Patricia Cornwell

[Shannon]

I just want to know if I'm the only person who can't stand Patricia Cornwell's books, in every way: from the way she writes to her terrible one-dimensional characters to the bad plots and ridiculous villians.

She's the only author who I really loathe and I can't believe how much money she makes from these god-awful books! Please, tell me I'm not alone on this!

[John]

The first few Scarpetta books were great ... until she introduced the "werewolf" character as a villain. Blow Fly was so awful, I gave up almost immediately, vowing never, ever to read another word of hers again.

[Bronwyn]

I was obsessed with the Scarpetta Books for one summer but I also accepted the fact it wasn't groundbreaking literature.

[Tara]

I really enjoyed her early Scarpetta books but by the time I got to Blow Fly, I was done. I haven't touched any of her other books since. Well, I did try Trace but just had to put it down. I really hated it when she (SPOILER ALERT) killed Benton Wesley and then brought him back! No, no, no, NO! She said in an interview that so many of her fans were so disappointed that she killed him that she felt she owed it to them to bring him back. Are you freakin' kidding me?! Take a freaking stance and stay there! I hate it when authors do that. I hate it when they do something terrible, like kill off a character loved by many fans, and then create some nonsense that the character actually faked it and had to leave the country for the safety of his life or some BS. Oh my goodness.

Natalie, I hear ya about the Jack the Ripper. Case closed, whatever! Oh my goodness. Are you kidding me? I think I listed it as one of the books I loathe. I think it is on my top 5 list of books I loathe! She's so smug about that whole thing too, I saw her in an interview about the Ripper case. Came across as "I'm such a genius, and all those other people just wish they were as great as I am", please!

[Mary Ann]

The early Scarpetta books were the best, then they started to suck; I couldn't even finish the Jack the Ripper book.

[Maria]

I only read her Jack the Ripper book. Well, I read most of it. Overdosed on logical fallacies.

[Elizabeth]

I read a few of her books. What got me was the one dimensional characters and how from book to book, it was predictable what they would all say in any given situation.

[Carol]

I gave up on her after chapter one or two with "Blowfly" There are too many good books to read to waste time on bad writing.

[Mary]

I'm another who really enjoyed the early Scarpetta books but eventually just got sick of Cornwell's crappy writing. The characters are all so negative and depressing, in my opinion. I quit partway through Blow Fly; I hadn't really enjoyed anything since From Potter's Field anyway, and I'm pretty sure I skipped The Last Precinct entirely. Initially I started reading Cornwell because her books took place in my home town of Richmond, VA, and Cornwell actually lived in my parents' neighborhood (I never met her though).