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26th out of 415 books
—
553 voters
Point of Origin (Kay Scarpetta #9)
by
Patricia Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
See alternate cover edition here
A farmhouse destroyed by fire
A body amongst the ruins
Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for the federal law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to a farmhouse in Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body which tells a story of a violent and grisly murder.
The fire...more
A farmhouse destroyed by fire
A body amongst the ruins
Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for the federal law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to a farmhouse in Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body which tells a story of a violent and grisly murder.
The fire...more
Paperback, 440 pages
Published
2000
by Time Warner
(first published January 1st 1998)
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More of the same. Dedicated "with love to Barbara Bush". The way Scarpetta keeps oggling her naked niece's body gets more and more disturbing, esp. since I doubt Cornwell will make a real f/f incest case out of this. Poor Benton has his "still surprisingly supple" body dutifully admired, and pale feet like her niece.
The blurb as usual proclaims not only that she does it best and has bad imitators, but that this one is "her best and bleakest" (don't get up my hopes - or maybe that just means the...more
The blurb as usual proclaims not only that she does it best and has bad imitators, but that this one is "her best and bleakest" (don't get up my hopes - or maybe that just means the...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Benton Wesley has retired, Lucy has switched alphabet agencies – now working for ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) – and is flying helicopters, and Kay is about to go on vacation to Hilton Head with Wesley when a case comes in that she just can't ignore – an arson/homicide at a horse farm belonging to one of Virginia's most influential men, a polarizing media magnet whom Kay has gone up against in the past. Nothing about the fire makes sense, though, and things only get...more
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BEWARE -- I DON"T HIDE MY REVIEWS, BUT I DON'T PUT THEM ON A FEED, EITHER. THEY CONTAIN SPOILERS THAT HELP ME REMEMBER THE BOOK'S PLOT. I JOURNAL FOR MYSELF, NOT YOU.
To my knowledge, this is Cornwell's only novel focusing on a pyro. The title derives from the forensic science of determining how a fire started, whether it's arson, how the fire played out, and who did it.
A black media celebrity is at the center of the book's first fire. His plantation-like Virginia horse farm burns up while he's a...more
To my knowledge, this is Cornwell's only novel focusing on a pyro. The title derives from the forensic science of determining how a fire started, whether it's arson, how the fire played out, and who did it.
A black media celebrity is at the center of the book's first fire. His plantation-like Virginia horse farm burns up while he's a...more
This book is what I consider the last good Scarpetta novel; all the books that follow it (The Last Precinct, Blowfly, Predator, et al) are hardly worth the paper they're printed on.
The plot centers on the suspected arson of a media magnate's home which resulted in the death of one female and several prize horses. A new villain enters the picture (Newton Joyce), and he's aided by serial killer Carrie Grethen, newly escaped from prison. There's a subplot involving Benton Wesley, Scarpetta's FBI p...more
The plot centers on the suspected arson of a media magnate's home which resulted in the death of one female and several prize horses. A new villain enters the picture (Newton Joyce), and he's aided by serial killer Carrie Grethen, newly escaped from prison. There's a subplot involving Benton Wesley, Scarpetta's FBI p...more
Recently someone handed me a bag of paperbacks and asked if I wanted to borrow them. Well, of course, I did. But I answered without really looking. And when I did look, I noticed that approximately 6 of the 8 books were Jodi Picoult. And those’ll be great in a week or so when I get on a plane, but in the meantime I needed something else. It was the middle of the night—no bookstore or library open—so I picked one of the non-Picoult’s: Patricia Cornwell’s Point of Origin.
Point of Origin is one of...more
Point of Origin is one of...more
This complex story looks at the true evil in men’s soul that uses arson to attempt to cover up murder. The psychopaths are among us: “The attractive, intelligent person sitting next to you on a plane, standing behind you in line, meeting you backstage, hooking up with you on the Interned. Brothers, sisters, classmates, sons, daughters, lovers……look like you and me.”
“…one did not have to be a detective or profiler or chief medical examiner to be a potential target. Most victims were vulnerable. T...more
Feb 06, 2013
LA Carlson
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
crime novel junkies
Recommended to LA by:
reading the entire series
Shelves:
fiction
For anyone who has started reading this series from the beginning as I have been doing; Scarpetta is constantly transforming herself as she investigates a deadly fire involving humans and animals. I felt this novel revealed a more human Scarpetta; she comes face-to-face with the loss of someone dear, a reference to O.J. Simpson, eats at Burger King with her niece and speaks openly about homosexuality which has been building over the last few books and unless I missed it before Lucy's last name i...more
i liked carrie being back, but . . . i wanted resolution!
the whole thing with benton is really annoying me. i hear the series takes a turn for the better after The Book of the Dead and it's not like i'm going to be putting down these books any time soon, but man, i just don't like them very much right now.
i also find it fascinating that cornwell has written such a strong, smart homosexual character in lucy, while being a lesbian herself. i wonder why she didn't come out earlier? i mean, i know...more
the whole thing with benton is really annoying me. i hear the series takes a turn for the better after The Book of the Dead and it's not like i'm going to be putting down these books any time soon, but man, i just don't like them very much right now.
i also find it fascinating that cornwell has written such a strong, smart homosexual character in lucy, while being a lesbian herself. i wonder why she didn't come out earlier? i mean, i know...more
Patricia Cornwellin (suom. Syttymispiste) romaanissa Virginian poliisilaitoksen johtava kuolinsyyntutkija saa ratkaistavakseen pyromaanisarjamurhaajan rikoksia.
Niin kuin tämäntapaisissa romaaneissa uskottavuuden kannalta on sitä inhorealismia, nytkin hiiltyneitä ruumiita leikellään ja viipaloidaan aivoja myöten mikroskooppisella tarkkuudella, unohtamatta luiden keittämistä neljänkymmenen litran vetoisessa kasarissa. Eräästä uhrista löydetään tällä menetelmällä pikkuruinen viilto kallossa, joka o...more
Niin kuin tämäntapaisissa romaaneissa uskottavuuden kannalta on sitä inhorealismia, nytkin hiiltyneitä ruumiita leikellään ja viipaloidaan aivoja myöten mikroskooppisella tarkkuudella, unohtamatta luiden keittämistä neljänkymmenen litran vetoisessa kasarissa. Eräästä uhrista löydetään tällä menetelmällä pikkuruinen viilto kallossa, joka o...more
This series is what I call a "guilty pleasure". Not at all high-brow, but easy to read thrillers with some mystery, and I have to admit that I enjoy the gruesome details about forensic pathology. Being an engineering type, I like to know the details behind things, how things work, in particular when it comes to problem solving or investigative techniques.
I do love the character of Kay Scarpetta; she's a strong, smart woman who is also attractive. She makes me nuts sometimes when she does risky t...more
I do love the character of Kay Scarpetta; she's a strong, smart woman who is also attractive. She makes me nuts sometimes when she does risky t...more
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I listened to this on tape, and I had a horrible time staying interested in the story. I think that Patricia Cornwell really lost it about this point in her writing career. I finally gave up 1/3 of the way through the book, and I will not be reading any more of her books. I was getting sick of the characters and the plots!
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Number Nine in the Series. Ok, you've read a series of mystery books before. Is it ever a good idea when the same serial killer shows up for the third time (at least)? And the killer just happens to be the former lover of the lesbian niece? Desperation thy name is Cornwell.
Why, you ask do I keep subjecting myself to this series when I clearly can't stand them anymore? Well, I really liked the first few. And for a while I kept hoping that they would get better again. No such luck. The main character just gets more and more unlikeable. I am tempted to root for the bad guy after a while. She has zero communication skills, never learns from her mistakes and treats anyone who cares about her in a terrible manner. These books seem to be written on autopilot without a bo...more
OK, this is positively the last book of hers that I am going to read. The plot read like the soup I make when I clean out the refrigerator. There are way too many plots and twists. Her characters are getting close to certifiable and I don't even like most of them any more. Real people do not act this way...at least not in my experience. Even the serial killers are too bizarre for words...and speaking of words, professional people simply don't talk the way her characters do. My dad was in the FBI...more
A thought that came to me during Unnatural Exposure happened in this novel. The case of the limbless torsos continues in this story. The basis for this story is arson and charred bodies. Lucy has quit the FBI and Wesley has retired. Pete Marino continues his unhealthy life style of booze, cigarettes, and greasy foods. Luckily in this story, no worker in the morgue is killed. In Cornwell's usual style, arson and helicopter flying are thoroughly explained. Maybe I need to cease reading Cornwell fo...more
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Dec 21, 2010
Shannon
added it
I think at the end of this book I finally figured out the one issue I have with Cornwell's books. Through the first 90% of the books the solution to the crime is a mystery, you are thrown through loops and twists that keep you guessing...and then the problem happens. Most of the time the final ten to twenty pages wraps up the book and often times that seems like way way to quick of a wrap up. The characters have been through so much and it's usually Dr. Scarpetta who suddenly has an epiphany and...more
A high-profile fire in a small North Carolina town pulls Kay Scarpetta away from her vacation with Benton Wesley to help sift through debris and be present in case they find the home-owner who is suspected to have been inside the house. While the media mogul they expect to find turns up alive and well elsewhere, a body is discovered: that of a young woman. The fire baffles the experts, including Kay's niece Lucy, because they cannot figure out how a fire got as hot as this one without a fuel sou...more
It wasn't as thrilling as I hoped, but it could be because I hadn't read this series's book 5 & 6, or...? The most part of the book went on under the fear of Carrie Grethen, along with mysterious arson cases. Because I don't know how this woman was supposed to be a scary intelligent psycho, it didn't do much trick on me. After 4/5th of the story passed, then it finally got interesting. In some way, I can say it was predictable and too obvious. When I put like this, I feel I love reading grue...more
I really enjoyed this particular book more than the other Scarpetta books I have read up until Benton dies. The fact that he later turns up alive is dull. Cornwell shows that Kay has issues in her past she hasn't really dealt with like the people she is after. Seems like she works with the dead because she enjoys it, maybe she derives more satisfaction from hanging around 'them' than people who are alive. Somehow reminds me of the character Illeana Scott in the movie Taking Lives. What's up with...more
Point of Origin, I can honestly say, is very different then any other books I have ever read. Patricia Cornwell takes you into the familar mind of our heroine, Dr Kay Scarpetta, where she battles between the ties of arson, treachery, and pyschotic murders. Point of Orign will literally send chills up and down your spine as Scarpetta discovers her old nemesis, Carrie Grethen has escaped from the hospital ment for the criminally insane, and is somehow involved with the recent crimes. You will be s...more
This book kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. From the beginning when a stable full of purebred race horses burn and a victim is found inside the bathroom of a rich wealthy horsebreeder and that more victims turn up having been disfigured and killed in the same way after Kay Scarpetta's nemesis Carrie Grethen escapes from a mental hospital to when somebody very close to Kay meets a gruesome death at the hands of Carrie and her new accomplice, it was impossible not to shed tears...more
Why am I reading thrillers at this late stage of life? I never read any until about a year ago and now I can't stop - even if they do give me nightmares. This is superbly crafted incredible rubbish. I read it in three nights, unable to put it down. I'd rate it the best Scarpetta novel with a dark undertow and a sense of doom more pervasive and gripping than the usual scary stuff. Beware - this one ends in tragedy.
Maybe it's me identifying with Kay Scarpetta - the tough cookie with the soft centr...more
Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner and consulting forensic pathologist for the fedreral law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to an isolated farmhouse in Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body which tells a story of violent and grisly murder. The fire has come at the same time as Carrie Grethen, a killer who nearly destroyed the lives of scarpetta and those closest to her, has escaped from a forensic psychiatric hospital. Her whereabouts a...more
I've never read a fiction book more determined to educate. While I appreciate that the author did her research - good ones do, I don't want to read every paragraph of it. This was my first and last Patricia Cornwell novel. The story line was completely swallowed up in pages of, primarily gruesome forensic detail & tedious technical detail - with just barely enough of a thread of story line to keep me reading (her once). This was so bad I have to change an my only other ever 1 star review to...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Litterary Devices? | 1 | 24 | Mar 05, 2012 04:21pm | |
| Gault, Carrie, Lucy, Bentley, et al. | 14 | 30 | Jan 23, 2012 01:06am |
Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working as a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. At her first signing, held during a lunch break from the morgue, Patricia sold no copies of Postmortem and fielded exactly one question – an elderly woman asked her where she could find the cookbooks.
Postmortem would go on to win the Edgar, Cre...more
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Postmortem would go on to win the Edgar, Cre...more
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Aug 14, 2008 09:45am
Aug 14, 2008 09:46am