Kay Scarpetta 13: Trace

Kay Scarpetta

Paperback

Alternating Person

Fiction

450

58

2018-06-26 16:43:56

“Scarpetta…is back with a vengeance.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Cornwell gets her Hitchcock on...[She] can generate willies with subtle poetic turns.”—People

“Fun [and] flamboyant.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Trace is rich and satisfying, with Cornwell sprinkling a trail of tantalizing bread crumbs for the Scarpetta faithful, who are always hungry for the next installment.”—The Associated Press

“Cornwell’s latest is hard to put down…Trace is solid and tightly paced, which should appeal to her legions of fans.”—BookPage
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Now freelancing from south Florida, Dr. Kay Scarpetta returns to Richmond, Virginia, the city that turned its back on her five years ago. Investigating the death of a young girl, she must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak-and to reveal the sad truth that may be more than even she can bear.

FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cornwell’s latest after the disappointing Blow Fly has indomitable medical examiner Kay Scarpetta returning to her office in Richmond five years after being fired. This homecoming will cheer fans: not only does the move put Scarpetta on her own turf, it reinvigorates Cornwell’s storytelling, restoring some of the spunk lately lacking in her lead character. Dr. Joel Marcus, Scarpetta’s replacement as Virginia’s chief medical examiner, has summoned her back to help him puzzle through the mysterious death of a 14-year-old girl. Marcus is generally loathed: he’s petty, inept, has a secret garbage-truck phobia and harbors an intense hatred for Scarpetta. Meanwhile, Scarpetta’s niece Lucy, owner of a fabulously successful private-eye firm, has her own troubles trying to sort out who attempted to kill her friend Henri (short for Henrietta), who’s now under psychiatric treatment by Scarpetta’s lover in Aspen, Benton Wesley. Lurking in the background is Edgar Allan Pogue, a nutcase who has a thing for dead bodies and a grudge against Scarpetta. It’s her job, as always, to connect all the puzzling forensic dots and identify the killer in time to save herself and her loved ones. She does this, mostly, but leaves the reader to puzzle out a few salient points on his or her own. Cumbersome backstory slows the action, but in general the old Scarpetta comes through, at least in the main, and this will be enough to reassure her many fans and carry them over until her next appearance. BOMC, Literary Guild, Mystery Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selection.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
FROM AUDIOFILE
Dr. Kay Scarpetta returns to Richmond and her former lab when she’s asked to consult on the death of a young girl. Scarpetta suspects murder, but her investigation is thwarted at every turn. Carolyn McCormick does an excellent job of conveying the persona of the serious Scarpetta. Each chapter and twist in the story is enhanced by her inflection and tone. The listener feels the frustration and anxiety Cornwell conveys in her characters. McCormick’s delivery of the final chapters continues to draw the listener in as the story approaches its conclusion and the tension builds. Scarpetta fans will not be disappointed. S.K.P. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patricia Cornwell’s most recent bestsellers include Red Mist, Port Mortuary, and Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper���Case Closed. Her earlier works include Postmortem���the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year���and Cruel and Unusual, which won Britain���s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel of 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American author.
FROM BOOKLIST
Against advice from her niece Lucy, Kay Scarpetta answers a request to return to the Richmond medical examiner’s office, the same office from which she was fired, to help with the sensitive case of a dead teen. When she and Pete Marino arrive, they find the new medical examiner to be a vituperative, uncooperative martinet and the office that Kay ran so efficiently in chaos. Two murders, oddly linked, demand their attention. In the meantime, Lucy, still unsettled despite her success with the Last Precinct investigative agency, is having personal problems (there’s been an attack on her housemate), which strangely enough find her treading the same path as her aunt Kay. Traces of the smart, dynamic, yet vulnerable Scarpetta of the early novels are in evidence here, and Cornwell has better control of her plot and characters than in her last few efforts, faltering only occasionally when psychobabble weighs things down. The mystery is intriguing, there’s plenty of forensic detail, and the ending, though perhaps too abrupt, opens the way for Scarpetta and her associates to proceed in any direction that calls to them. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Berkley

9780316854726

2012-07-01

1

~$7.68

2025-07-05

2018-06-26 16:43:56