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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Point of Origin, 19 May 2005
Looking at the other reviews posted here, it's pretty clear that opinions of this book fall into two distinctive categories. There are those who loved the book and welcome it into the series of Scarpetta detective novels, and those that are really disappointed with it and feel that Cornwell is either not developing her characters enough, or developing them in the wrong way. Which is why I'm going to sit very firmly on the fence!In fact I wholeheartedly agree with the later group of critics, Scarpetta has developed into such a driven and exacting personality that she is almost becoming robotic in he attitudes to all walks of life. The fact that she is career minded or practical about most things I can accept, the fact that she is becoming demanding, belittling, downright rude and unfriendly to all she meets is a little harder to accept. If I were her assistant Fielding, I'll tell he where to stick her sharpest scalpel and look for a new job. This woman must be the biggest nightmare in the world to work for! Niece Lucy just hasn't developed at all. Professionally she changes from book to book, learning a new skill as determined by whatever situation Cornwell wants to place her is. One moment she's single handily created the first virtual intelligence robot, next she's flying helicopters for the ATS! What next? Developing a cure for cancer? Breaking the world 100 metres record? And anyway how can such a needy, moaning and winging person be such a professional success? "Ohhh nobody likes me!" weeps the young, beautiful, talented Lucy! "Someone as gifted as Lucy is always going to be lonely" pities Auntie Scarpetta! Well welcome to the real world ladies, now shut up or put up! My other major gripe with Cornwell is the pages and pages of detailed technical information as if to impress us. She's bombarded us with enough post-mortem facts to cheese off even the most dedicated fan so she turns to a different aspect, in this book's case, Fire Examination and gives us enough reams of procedural particulars to sink a ship. Boring! But, there again, I also wholeheartedly agree with the fist section of fans. This is still a book I whipped through in a couple of sittings. It never lost my attention and I was hooked to find out what happened all the way to the end, and I have no doubts that in a couple of weeks I'll be picking up the next one in the series. I can only hope that now with old woman Benton out of the way, (sorry Kay, but let's face it you weren't exactly cut up about the whole affair) we'll be treated to a new and interesting character! Long Live Marino, she's single again now Pete, go for it Sunshine!
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by Patricia Cornwell
by Patricia Cornwell
by Patricia Cornwell
by Patricia Cornwell
