Blow Fly

I was very disappointed in this newest Kay Scarpetta novel. At the end of The Last Precinct, Kay was headed off to New York to help with a murder trial. I expected Blow Fly to start where TLP left off. It didn't. Not only that, but Cornwell changes things from the end of one to the beginning of the next and doesn't explain why the changes. There were a LOT of characters and character building, but Cornwell builds to a climax that she doesn't deliver. I tend to listen to my books over and over again - but I won't this one.

When I got to the end I just blinked. I couldn't believe that was the end. I felt let down. All this build up and then nothing. I felt nothing was resolved. I felt like there was 15 minutes to finish the last chapter and it was done in one line.

I was very disappointed in this book.

The characters were not believable and the story was slow and tedious. It seems more like the author is trying to exorcize her own personal demons. Kay has become boring and that is too bad. The ending was just plain silly. The narration was terrible and I don't know why all of the male renditions sounded like a blustery old grampa talking to children.

It may be that the book is wonderful and, though a veteran Cornwell reader, just the wrong kind for this book. The plot is complicated and weak. The book is long on introspection by Benton, Marino, and Kay. Their autopsychological effort bears no fruit. They start out unhappy and continue to drag the reader down emotonally, to an abrupt ending, which resolves only the case. I switched off my Otis depressed and angry.

Unlike many other reviewers, I like the slow building of the complexity of these characters and the slight meandering of the overall plot of this group of books about the deteriorating of Kate Scarpetta's work in Virginia and what she does next. They do end abruptly, I admit, but together they feel linked and compelling and rich to me.

I was a faithful Patricia Cornwell reader/listener. I think I'm done now though. Like many other reviewers, I've hung on for the last several books waiting for the stories to improve but they haven't. In fact, this one was so rushed in the end that I thought I had a faulty download. I had ten minutes left of the book according to my device and I just KNEW there was no way that everything could get wrapped up in such a short time unless the book was going to be a two parter or cliff hanger. But, as it turns out, there really was only 10 minutes left. Talk about a rushed ending! End result - I'll either skip ahead 5 or 6 books so that I'm listening to her more recent publications to see if she's gotten back to the style that I enjoyed listening to or just drop her altogether. Too many other good reads out there to spend your credit/money on.

Yes, I am really enjoying the book and like movies, if you listen to it again you might pick up other things that you missed the first time. I own the hard cover book, but have not had time to finish reading the book, so I figured this would be the best way to finish the book.

I'm still listening to the book, but I have always enjoyed all of the characters, Scarpetta, Lucy, Benton and Pete Mareno

I purchased more of the Scarpetta books on CD so I can listen to more while driving. I really enjoy listening to the books. The narrators make it interesting.

I didn't realize this was another in the series about Jay Tally and his infamous brother Jean the werewolf. However, I really enjoyed it, even though i was tired of those 2 characters. I definitely recommend the read.