Patricia Cornwell

In this thrilling installment of the #1 bestselling series, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta returns to solve a mystifying case involving larger-than-life footprints and the Bonnie & Clyde of cybercrime. The morning after North Virginia's deadliest Halloween on record, forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta is pulled away from her caseload to investigate a chilling crime. She arrives in the wilderness to find one body floating in the lake, and another twenty feet down an abandoned mineshaft--both mutilated almost beyond recognition. It can be no coincidence that the couple were killed on the verge of their arrest for cybercrimes. After the most terrifying body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.

A Scarpetta Novel

Unnatural Death

This is not your average Kay Scarpetta book.  The book essentially takes place over one day, focusing between a crime scene, the lab and Kay's home.  There are some flashback type scenes interspersed, showing how these potential murders are linked to other recent murders.

Lucy and the Secret Service are very much in charge of this murder scene and Kay and Marino are very much the mushrooms in the dark.  They are fed information as and when they need it - they're never the ones leading the investigation.  I did really feel for Kay and Marino when some big revelations were made.  Just like them I'd have hated being kept in the dark too!

There may be a lot of techno-speak for some folk but my technophobic self made it through unscathed and feeling rather proud of myself for not having to have to google stuff!  There are politics, technological threats and plain old human treachery afoot in Virginia.

This really brought me back to the Scarpetta books of old.  I did stop reading the series for a while as I felt the books kind of went away from their roots of a good old suspenseful thriller but Kay and Marino are now back in much more familiar territory for me!  I did enjoy getting a glimpse behind Pete's cryptid hunting hobby.  It softens out some of his still ragged edges.  He's always been one of the harder series characters to love but he has grown over the series - even though he's still a man out of his time and his mouth will always run ahead of his brain and heart!

Family had always played a big part of the Scarpetta World - biological and found family and this is true in this book too.  Family may always love you but they don't always like you or tell you everything you'd want to know.  Dorothy continues to be one of my least favourite characters - I just cannot warm up to that woman!  

The enmity between Kay and Marino and Eddy and Cutbush continues and levels up another notch or two.  But the biggest reveal was the "big bad" - I did not see that coming - at all!  Looking forward to the next adventure!

Nicola Sarah Brooks

This is not your average Kay Scarpetta book.  The book essentially takes place over one day, focusing between a crime scene, the lab and Kay's home.  There are some flashback type scenes interspersed, showing how these potential murders are linked to other recent murders.

Lucy and the Secret Service are very much in charge of this murder scene and Kay and Marino are very much the mushrooms in the dark.  They are fed information as and when they need it - they're never the ones leading the investigation.  I did really feel for Kay and Marino when some big revelations were made.  Just like them I'd have hated being kept in the dark too!

There may be a lot of techno-speak for some folk but my technophobic self made it through unscathed and feeling rather proud of myself for not having to have to google stuff!  There are politics, technological threats and plain old human treachery afoot in Virginia.

This really brought me back to the Scarpetta books of old.  I did stop reading the series for a while as I felt the books kind of went away from their roots of a good old suspenseful thriller but Kay and Marino are now back in much more familiar territory for me!  I did enjoy getting a glimpse behind Pete's cryptid hunting hobby.  It softens out some of his still ragged edges.  He's always been one of the harder series characters to love but he has grown over the series - even though he's still a man out of his time and his mouth will always run ahead of his brain and heart!

Family had always played a big part of the Scarpetta World - biological and found family and this is true in this book too.  Family may always love you but they don't always like you or tell you everything you'd want to know.  Dorothy continues to be one of my least favourite characters - I just cannot warm up to that woman!  

The enmity between Kay and Marino and Eddy and Cutbush continues and levels up another notch or two.  But the biggest reveal was the "big bad" - I did not see that coming - at all!  Looking forward to the next adventure!

Unnatural Death A Scarpetta Novel

Reviews