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Patricia Cornwell's newest novel, BLOW FLY, is the stuff nightmares are made of. Her famous forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta is back, along with her niece Lucy and Detective Pete Marino. They make their way through this highly suspenseful, brutally realistic novel of perverted lust and maniacal murder perpetrated by two old foes responsible for an incalculable number of killings.
Scarpetta has resigned from her post as Chief Forensic Pathologist in Virginia and now lives in Florida. Lucy has left the FBI and has her own high-tech private investigative company located in New York City. Pete Marino has taken his pension and is an angry drunk without the job he so loved. As the novel opens, the three have been out of touch for a while, but this soon changes as a series of shocking events forces the team to reunite. Their lives depend on it.
Readers of the other Kay Scarpetta novels will certainly recognize Cornwell's deft hand and pithy prose. But they will also find themselves propelled to the edge of their seat by the level of suspense, the unexpected twists, the chilling detail and the ooze of the evil that pervades BLOW FLY.
Years ago the Chandonne twins, Jay Talley and his brother Jean-Baptiste, raped and slaughtered their way into the lives of the Virginia team. Now, after six years, Kay, Lucy and Pete each receive a letter from Jean-Baptiste. This in itself is a shock because he was captured, tried for his devilish crimes and sits on death row. The only way he could get mail out of the prison is through his attorney, Rocco Caggiano. His nefarious plan is to lure Scarpetta to the prison with the promise that he, Jean-Baptiste, will give her the location of his brother Jay and will tell her enough to bring down the entire Chandonne cartel. He swears that he will rat out his family of drug dealers, arms dealers, murderers and their organized crime connections.
Kay reads the letter and the hair on her neck stands up as a chill shoots up her spine. His beautiful handwriting stuns her as she realizes he has spent a great deal of time composing the perfect black calligraphy: "He thinks of her. He is telling her so by the very act of his artistic penmanship. She reads his words: … I have what you want. In two weeks I will be dead and have nothing to say. Ha! You must come to me … or it will be too late to hear my stories. [But understand] if you do not find me, I will find you." That enigmatic threat at the end is very difficult for Scarpetta to digest. What could he mean … he is slated to die … how could he find her? She, of course, will go see him.
Lucy's letter was just as bad but she is a hotheaded young woman who decides to take matters into her own hands when she assumes the role of vigilante. With one of her colleagues she travels to Europe where the two follow a path of no return. They make a deadly choice, perform a deadly deed and get away with murder --- at least it seems so at the time.
Marino, always a cop at heart, reacts to his letter in a wholly different way. His son, the boy who he rejected and who hates him, is the attorney (Rocco) for the Chandonnes and this puts Marino in a position he hates. His son is capable of the lowest and most brutal means of getting what he wants for himself and his criminal clients. Marino is forced to step out of certain boundaries that were set up when he and Rocco turned their backs on each other and are as firm when he retired as they were in the beginning.
Patricia Cornwell deserves her reputation as a fine writer. Her series characters are interesting and intelligent. Her legions of fans have increased with each of her novels. But in BLOW FLY she transcends everything she has written before. In the final analysis, readers will find themselves learning the secret thoughts of the major players; and in some cases those dark and deadly musings lead to bloody consequences. In the past, Cornwell's novels were mainly plot-oriented. But this time she allows readers to get into the hearts and heads of the individuals who comprise her familiar ensemble. She has reinvented them with more depth and has made them not only more accessible but more sympathetic.
BLOW FLY is a highly suspenseful read in which surprises explode and the characters move to another level of believability.
--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
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