? Why did Cornwell choose to take her spine away from her?
Maybe she will deal with these issues in the next novel, but unfortunately she has chosen to leave readers with a very unsatisfying ending. In my view not a good choice. No not at all!
From the Publisher: 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...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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