Book of the Dead

Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell

A tennis star is found dead in Rome and Kay Scarpetta and crew are sent for to help solve the murder. She has opened a private forensic pathology practice and with the help of her neice Lucy, her secretary Kay, her somewhat assistant Marino, and her boyfriend/psychologist Benton they try to both solve the crime and find their place in the world.

I have read other Kay Scarpetta novels and enjoyed many of the first few. They definitely were mysteries and had lots of fun technology as part of it. A nice part of them was also the character development both with Kay and her co-workers and family. In this novel if you hadn’t read any of the other books – you just wouldn’t get it though. You see how she interacts them but Marino for instance is such an ass you just wonder why he is even around. Even though I have read some of them (though it has been a while and not the most recent ones) I didn’t like him or want him around. Personally I thought this book was more about the people then the murder and the mystery of it all.

Romance: None
Sex: Some violence that was sexual
Mystery: Some but not as much as was expected
Violence: Some it is a murder mystery
Overall: D+ - I didn’t really want to keep reading it. I didn’t really like the people in it and I wasn’t all that invested in finding out who killed anyone. Not really all that I wanted or expected. It makes me remember why I stopped reading this series.