Temple Gaunt, the serial killer who first appeared in the Scarpetta novel Cruel and Unusual, has killed again, this time in New York. As more bodies pile up, Scarpetta starts to lose her usual, unflappable demeanor.
I’ve discovered a new favourite thing – reading bad reviews of Scarpetta novels. It’s a negative thing, but I just really like reading what inane things people write about when being negative. Really, do people expect high literature. We are talking here about a paperback where the author’s name is bigger than the title of the book. It is an airport book, a quick and fun read. That is what the audience wants from the book and that is exactly what is delivered.
Cornwell has created a series of characters that I want to know what will happen to them and how they will face the problems presented. The ever-developing relationship between Scarpetta and her niece, Lucy; the relationship that always seems to be deteriorating between Scarpetta and Marino; the doomed romances and even the relationship to the victims and the criminals.
From Potter’s Field didn’t grab me as much as the previous novel, The Body Farm. But I think it was that it was relatively quickly revealed that Gaunt was not the killer in that one, and so the whodunit aspect was very strong, whereas in this, there’s no who.
I’m going to take a break from Scarpetta for a while. I will return just, not for a bit.
ireckonthat 