Publishers Weekly
08/29/2022
Bestseller Cornwell’s solid 26th Kay Scarpetta novel (after 2021’s Autopsy) opens with Kay, now Virginia’s chief medical examiner, testifying at a controversial murder trial, which has attracted media attention thanks to the angry and vocal friends, family, and supporters of the victim, former beauty queen April Tupelo. No sooner has Kay left the courtroom than she’s called to a crime scene. CIA employee Rachael Stanwyck, the sister of judge Annie Chilton, who’s presiding over the Tupelo case, is lying dead on the kitchen floor of Annie’s secluded country house. Kay is immediately struck by the eerie lack of bird, insect, and animal life surrounding the house, leading her colleague and brother-in-law, Pete Marino, to comment, “Is it just me? Or is something weird going on?” Another brutal death, a failed presidential assassination, a band of homegrown terrorists, and more all take their turn stirring the pot of weirdness. The story line at times gets lost amid extended descriptions of crime scene examinations and autopsy techniques, as well as interactions with difficult colleagues and Kay’s eternally petulant sister. This fact-filled entry isn’t Cornwell’s best, but fans will be satisfied. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Dr. Kay Scarpetta, who keeps us coming back to Patricia Cornwell’s sprawling crime novels, is one tough broad.”—New York Times Book Review
“Scarpetta is brilliant, compassionate and humble, excelling in her profession and in diplomacy."—Library Journal, Starred Review for Autopsy
Patricia Cornwell is a “masterful mysterian.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Everyone knows Scarpetta; she has the wit, intelligence, and strength that any forensic sleuth should own. This never-stop action plot is yet another gift to readers from Patricia Cornwell-a literary artist that is never going to stop writing some of the best and most memorable thrillers out there.”—Suspense Magazine
"Cornwell’s demonic plot shifts and changes almost page by page, so the reader’s spun round not knowing what to believe.”—Providence Journal, Praise for Depraved Heart
Suspense Magazine
Everyone knows Scarpetta; she has the wit, intelligence, and strength that any forensic sleuth should own. This never-stop action plot is yet another gift to readers from Patricia Cornwell-a literary artist that is never going to stop writing some of the best and most memorable thrillers out there.
Praise for Depraved Heart Providence Journal
Cornwell’s demonic plot shifts and changes almost page by page, so the reader’s spun round not knowing what to believe.
New York Times Book Review
Dr. Kay Scarpetta, who keeps us coming back to Patricia Cornwell’s sprawling crime novels, is one tough broad.
Library Journal
05/01/2022
Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta testifies in a case, fumbled by the initial pathologist, concerning a drowned beauty queen whose fiancé is charged with her death. Then the judge's sister is murdered. With a 400,000-copy first printing.
OCTOBER 2022 - AudioFile
January LaVoy is the crisp, clear voice of Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner, in the latest audiobook in the series. Scarpetta is a witness in a tense murder trial that will cause rioting and violence no matter the outcome. She is called to investigate the death of the judge’s sister, which looks like a botched robbery. The dead animals and plants and loss of power around the crime scene tell a different story, however, one that terrifies Kay. LaVoy credibly captures accents—from a Texas drawl to the smoothness of the Old South and the flat, nasal tones of the Midwest. Each character has a distinct cadence, pitch, and timbre, allowing the listener to easily identify the large cast. L.M.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-08-31
Another 15 rounds for Virginia chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta and her well-placed enemies past and present.
Why is her old law school roommate, Judge Annie Chilton, allowing Alexandria’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Bose Flagler to beat up Scarpetta on the witness stand? Normally the state’s CME would be on the prosecutor’s side, but this time Scarpetta is determined to testify that her predecessor, the late Dr. Bailey Carter, who had rapid-onset dementia, mistakenly called beauty queen April Tupelo’s drowning murder, leading to the arrest of her live-in Romeo, Gilbert Hooke. Even so, Chilton’s rulings seem consistently heedless of Scarpetta’s formidable reputation and personal feelings, as if the judge were distracted by something. Maybe she’s having previsions about her sister, CIA press secretary Rachael Stanwyck, who’s soon found dead in the kitchen of the judge’s family estate, rendering the introductory case moot to everyone but the protesters who attack Scarpetta, bellowing “JUSTICE FOR APRIL!” and providing the media with more anti-Scarpetta grist. Certainly Cornwell seems to forget about it in her eagerness to linger over the diabolical, state-of-the-art murder weapon by which the judge’s sister met her doom and to evoke the endless infighting among Scarpetta, her nemesis, Virginia health commissioner Dr. Elvin Reddy, and his minions. A second (or is it a third?) murder provides the basis for more of the post-mortem set pieces that make fans of this long-running series salivate, and it’s especially gratifying to see Scarpetta wring important evidence from a dust bunny. But the forensics mean more to Cornwell than the suspects, and the ideal reader of this installment won’t care any more than she does whodunit.
As usual, the dead are just more interesting than the living. Something to look forward to.
