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Trace (Kay Scarpetta #13)

by Patricia Cornwell (Goodreads Author)

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 14,826 ratings · 415 reviews

Now freelancing from south Florida, Dr. Kay Scarpetta returns to Richmond, Virginia, the city that turned its back on her five years ago. Investigating the death of a young girl, she must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak-and to reveal the sad truth that may be more than even she can bear.

ebook, 544 pages

Published June 28th 2005 by Berkley (first published 2004)

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Jan 29, 2008 Ana T. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: keeper, contemporary, mysteries-thrillers

Although I'm a big fan of Cornwell's Scarpetta series I had great trouble getting into this book.

Scarpetta goes back to Richmond after 5 years to help solve the case of a young girl found dead in her bed. She is called by the new Medical Examiner who reveals himself to be a less than competent man with a few skeletons in his closet. At the same time Benton is in Aspen trying to help a member of Lucy's team who was attacked in Lucy's house, having had to cancel the vacation plans he had with Scar...more

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Dec 06, 2008 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Trace by Patricia Cornwell is a Scarpetta Novel. Patricia Cornwell writes this story in three settings like: South Florida; Richmond, Virginia; and also in Aspen. The story mostly takes place in Richmond, Virginia, in modern time. It’s written in third-person omniscient, but the story mainly revolves around Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Everyone calls her Scarpetta. The story starts when Scarpetta returns to Richmond after five years to help on a case.

I like this book because it is about solving cases and...more
Trace by Patricia Cornwell is a Scarpetta Novel. Patricia Cornwell writes this story in three settings like: South Florida; Richmond, Virginia; and also in Aspen. The story mostly takes place in Richmond, Virginia, in modern time. It’s written in third-person omniscient, but the story mainly revolves around Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Everyone calls her Scarpetta. The story starts when Scarpetta returns to Richmond after five years to help on a case.

I like this book because it is about solving cases and getting down to the truth. Scarpetta is the meaning to getting down to the bottom of things. She is smart and always right most of the time, and that is way everyone respects Scarpetta instead of their new boss.

After Scarpetta left Richmond five years later when she returns, Chief Medical Examiner, new boss, takes over her old job. His name is Dr. Joel Marcus. Dr. Marcus is the one who called Scarpetta to come back to Richmond to work on the case of fourteen-year-old girl who died of no cause and no evidence why she died. Dr. Marcus blames Scarpetta for everything that goes wrong in his life.

Scarpetta and her friend, Marino, are the ones who are trying to figure out why Dr. Marcus wants Scarpetta to come back to Richmond if he doesn’t know her. Also why how does a fourteen-year-old girl die if she doesn’t even have a reason or evidence of why she died. . Marino has a very different presents when he walks in the building. “’That’s enough, please,’ Dr. Marcus snaps. ‘This is not a beer hall.’” Dr. Marcus says to Marino when they first meet. In search for answers, they come across some weird and mysterious people. They come across the FBI agent, Karen Weber, who is beautiful but starts in the case and misses everything up.

Scarpetta also gets clues from her on the edge boyfriend, Benton. Benton is also working on a case and is in Aspen, but doesn’t tell Scarpetta anything about it. They have boundaries and respect one another’s boundary. Benton’s case is about a girl who works for Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy, who gets raped at Lucy’s house. Lucy thinks everything is as bad as it seems. “’Just some punk interested in you car, and you have to turn it into an international incident.’ Says Rudy.”

The theme of the story is everything has a solution; even though, it may not be there in plain sight. Benton starts to notice that the case he is working on is some how connected to Scarpetta’s case. The only thing is that the cases are nothing alike.

As Scarpetta drifts more in the case, she begins to realize that the fourteen-year-old girl was killed. The person who killed her has killed before. The killer also used to work with Scarpetta.

The killer is very hard to find. Killer’s prints aren’t in the computer, and the killer doesn’t seem to care to leave evidence. The problem is the evidence is hard to find, but killer wants people to know that there is a killer. The evidence is spread between three different cases. The killer is mostly concern with Scarpetta and Lucy.

Trace is a really good book to read. It’s not that easy or advance to read, but is hard to understand but the characters seem to cover the confusing parts in the end. The only way to find out who killed the fourteen-year-old girl and who is stalking Lucy life is to read this wonderful book.
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Dec 04, 2008 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: forensic-pathology, mystery-genre

This is the book, I would say, where the characters complete their transformation from interesting people with issues you can relate to, to characters who are doing things that are so screwed up you don't even want to watch anymore. And now I remember why I stopped reading this series.

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Aug 17, 2007 John Wiswell rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Crime fiction lovers

Throw some sexual deviation and a few murders in there and I guess you'll have something that can sell, even if it's not worth writing. The killer this time is Edgar Allan Pogue, tragically child-like, suffering from familial trauma, like a thousand other postmodern murderers. Cornwell's insistence on present tense narrative is grating, and the ridiculous self-gratification of her main protagonist always being right and slighted anyway is done without humility or charm. The book is as bleak as a...more

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Dec 03, 2008 JBradford rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is another Kay Scarpetta novel. I am not reading them in order, but I am not wholly sure it makes any difference. I found this in the bookcase at the cottage this past weekend, but I do not know if it was left by one of the summer renters or I had picked it up at the clubhouse bookswap and just never gotten around to reading it.
I think Patricia Cornwell is an extremely accomplished writer. Does this mean she is great? I guess the true way to tell is the test of time. Will she still be as...more This is another Kay Scarpetta novel. I am not reading them in order, but I am not wholly sure it makes any difference. I found this in the bookcase at the cottage this past weekend, but I do not know if it was left by one of the summer renters or I had picked it up at the clubhouse bookswap and just never gotten around to reading it.
I think Patricia Cornwell is an extremely accomplished writer. Does this mean she is great? I guess the true way to tell is the test of time. Will she still be as readable 25 years from now, or 50? I recall becoming interested in a writer mentioned in my grossmutter’s journal as one of her favorites, so I looked her up. I found the one thing I could locate by her to be very readable but also peculiarly dated, clearly belonging to a different time. Similarly, I remember eagerly rereading the first book I had ever read, when I happened to find it at a book sale after I was married. That was Gene Stratton-Porter’s Freckles Comes Home, which I read at the age of four and a half, when my mother became so involved in the birth of my sister that she no longer had time to read to me at night; she had read Freckles and then started Freckles Comes Home, but she stopped, so I finished the book myself, somewhat to her amazement, and my kindergarten teacher the following year was startled to find that I could read, as by that time I was into other books. But the rereading was not so happy; twenty-plus years later; I found the story sluggish, slow, and even insipid, whereas my 4-year-old self had found it exciting, providing an opening to an whole different way of life. Similarly, I reread one of Edgar Rice Burroughs some 30 years after the first time I had read it, finding it to be impossibly stilted and silly the second time, whereas the first reading had been delightful.
Another test would be how well I remember it. This is the sort of thing that puzzles me. I still remember Freckles and Freckles Comes Home--indeed, the personality of Angel remains my ideal of what a woman should be (and which I realized in my wife)--just as I remember Toby Tyler and most of the adventures of Tom Swift, Boy Inventor, and Bomba the Jungle Boy … but I have a hard time remembering the plots of most of the books I have read in the past 50 years! That includes Patricia Cornwell; I have read other Kay Scarpetta books, as I said, but I have absolutely no recollection of the plot of any of them.

Anyway, back to the book. The plot here is marvelously intricate. Dr. Scarpetta is asked to come back to provide some enlightenment with respect to a new death in the city from which she was fired five years previously. It appears to be a simple case of a 14-year old girl who died from the flu, but there apparently are political issues that have made the case more important than it should be, with the FBI becoming involved. Kay brings with her a retired police officer, Pete Manino, who is one of those capable fellows with a rough exterior (and whom I do not remember from previous books; see above). Meanwhile, her niece, Lucy (whom I do remember), is getting into all sorts of complications back in Florida, where her live-in girlfriend is attacked and nearly killed, according to her, but no one is sure what really happened … and the reason Kay has free time to come investigate the aforementioned death when she had intended to go spend a few weeks in Aspen with her lover is that Lucy ahs sent her still-in-shock girlfriend to be psychoanalyzed by that same lover, who is a brilliant doctor. Kay finds that things have changed a lot at the Division of Forensic Science Laboratories in the five years she has been gone--the doctor who took her place is a simpleton, detested by his employees, and the people she knew have either left or degenerated. Nevertheless, Kay marches in and very quickly establishes that the girl in fact was murdered … and we know, of course, that this means Kay and Manino are going to solve the murder. Meanwhile, back in Florida, Lucy continues to be troubled by a stalker. In addition, we are introduced to a very strange person who carries dead people around in little boxes, and the story grows, as all of these subplots come together, inevitably.

So why the four stars? Because I liked the book so much I could not put it down, and I stayed up much too late last night reading it before I decided that I had to go to bed or I would not get up before noon. Not five stars; that is reserved for books so good that I would want you to go buy your own copy, because I would not lend you mine, but definitely a good read.
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Sep 22, 2012 Dawn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Being a fan of the US TV show Bones, a friend recommended I read Cornwell's books. She said I would not be disappointed, and to some extent she was right.

I have enjoyed the individual stories and the building stories in the background. Having missed a few of the novels before this one, I found it a little distracting, I wanted to know how Kay Scarpetta's niece fitted into all the action. Why had she left the Medical Examiner's office? What happened before in the previous novels. So before you re...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Bekah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just don't know. This is the second Scarpetta book I have read (admittedly out of order), and there's something I'm just not getting.

This one begins promisingly enough, with Kay and detective Pete Marino heading back to Virginia to help solve the mysterious death of a 14 year old girl. We meet some creepy people- the new chief medical examiner, for one, and our real bad guy, Edgar Allen Pogue.

"Trace" centers around trace evidence found at three seemingly unrelated crime scenes. One of these,...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Bev rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery, audio-book

I'm trying to get caught up on the two books before "Scarpetta," since I read that book out of sequence and obviously missed a lot. And now I have finished one of them. This one was fairly good--Scarpetta called back to Richmond to assist on the investigation into the death of a young girl which, of course, turns out to be more complicated than it seems at first. I listened to this as an audio book to see how I liked the narrator, and I didn't at all. I didn't like the voice she used for Marino,...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Tammy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hated

I found this book while I was in Amsterdam a few weeks ago. It had just been released and I couldn't wait to get it in paperback so I got the brand new hardcover. I just couldn't wait to see if she will redeem herself in this book. After completely changing the style that she writes the Scarpetta series and being severely disappointed in her latest (Blow Fly) this is her chance to win me back. So far I'm not even halfway through but I'm not impressed. It's the same choppy story as the last one,...more

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Jul 06, 2010 Jerry rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cornwell and Scarpetta should just gracefully retire !!

Patricia Cornwell is not on a good roll. Her atrocious non-Scarpetta "Isle of Dogs" was hardly redeemed by the weak return of Kay and Lucy in "Blowfly", wherein Scarpetta barely put in a cameo and Lucy took center stage (disguised as Wonder Woman), while poor Pete Marino was cast as little better than a bum and Benton Wesley was resurrected from the dead of all things.

At least in "Trace", half of the story is about Scarpetta, and though gro...more

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May 12, 2010 Ice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Cornwell's latest after the disappointing Blow Fly has indomitable medical examiner Kay Scarpetta returning to her office in Richmond five years after being fired. This homecoming will cheer fans: not only does the move put Scarpetta on her own turf, it reinvigorates Cornwell's storytelling, restoring some of the spunk lately lacking in her lead character. Dr. Joel Marcus, Scarpetta's replacement as Virginia's chief medical examiner, has summoned her back to help him puzzle through the mysteriou...more

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Jul 11, 2009 Liz rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library, fiction, fiction-mysteries

As I recounted in my review of the book after this, Predator, I checked that book out of the library thinking it might be the one about which I'd read a review saying that finally the Scarpetta series was improving again, but after realizing what a piece of tripe that work is, checked out this one instead, as I'd initially been going to do.

It started out more promising than Predator - for one thing, it began with an actual mystery! - but quickly got bogged down in Lucy's personal problems. Back...more As I recounted in my review of the book after this, Predator, I checked that book out of the library thinking it might be the one about which I'd read a review saying that finally the Scarpetta series was improving again, but after realizing what a piece of tripe that work is, checked out this one instead, as I'd initially been going to do.

It started out more promising than Predator - for one thing, it began with an actual mystery! - but quickly got bogged down in Lucy's personal problems. Back when I used to voraciously read the Scarpetta series, I remember generally liking Lucy's character, but like so many of the main characters in this series, she has become less likable with age (or perhaps she'd still be likable if she were written in a better way). So many things bother me about the series now that didn't used to bug me, and I'm not sure whether they were always there and I just let them slide before because the books were generally well-written and fast-paced, or if the fact that the writing has gotten markedly worse includes these items. For one thing, in both Predator and this book, Cornwell is obsessed with "perfect" looking people, and the characters (and the narration) deride anyone that doesn't look like Cornwell's (and/or the characters') definition of "perfect." Personally I don't know a single actual real person that looks like what the books define as "perfect," and I find this obsession obnoxious.

Secondly, I'm finding Lucy's character extremely obnoxious now. In the span of two pages a bit through the book (about 100 pages in), she refers to one character as "the Hispanic" and to her father as "my crazy Latino biological father" while referring to her white mother as "Hopefully, not from my mother..." At this point, I simply lost all patience or sympathy with Lucy's character in this book, and lost even more respect for Cornwell. I can't imagine either Cornwell or Lucy saying, "the white" or "my crazy white biological mother" (indeed, her books now only cite race when the person is a person of color), but somehow it is OK to refer to a person solely or primarily by their race or ethnicity if they are a person of color. It would be different if it seemed like Cornwell was deliberately writing Lucy as a racist or Scarpetta as weight-obsessed (perhaps with an eating disorder?), but it seems that in Cornwell's new world of the novels, things like these are "just the way people act" and considered quite fine behavior.

Since Lucy's storyline makes up a huge part of this book (from what it seems so far), at this point I am trying to decide between skipping the sections with her (and the related plot with Benton and Lucy's girlfriend) and only reading the sections with Scarpetta and Marino, or just returning the book without even bothering to read the rest of it. After two disappointing books in a row, and incredibly sloppy writing, I don't believe I will be reading another Cornwell book. It's too bad, as her writing used to be gripping and I once liked the characters of Scarpetta, Benton, and Lucy (though I never was particularly fond of Marino, as was the case for many early fans).

[See my review of Predator for my evisceration of that horrendous book.:](less)

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Sep 22, 2012 Joanna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This Scarpetta novel left something to be desired. It felt disjointed and patchy, and the characters were lacking any sense that made me feel empathy for them.

Ryan has become weak and needy, Lucy is even more screwed up, when it would be nice to see her gaining some ground, Benton is tedious and supercilious. The new characters are just awful - Dr Marcus showed us a little of his neuroses and then vanished. Henri was obviously deeply narcissistic and incapable of empathy, which a Dr of Benton's...more

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Oct 14, 2011 Hali Sowle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kalayna-price, mystery, murder, kay-scarpetta, patricia-cornwell, forensics

A bit rambling but not a bad book, there are so many things going on, and as always you have to wonder how they are all connected when it starts. As it almost always seems to happen Kay and Benton are apart at the holidays and after his "resurrection" nothing is more needed than some time together, but things come up, as always. Benton is at his condo in Aspen and Lucy's new lover has been almost murdered and Lucy sends her to Benton for some much needed therapy, although it is quickly apparent...more

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Dec 03, 2011 Peggy Barker rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Trace" is definitely one of a kind. With characters such as Edgar Allan Pogue, Henri Walden and Suz Paulsson, the reader might think the story is full of psychopaths or sociopaths who escaped from a mental facility, mainly.

The new Chief, Dr. Joel Marcus, at OCME is a weirdo who was beginning to give me the impression that he was linked to those morbid crimes, considering the trace evidence that was found. And what was going on with him that he would never leave home on trash pickup day until th...more

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Jun 08, 2013 Alfredo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Habitualmente no me fío mucho de la crítica cuando elogia a un súperventas. Los comentarios que se vierten al respecto son superficiales, lugares comunes del tipo "una excelente historia llena de personajes entrañables" y tonterías por el estilo que bien podrían decirse de cualquier texto, ubicado en cualquier género y escrito en cualquier época. Por eso mismo me lo pensé mucho, de verdad mucho, antes de leer algún título de Patricia Cornwell. No quería, como suele suceder, caer en la trampa de...more Habitualmente no me fío mucho de la crítica cuando elogia a un súperventas. Los comentarios que se vierten al respecto son superficiales, lugares comunes del tipo "una excelente historia llena de personajes entrañables" y tonterías por el estilo que bien podrían decirse de cualquier texto, ubicado en cualquier género y escrito en cualquier época. Por eso mismo me lo pensé mucho, de verdad mucho, antes de leer algún título de Patricia Cornwell. No quería, como suele suceder, caer en la trampa de la publicidad y terminar sintiéndome estafado.

Hoy que he concluido La huella —la décima tercera entrega de la saga protagonizada por Kay Scarpetta— debo decir que me arrepiento mucho de no haberme topado antes con la serie. El libro no solo está magistralmente construido, con episodios que se ensamblan poco a poco sin que el lector lo sienta sino que, además, la narración lo lleva a uno perfectamente a través de lo que va sucediendo. Como buena novelista gringa, Patricia Cornwell no tiene pretensiones intelectuales profundas, no apunta a descubrir el hilo negro del estilo ni, tampoco, a meterse en las profundidades del modernismo o del posmodernismo. Lo suyo es contar una historia, punto. Y lo hace de maravilla. Cuando lo cree conveniente, inserta una cantidad inverosímil de datos técnicos, sin olvidarse de explicarlos para que el lego sepa lo que está sucediendo y, a la par, se sienta un tantito inteligente.

Si acaso, podría achacársele a la autora cierta tendencia a repetir nimiedades —relacionadas con un determinado estado de ánimo, con un elemento del fondo narrativo o con algo que sienten y piensan los personajes—, pero nada que eche a perder el ritmo del relato. Habrá también a quien no le gusten esos detalles escriturísticos netamente femeninos, en los que se abunda en el lado emotivo del personaje o en los componentes rosas de la trama pero, en lo particular, me parece que funcionan a la perfección a manera de paréntesis en medio de la trama policial. De igual suerte, la conclusión parece un tanto abrupta y hay dos errores de detalle —que no sabría si achacárselos al editor o a la autora— pero, repito, nada para alarmarse.

Como conclusión, vale decir que esta es una novela negra un tanto clásica, abocada a relatar los distintos pasos de la investigación y no tanto el ambiente, los crímenes o el lado sórdido de la historia, aunque no descuida la presentación cabal de quien, finalmente, se descubrirá como el asesino. Muy recomendable como primera aproximación a la obra de Patricia Cornwell —de la que, hasta el momento, tengo ya una decena más de libros, a la espera de ser leídos—. Novela negra fina, bien documentada y mejor contada. (less)

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Oct 10, 2011 Debbie Maskus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When Cornwell ends a novel, she always picks up the next novel where the action ended in the previous book. I must have missed something in the last novel, such as what happened to the escaped Jean-Bapiste and his nephew, Albert. Also, the confrontation between Benton and Kay does not happen. In this installation, Marino has lost weight and stopped smoking, but he still does not win Kay. Lucy is her usual feisty and self-absorbed self. Kay is asked to aid in determining death of a teen-age girl....more

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Apr 24, 2010 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Skip a few books in a series and, my, how things have changed! Brilliant heroine is deep in a stew of bitter professional and personal toxins, grumpy sidekick has traded smoking for even nastier self-destructive behaviors, brilliant niece is acting stupid, steady lover is locking Kay out in ways he doesn't need to, and the OCME office has gone to hell.

This was a more difficult read than I remember earlier Scarpetta books being, mainly because of all the negative personal garbage. It was hard to...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Stacy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries

I've always been a huge Patricia Cornwell fan, especially of her Kay Scarpetta series. This book unfortunately was very dissapointing to me. It didn't seem to have much of the forensic investigation or murder investigations in it. In fact, all the murders had been commited by the start of the book. It's definately a take it or leave it book.

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Jun 30, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the reason I needed to start a goodreads account in the first place. To keep track of my ridiculous Patricia Cornwell addiction. I can never remember where I left off in the series and then halfway through a book I'll remember I've read it. Plus, I go through spurts of reading her, which complicates memory matters. So note to self: you've read this. In addition, this book was actually really good comparatively. Her first novels were ridiculously cheesy but now that I think about it, I'm...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Martina rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-novels

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 24, 2012 Geoff Seymour rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had given up on the Scarpetta series right after Black Notice, because I thought they had continued to go downhill. I stumbled onto Blowfly at one point and thought it was trash so I never finished it. I had heard that Cornwell had come back into form, however, so I decided to try Trace... it was almost like she was writing the book from her stream of consciousness... The book jumps around a lot, and is not very cohesive, there are large plot holes, and none of the characters are likeable, whi...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Elaine Roberts rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love the Scarpetta character, which is based on a real medical examiner. Generally, Cornwell produces the Scarpetta books with taut and compelling writing. But in this novel, the characters have become caricatures of themselves. Marino is more unpleasant than usual. As a former detective, he is a useful foil and clearly in love with the lovely Kay Scarpetta, but became unacceptably irascible and unlikable in this book.

I know authors can't hit a home run with every book, especially in a long-ru...more

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Jun 25, 2010 Marilyn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Kay Scarpetta Novel. Kind of frustrating and tension creating. I wouldn't say real well written. Scarpetta was fired as Chief Medical Examiner from Richmond, VA. She's been called back from Florida by the current CME to review a case he claims that he needs her help on, but when she arrives, she finds that nothing is as she expected: her former lab is in the final stages of demolition; the inept CME isn't the one who requeted her at all; and her old assistant chief has developed personal probl...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Inga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller

Hörbuch-Rezension:
Franziska Pigullas Stimme ist für mich mehr mit Kay Scarpetta und Patricia Cornwell verbunden als mit den Schauspielerinnen, denen sie auch ihre Stimme leiht (z.B. Gillian Anderson oder Demi Moore). Inzwischen ist Cornwell bei Band 15 mit der Pathologin, die meisten davon hat Pigulla auch gelesen.
"Staub" kommt mit 6 CDs und 416 Minuten als gekürzte Fassung daher, vielleicht liegt es an der Kürzung, dass ich den Fall als ganz ordentlich wahrgenommen habe, wenngleich Cornwell ins...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Heidi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries-thrillers

(2004) Kay Scarpetta series

This is as engrossing as her first books in the Kay Scarpetta series. Kay Scarpetta reluctantly returns to Richmond at the request of Virginia’s Chief Medical Examiner, the neurotic, incompetent man who replaced her after she was fired. Scarpetta’s forensic examination is needed after the death of a girl and a possibly related attempted murder in Florida. Familiar characters help her investigate a new, easily-overlooked murderer. Cornwell departs from the format of her...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Labmom rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What is up with Patricia Cornwell? Her last book, "Blow Fly", sucked and this was not much better. Same problems as the last - huge unexplained plot holes, third person perspective, undeveloped minor characters. And what's worse, the last book ended with a cliff hanger that she ignored in this one and she just started a different track! Very Irritating! Her books used to be really tight with no holes, everything wrapped up nice and neat, and she always continued the story line until the bad guy...more

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Sep 11, 2007 Jen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brain_candy, audio

If I wasn't listening to this, I probably would have put it down. I think she needs to retire this series. Edgar Allen Pogue? Give me a break.

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Jan 11, 2009 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, medical, murder-mystery, series

I like this series because I think Kay is interesting and it's been fun to watch her niece Lucy grow into an adult and to see Kay's relationship with Benson and Marino. But, I have to be honest and say that once Benson "died" and then came back to life and entered Kay's life again, I have really disliked the books. I want to shake Kay and Lucy and tell them to get a life. Lucy has so many issues and Marino is a loose cannon. There are times that I have found Kay exasperating. Of course, I'll kee...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Kim rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

I've been a Scarpetta fan from the beginning but by the time I got to Trace I found the writing to be somewhat formulaic and the characters were losing my interest. While rummaging through a book swap pile I came upon the latest Scarpetta novel (the Scarpetta Factor) and thought I should give them another chance. Trace was a book I struggled through so that I could catch up to the Scarpetta Factor and isn't a book I would recommend... it isn't horrible, but it is very much like the rest of Cornw...more

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About Patricia Cornwell

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 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, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure prize – the first book ever to claim them all these distinctions in a single year. To date, Cornwell’s books have sold some 100 million copies in thirty-six languages in over 120 countries. She’s authored twenty-three New York Times bestsellers.

Patricia’s novels center primarily on medical examiner Kay Scarpetta along with her tech-savvy niece Lucy and fellow investigator Pete Marino. Over twenty years, these characters have grown into an international phenomenon, eventually winning Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development.

Fox 20th Century currently owns the rights to the Scarpetta film, with Angelina Jolie slated to play Kay.

Patricia’s literary career expands outside the realm of the Kay Scarpetta series – she’s authored a definitive account of Jack the Ripper’s identity, two cookbooks (Food to Die For and Scarpetta’s Winter Table), a children’s book (Life’s Little Fable), and a biography of Ruth Graham. She’s also developed two other series based on Win Garano, an upstart Boston detective, and Andy Brazil, an enterprising Charlotte reporter.

Though Cornwell now lives in Boston, she was born in Miami and grew up in Montreat, North Carolina. After earning her degree in English from Davidson College in 1979, she began working at the Charlotte Observer, taking whatever stories came her way and rapidly advancing from listing television programs to covering the police beat. Cornwell received widespread attention and praise for her series of articles on prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte.

From the Charlotte Observer, Cornwell moved to a job with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia – a post she would later bestow upon the fictional Kay Scarpetta. It was during these years that Patricia penned Postmortem and began submitting it to major publishing houses in New York, without initial success.

When not writing from her Boston home, Patricia tirelessly researches cutting-edge forensic technologies to include in her work. She flies her own helicopter, proudly emblazoned with the Scarpetta Crest, everywhere that might inspire her - from dinosaur bone beds to submarine factories to islands which host rare marine specimens.

Her interests span outside the literary: Patricia co-founded the National Forensic Academy and created a Chair in Organic Science at Harvard. She appears as a forensic consultant on CNN and serves as a member of Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital’s National Council, where she advocates for psychiatric research. She’s helped fund the ICU at Cornell’s Animal Hospital, the scientific study of a Confederate submarine, the archaeological excavation of Jamestown, and a variety of law enforcement charities. To stay in shape, she remains an avid tennis player.

Patricia is also committed to funding scholarships and literacy programs. Her advice to aspiring authors: “Start writing. And don’t take no for an answer."

Her latest book, Red Mist, is available now.(less)

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Quotes from Trace

“rain slowly slides down the glass as if the night is crying.” — 95 people liked it

“Life brings with it strangeness and surprises and upsets” — 3 people liked it

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Trace (Kay Scarpetta #13)

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