Patricia Cornwell has garnered many followers with her Scarpetta series,the new published The Scarpetta Factor marking the seventeenth book featuring her brilliant Medical Examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta. All the usual characters are back; husband Wesley Benton, niece Lucy, former policeman Pete Marino and Pete and Lucy's boss, ADA Jaime Berger.
All have had significant career and life upheavals and now are working in New York City. Scarpetta autopsies a young woman who died from head trauma, but Lucy and Berger see connections to the disappearance of powerful financial advisor Hannah Starr. Some creepy individuals come under suspicion, but getting to the truth becomes confusing.
When Scarpetta has her Blackberry stolen, and receives a dangerous package delivered by a FedEx man, all parties work day and night to put the pieces together.
Although the previous Scarpetta books were written with a dark aura, this one seems particularlly somber. The characters all have issues from the past that have left them joyless and unsettled.
Readers might find the plot a bit slow developing, heavily weighed down with technology and science. While it is fascinating to see how crimes are solved with computer programs and modern forensic knowledge, the technical terminology seems to bog down the story line.
However if you can perservere through the early pages and the constant foul language, the conclusion is riveting and unexpected. On a scale of 1 to 10 I rate it a 6.
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