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The Scarpetta Factor (Kay Scarpetta #17)
by
Patricia Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
In the extraordinary new novel by Patricia Cornwell-the world's #1 bestselling crime writer-forensic expert Kay Scarpetta is surrounded by familiar faces, yet traveling down the unfamiliar road of fame. A CNN producer wants her to launch a TV show called "The Scarpetta Factor." But the glare of the spotlight could make Kay a target for the very killers she would put behind...more
ebook, 512 pages
Published
October 20th 2009
by Berkley
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I was lucky enough to have a training class with the New York Medical Examiner's Office this past week. Patricia Cornwell was kind enough to stop by with some books for the class -- so this is signed to me.
Thank you Miss Cornwell!
Even though I have a lovely hard cover I have started listening to this take...must say thus far I am impressed.
I continued to be impressed. If the other Scarpetta novels are this well researched (the forensics side sounded really accurate, I can only guess the bomb and...more
Thank you Miss Cornwell!
Even though I have a lovely hard cover I have started listening to this take...must say thus far I am impressed.
I continued to be impressed. If the other Scarpetta novels are this well researched (the forensics side sounded really accurate, I can only guess the bomb and...more
This book was long, redundant, like a song with no end. There were times when I felt the need to scream, yell in frustration, toss the book as the point was never made. The story line was slow, confusing and erratic. It reminded me of a time when I first started reading and thought how great books were, not caring how the plot rambled or made a point, not caring for significance, not caring if it wasn't organized, like I was smarter then most because I could follow along, because I read the book...more
18 likes · like · see review
I can't begin to describe how disappointed I am, not only in this book, but in the last several. Scarpetta is un-recognizable from the early books-when she was a smart, loving, still hopeful woman with a life outside of the morgue. Back then I knew why her co-workers were devoted to her. I wish Benton had stayed dead, I wish Lucy had never grown up and Marino had never become...this Marino.
I am convinced that Kay Scarpetta is a thinly disguised Pat Cornwell and I can't help wondering why she hat...more
I am convinced that Kay Scarpetta is a thinly disguised Pat Cornwell and I can't help wondering why she hat...more
9 likes · like · see review
I am a huge Kay Scarpetta fan. Love that this book is set in NYC right next door to where I work (Bellvue) !
Story was typical Cornwell...A good fast enjoyable read
Story was typical Cornwell...A good fast enjoyable read
1 like · like · see review
I've only recently discovered Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta books and had enjoyed reading all of them until I got to this one.
Without beating around the bush, I found this one an extremely boring and frustrating read. Even the "exciting" scenes (such as when Kay has a bomb-scare in her apartment) are irritatingly slow. The sheer amount of scientific jargon in this one also left me cold, and all the characters seemed wrapped up in their own problems and unable to be nice to anyone around them...more
Without beating around the bush, I found this one an extremely boring and frustrating read. Even the "exciting" scenes (such as when Kay has a bomb-scare in her apartment) are irritatingly slow. The sheer amount of scientific jargon in this one also left me cold, and all the characters seemed wrapped up in their own problems and unable to be nice to anyone around them...more
Meh...
This just didn't do it for me like the older pre-Benson-came-back-to-life Scarpettas.
Kay is definitely losing her mojo, as evidenced by her not being able to learn to use a cell phone (Really, Kay? C'mon now you are a brilliant doctor and you can't use a Blackberry?) It's sad to watch. Plus she's not cooking up a storm like she used to. I miss her.
Marino. Oh, Marino, what have they done to you? I am really, really mad at Cornwell for ruining this character. What he did to Kay in the last b...more
This just didn't do it for me like the older pre-Benson-came-back-to-life Scarpettas.
Kay is definitely losing her mojo, as evidenced by her not being able to learn to use a cell phone (Really, Kay? C'mon now you are a brilliant doctor and you can't use a Blackberry?) It's sad to watch. Plus she's not cooking up a storm like she used to. I miss her.
Marino. Oh, Marino, what have they done to you? I am really, really mad at Cornwell for ruining this character. What he did to Kay in the last b...more
... und nach Nr. 16 hier nun Nr. 17. Achtung, zynischer Spoiler.
Die altbewährten Darsteller Scarpetta, Benton, Marino, Lucy und Jamie befinden sich immer noch in New York. Eine Joggerin wurde ermordet und eine betrügerische Finanzberaterin ist verschwunden. Scarpetta soll in einer Talkshow vorgeführt und per Briefbombe verletzt werden. Gelingt beides nicht. Ein Nekrophiler geht um. Ein unfähiger, kranker Profiler mit Hörschaden bringt sich um. Jamie misstraut Lucy und umgekehrt, emotionales Dram...more
Die altbewährten Darsteller Scarpetta, Benton, Marino, Lucy und Jamie befinden sich immer noch in New York. Eine Joggerin wurde ermordet und eine betrügerische Finanzberaterin ist verschwunden. Scarpetta soll in einer Talkshow vorgeführt und per Briefbombe verletzt werden. Gelingt beides nicht. Ein Nekrophiler geht um. Ein unfähiger, kranker Profiler mit Hörschaden bringt sich um. Jamie misstraut Lucy und umgekehrt, emotionales Dram...more
I bought this book because I loved Cornwell's older Scarpetta books. Then I read all the really bad reviews, and almost chucked it without opening it. Finally, I ran out of other things to read and opened this one. It took me several months to get through it, in between reading other things. It's very put-downable. Once I put it down, very hard to pick up and start reading again. I had to ask myself why - because this is an author I've loved from the start.
On the plus side, Cornwell is a good w...more
On the plus side, Cornwell is a good w...more
I read all her early books, I still have them on my shelves and then I read one that made me think - no more. So I stopped. Saw The Scarpetta Factor on sale and thought I'd give her another try. Oh dear. Wished I hadn't. What on earth has happened to the writer she once was? POV changes all over the place - including the same paragraph - that left me confused. I liked reading just from Scarpetta's POV. I liked her as a ballsy character and what I read in this book was a stupid woman who should h...more
5 likes · like · see review
Good grief. I just returned this book to the library (so glad I didn't spend money on it) after having already renewed it, yet I dropped it into the slot wth 60 pages still unread. It was a painful five weeks to get through 432 pages; I've never taken so long to MAKE myself try to finish something.
I have read all of Cornwell's Scarpetta books and absolutely devoured the first ones. Maybe it's that I haven't read any in quite a while...or maybe...just maybe I couldn't finish this one because Cor...more
I have read all of Cornwell's Scarpetta books and absolutely devoured the first ones. Maybe it's that I haven't read any in quite a while...or maybe...just maybe I couldn't finish this one because Cor...more
I thought this one was a lot better than some of the other recent ones Cornwell has written for the Scarpetta series. Some of it was a little repetitive, but I did like how she addressed Benton's character more and gave the reader some more insight on how Benton felt for those 6 years that he had to pretend to be dead. As far as Lucy, her life is always a secret and this time it is no different. She is always out for revenge and is always a very angry person. The only person who didn't seem to b...more
I've been slack in reviewing my books lately, but had to savage this one after finishing it. The story itself is so convoluted while really not saying anything, it borders on stream-of-consciousness when trying to be a CSI/Police thriller. There's really no suspense, and the "conclusion" was a quick 30 seconds where the bad guys are dispatched without any buildup, with one "offscreen" as I guess it wasn't important enough to actually write about the finish. The "mastermind" of the whole thing sh...more
5 likes · like · see review
I should have known...Twenty years ago I started reading Cornwell's books featuring Kay Scarpetta. I enjoyed the first several of them. Seventeen books later... Ugh. I was looking for a good mystery, an easy read, about interesting characters, with a lot of forensics thrown in. Didn't find it here this time, unfortunately. What I did find was a boring mystery with a bunch of one-dimensional characters whose back stories take up much of the space in the book. Guess you had to be there for all of...more
3 likes · like · see review
After a long break from reading Cornwell's books I stumbled across this one in a drug store line one day and grabbed it up. And I have to say this is the most painful read I've ever had for a book. I finished it but only because I wanted to know if I was right about who the killer was and ... really that was the ending?
It took me 4 months to read a paperback. I NEVER take that long it was just slow and just hard to read that I kept having to put it down and do something else. It makes me terrib...more
It took me 4 months to read a paperback. I NEVER take that long it was just slow and just hard to read that I kept having to put it down and do something else. It makes me terrib...more
In this series, "Scarpetta" has gradually become the center of an ever-shrinking universe in which the only important people are Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta herself and her long-time associates: her husband (Benton Wesley), her niece (Lucy), and her friend (Moreno). In the rest of this fictional world, everyone else follows their exploits in the tabloids and on CNN like fans in the real world follow events in the lives of stars like Tiger Woods. (BTW, how many real-life medical examiners can...more
1 like · like · see review
Cornwell brings back the ever-popular Dr. Kay Scarpetta for a 17th adventure with her newest work. The good doctor has now settled into a position as a part time medical examiner with the New York Crime Scene department. On the side, she is also a senior analyst for CNN, covering topics relating to forensics.
The story revolves around two unique murders. One involves the mysterious murder of a jogger found in Central Park. It quickly becomes clear that her time of death was much earlier than expe...more
The story revolves around two unique murders. One involves the mysterious murder of a jogger found in Central Park. It quickly becomes clear that her time of death was much earlier than expe...more
Jan 29, 2010
KarenC
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
graduate psychology majors
Shelves:
forensic_mystery,
police
Where do I begin with my reaction to this one? Seemed better than the previous, Scarpetta, although I'm starring them the same.
I thought Dr. Scarpetta was supposed to be into the forensics end of the criminal investigation. What happened to the forensics? For that matter, what happened to the poor dead "jogger" in the park? Her case seemed to get lost in the mountains of angst among the investigating "team." This book, similar to the last, spent more time on the psychological issues of the "tea
...more
For some reason, I now forget the Scarpetta books almost as fast I as read them. Which is a bad thing now since Cornwell keeps pulling old plots and characters from the past to make starring appearances in the new books.
Scarpetta has a dead body of a runner on her table that is causing her problems. Nothing about the crime looks right and the Biograph watch that was left on the body is more confusing when there isn't any information (on the internet) about it. Lucy and Berger are together and ha...more
Scarpetta has a dead body of a runner on her table that is causing her problems. Nothing about the crime looks right and the Biograph watch that was left on the body is more confusing when there isn't any information (on the internet) about it. Lucy and Berger are together and ha...more
The most convoluted, uninteresting storyline ever. I liked the early Cornwell books but the latter few, leading up to the Marino assault, I found tiresome. I stopped reading after that assault but picked up a copy of this free, so gave it a go for old time's sake.I really shouldn't have bothered. It was very badly written - and while I disagree with the direction Cornwell has been taking recently and the way she allowed her characters evolve over time, her books were usually relatively well-wri...more
Somewhere in the 500-plus pages of this book is a good 300 page mystery struggling to get out. There were many points where I thought it would succeed, only to lose it again under the suffocating weight of each character's relentless self-absorption and analysis.
Since The Body Farm, Cornwell has increasingly given over her books to a sort of public self-examination. She uses the pages of the Scarpetta series to work out her own issues, turning her characters into a sort of Greek Chorus for her...more
Since The Body Farm, Cornwell has increasingly given over her books to a sort of public self-examination. She uses the pages of the Scarpetta series to work out her own issues, turning her characters into a sort of Greek Chorus for her...more
15 likes · like · see review
As usual, Patricia Cornwell's books have fallen below par. It's like a freight train you can't help but read.
One thing that I liked about this book in particular was the look into why Benton had to go into protective custody for 6 years. The past couple of books hadn't gone into detail, so it was nice to get the real reasons. As a psychology major, I can also appreciate the forensic psychology brought about in this book.
That being said, I'm highly disappointed. The characters have evolved, whic...more
One thing that I liked about this book in particular was the look into why Benton had to go into protective custody for 6 years. The past couple of books hadn't gone into detail, so it was nice to get the real reasons. As a psychology major, I can also appreciate the forensic psychology brought about in this book.
That being said, I'm highly disappointed. The characters have evolved, whic...more
3.0 out of 5 stars Complex and absorbing..., August 29, 2010
This review is from: The Scarpetta Factor (Hardcover)
This novel, the seventeenth in the series featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is full of the forensic details, cutting edge FBI analysis protocols, and technological advances that Patricia Cornwell is known for writing. The well known and much-loved characters are all together again as they work a complex case that perplexes and engages them in various facets of the investigation. Lucy and...more
I have read, and enjoyed, many of Cornwell's books. After four or five years of no Kay Scarpetta, I picked this book up at the library and expected to be fully entertained. Not so.
It is usually pleasurable for me to start a book with recurring characters; I like the comfort level of running into someone I'm acquainted with, not starting over etc. Somehow, that never happened with this book:
. . . People I thought I knew didn't feel familiar;
. . . People I thought were dead re-appeared;
. . . Chara...more
It is usually pleasurable for me to start a book with recurring characters; I like the comfort level of running into someone I'm acquainted with, not starting over etc. Somehow, that never happened with this book:
. . . People I thought I knew didn't feel familiar;
. . . People I thought were dead re-appeared;
. . . Chara...more
Kay, Kay, Kay.... this book ties up a loose end with the Jondons... The wolf has recreated himself as hairless... (electrolisis)... but this time we don't get into his head. and he's struggling to weild the empire left to him by default by his family. Pesky murder and Kay keep getting in the way...
so the story goes from 4 angles... Lucy is fearful that Jamie is distancing herself, and so she overreacts to being duped by xxxxx, who is missing, and who has taken her for a goodly sum of money... Ja...more
so the story goes from 4 angles... Lucy is fearful that Jamie is distancing herself, and so she overreacts to being duped by xxxxx, who is missing, and who has taken her for a goodly sum of money... Ja...more
One female body in the morgue, another high profile millionairess missing and a possible connection to a Hollywood actor rumoured to have unsavoury sexual practices. Kay Scarpetta while working pro bono for the New York’s Chief Medical Examiner is working on the case when she is asked to make one of her semi-regular appearances on a TV show. While being bombarded by the presenter with questions about the case of Hannah Starr, which she can’t discuss, she gets an unsettling call live on air from...more
I have to admit this wasn’t one of my favorite novels by Patricia Cornwell. When I first began the Scarpetta novels, it was like beginning a long love affair. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on each new book when it came out, even pre-ordering at times. Over the last few years, these characters that I had learned to love began to take paths I couldn’t relate to. I was very upset when Mareno turned into a mess I didn’t even recognize anymore, but I decided to go ahead and try one more time. Kay S...more
A true Scarpetta fan, I read the book straight through like some watch television. The characters are growing, life is changing everyone after 20 years. Kay is different, Benson different, and Lucy is evolving into something yet to be determined. The book was not typical Scarpetta & Marino. But of course after their incident, dynamics are bound to change. This book has finally put to bed the Chandonne story line, Thank You! And all of main characters have questioned their lives and choices....more
Oct 17, 2010
Vivisection
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
procedural-mysteries,
psychological-mysteries
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Um....yeah....I finally managed to finish it. The first 100 or so pages were dreadful. I had no idea what was going on, what the story was about, too many plots and characters introduced and didn't know why. By about page 300 it started to come together and you started to get a small inkling of how everything was connected, but it was still confusing. Too much technical jargon, psychobabble, and not enough forensic stuff in the morgue. So many twists that weren't necessary and left you more frus...more
I'm usually firm about not starting a series in the middle and/or jumping around, reading the books out of order. Not so with the Scarpetta series. Each time I acquire another book I tell myself I will not read it until I can get my hands on the rest of the series. And each time, I just have to go ahead and read it, telling myself I will re-read it once I have all of the books in my collection. Her stories are just that good. Full of twists and turns, you often find yourself thinking, "Doh!! I c...more
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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
More about Patricia Cornwell...
Postmortem would go on to win the Edgar, Cre...more
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Sep 20, 2010 12:51pm