Amazon.co.uk Review
Break out the champagne: Patricia Cornwell has thankfully moved on from her controversial campaign to lay the Jack the Ripper murders at the door of the painter Walter Sickert, and in
Trace is again raising our pulse rate by taking us into the dangerous world of consultant pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta.
In this latest outing, Kay finds herself back in Virginia examining a curious death, that of the youthful Gilly Paulson. Joel Marcus, her successor as Chief Medical Examiner, has summoned a reluctant Scarpetta to help out, but her professional work is compromised by her unhappiness at the radical changes occurring in her old territory: Scarpetta's old morgue has been bulldozed, and she isn’t happy working with the man who took her job. Other members of the familiar Scarpetta crew make an appearance: her partner Benton Wesley and her niece Lucy Farinelli are tracking down an assailant who has nearly ended the life of one of Lucy’s colleagues. The two cases turn out to be connected (surprise!), and soon several lives are at stake.
After the recent misfires, it’s a relief to note that Patricia Cornwell is back on track, dealing comfortably with her most familiar protagonist and a plot that yokes in bomb-makers and some bizarre sexual practices. A resounding welcome back, to both Ms Cornwell and Ms Scarpetta.--Barry Forshaw
Review
'When she is this good, she is hard to beat.' New Statesman 'Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns.' Mirror
It's a cause of real celebration for Cornwell fans that the author has left behind her recent obsessions (such as her eccentric attempt to pin the Jack the Ripper killings on the painter Sickert), and is again chronicling the collar-gripping activities of consultant pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta, who in Trace finds herself once again in Virginia looking into a baffling death, that of young Gilly Paulson. The new Chief Medical Examiner, Joel Marcus, has called the resourceful Scarpetta in, but her investigations are sidelined by her dismay at various changes: her old morgue has been bulldozered, and she is unsettled at the thought of meeting the man who took her job. Other members of the extended Scarpetta family are yoked in: her niece Lucy Farinelli and her partner Benton Wesley are tracking down an assailant who has nearly ended the life of one of Lucy's colleagues. It'll be no surprise to the reader to hear that the two cases turn out to be connected, but the key thing to note here is that Cornwell is back on form, comfortable with her signature character and torturous plot (involving lethal bomb-makers and deviant sexual behaviour). (Kirkus UK)
Five years after getting eased out in a nasty political brawl, Dr. Kay Scarpetta (Blow Fly, 2003, etc.) is back in Richmond to battle still another monstrous killer. Virginia's newly appointed Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Joel Marcus, hasn't a clue why 14-year-old Gilly Paulsson died. Gilly's flu had been responding to antibiotics, and the CME's office can find no apparent cause of death. So Marcus calls Scarpetta back from Florida, where she works with her niece Lucy Farinelli's security firm-ostensibly to consult with her, but actually to criticize and humble her. Tempers flare from the moment Scarpetta shows up with mouthy ex-Richmond cop Pete Marino in tow. But the battle really heats up with the news that the body of Theodore Whitby, a construction worker accidentally killed in the demolition of the old CME building, is marked by the same trace evidence as Gilly Paulsson, who died in bed miles away. Scarpetta must have contaminated one of the bodies, Dr. Marcus insists, because what else could the two cases have in common? Plenty, as readers will know if they've been following the dark doings of sickly Edgar Allan Pogue that Cornwell's planted along with half a dozen other grisly subplots. Cornwell's full-employment approach to evil hits all her high notes: grueling forensics, supernal villainy, Scarpetta's righteous duels with bullying authority figures. If the result is more synthetic than inspired, fans won't be disappointed. (Kirkus Reviews)
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