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Another serving of death for Scarpetta
A pathologist connects the dots after an athlete's murder.
By Carlo Wolff, Special to the Times
Published November 25, 2007
Patricia Cornwell's latest Kay Scarpetta novel brings the troubled doctor into contact with high life and low life. When young tennis star Drew Martin is murdered in Rome, Scarpetta and her longtime associate and lover, Benton Wesley, join the inquiry in that romantic city. Book of the Dead, the 14th Scarpetta novel, finds the forensic pathologist trying to maintain a satisfying love life, fending off unexpected assailants and not quite discovering what's wrong with her co-worker and niece, computer whiz Lucy Marinelli. The three try to figure out what connects the Martin murder to Marilyn Self, a TV psychiatrist of shady past and shadier intent. There's another murder, a beachfront doozie with ritualistic overtones; then the mutilated body of a little boy is discovered in the dunes of Hilton Head, S.C. How these crimes link finally ties the book together. Book of the Dead (the name for a morgue record) makes clear that Cornwell doesn't like psychiatrists, especially the TV variety. She directs her strongest venom at Self, a character of such solipsistic evil that she makes the Sandman, the killer Scarpetta eventually focuses on, seem more damaged than malevolent. Self "loves her name," Cornwell writes. "She's always refused to give it up. She wouldn't change her name for anyone, and she would never share it, and anybody who doesn't want it is condemned because the unforgivable isn't sex. It's failure." Cornwell can construct a chilly scene - the beginning should give you goose bumps - but she's not a vivid stylist, relying on understatement and plot twists to give the reader kicks. Readers looking for depth may be disappointed. Scarpetta's affair with Wesley takes a dramatic turn (and sets up a sequel), but it's underdeveloped. Perhaps those loyal to Scarpetta since her debut in the early 1990s will appreciate it more. Carlo Wolff is a freelance writer from Cleveland and author of "Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories." Book of the Dead By Patricia Cornwell G.P. Putnam's Sons, 405 pages, $26.95
[Last modified November 21, 2007, 12:56:28]
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