workscorp's Full Review: Patricia Cornwell - Blow Fly
After 4 years without the annual Dr. Kay Scarpetta installment, Patricia Cornwell returns with an update to her main character's life with Blow Fly.
Past History
Previous books, starting with Postmortem in 1990, included tightly-wound plots revolving around central characters including her niece, Lucy, colleague-then-lover Benton Wesley and sidekick cop Pete Marino. While most will agree that plots slowly spiraled throughout the 9 years (and books) following, Cornwell's ability to write detailed, almost clinical first person prose could not be matched. Books were opened and could not be closed until conclusion.
However, with Blow Fly, a dramatic departure in writing style is used. Cornwell has decided to depart from her tried and true first person style and jump the fence to third person.
While this allows her to explore the facets of other characters, the minds of true fans require synapse-firing overload to process information presented.
You find yourself asking, "Just who wrote this book about Kay Scarpetta?"
Where She Left Off
Benton is dead, Lucy is realizing miraculous achievements in the private detective sector, and Marino is pretty much Marino: an older, overweight, Scarpetta-love-struck, top-notch cop.
Where We Begin
Scarpetta, fired from her prestigious position as Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia, is now living in south Florida in a rented, run down house.
Lucy is a private-sector CIA agent wannabe, while Marino is still just Marino.
What We Find Out
Gone are the hidden strengths Scarpetta imposed upon her readers: high-level-security, custom-built home; solid Mercedes S-Class sedan; as well as expensive designer yet conservative suits and shoes. All contributed to the vault-like story lines we were treated to in the past. Scarpetta is well-educated, possessing a medical as well as law degree, always well spoken and never at a loss for words even when challenged by the most formidable of intellectual foes.
She is now, however, an independent forensic consultant emotionally flailing like spaghetti turning on a fork that never stops.
The main story is of the investigation of a woman found dead in Louisiana, which Scarpetta is asked to help investigate. This centralized plot is revealed in a manner such as driving too fast over speed bumps. The reader is hit hard and fast, with little time to contemplate what just happened, before finding a curve in the road which only reaches a dead end. Continuity seems to have left Cornwell's vocabulary.
In 1998's Point of Origin, Benton Wesley was killed, his face cut from his head and found in a freezer by Scarpetta. It is revealed early on that now, all these years later, he is actually alive. He faked his own death and entered the Witness Protection Program in order to protect Scarpetta. It also turns out that Lucy and Marino, those closest to her, have always been aware of this fact, their remorse nothing more than acting of the Academy Award variety. Hundreds of pages in the books that followed delved deep into the emotional pain and anguish that our three main characters worked through as a result of his death. And now it's just a farce? This seems to be an unbelievable, if not desperate, plot twist to breathe new life into the series and sets the tone for the inplausible plot.
Benton, now a self-made recluse posing as a homosexual, further goes on to manipulate the plot behind the scenes with one goal: bring down the world-domineering Chandonne cartel. And he does all this from a seedy New York apartment and his laptop computer, with brief communications to Lucy and Marino.
Chapters are wasted on Jay Talley and Bev Griffin, murderers, former foes and character carryovers whose demise are wrapped up in a single page.
Lucy's character is darker than dirt, executing scenarios that would be thought unheard of in previous texts. Murder? International deception and disguise? Straight-laced fitness-obsessed computer geek turned heroic felon? Where did this Lucy come from?
Jean-Baptist Chandonne's role has jumped from pathetic being to super-hero-psycho. His blatant escape from a maximum-security prison only leaves the reader's head shaking while asking three simple questions: Huh? What? How? Where did this Jean-Baptist Chandonne come from?
Benton's drawn out, and much anticipated, reuniting with Scarpetta is finalized in the end with a patch that you could miss if you sneeze while reading. It is emotionless, played out with stick-drawn characters.
How has this happened? When will it all make sense? The one-hundred-words-or-less ending does not provide the answer, but rather invites feelings of frustration and betrayal by the author.
Overall
If you want to catch up on the gang, read Blow Fly. However, except for one major and several other forgettable plot twists, you could easily skip it.
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
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.