Hornet's Nest [Large Print]

It's like pulling your own teeth reading this book. Half way through and determined to finish. Hoping it improves. No where near as good as Scarpetta series.

I must have read a different book than so many of these other reviewers! No, this was not about Kay Scarpetta. And yes, I love that series. But so often authors who rely on one set of characters get stale. I think Hornet's Nest and Southern Cross are a very entertaining, engaging, and at times humorous departure from the KS series, and I look forward to reading more about the adventures of Hammer, West, and Brazil. I enjoyed the insights into the personalities that made up the story. I laughed till I almost embarassed myself over the courtroom scene. And I loved Niles, the cat. Those who didn't should get a sense of humour. I got Hornet's Nest on tape from our library and played it for my husband on a long car trip recently. He agreed that it was well written and a great book. His only criticism was that it tended to overdevelop some of the characters that didn't figure prominently into the story.

I read this book and Southern Cross before I ventured out into the world of Kay Scarpetta. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, a nice cross between character development and action. I would, however recommend that people read this novel BEFORE they read her others, because judging by the various reviews, most people that read the other books first hated this one.

Sometimes the Kay Scarpetta books get too creepy and scary for me, so it was a relief that this book was more comedic than suspensful. I thought Hornet's Nest was hilarious. It's very different from the Kay Scarpetta series, so if that's what you're expecting, you may be disappointed. I hope Patricia Cornwell's ability to write using different styles means that she'll be writing books for a long time because I've really enjoyed reading all of her books.

I don't understand what the problem is with this book. Everyone hates it, for some strange reason. This is a wonderful book. It doesn't have the grainy details of the so-so Kay Scarpetta novels. It is light, and very enjoyable. You don't have to squint in intense concentration as Cornwell describes every little detail of every single thing that her heroine Kay Scarpetta does. You enjoy learning about a bright young "kid" that is a volunter cop and a reporter for the Charlotte Observer. You like hearing about Virginia West, a deputy chief of investiagtions for the police dept. Andy Brazil, the "kid", and West don't exactly hit it off when West is assigned to take Brazil around one night to respond to calls. Brazil screws up big time, popping the trunk while groping for the siren switch. He makes mistakes, and West's readily apparent bitchiness does nothing to help. You despise West for the way she treats Brazil in the beginning, but she grows on you. ! This is a superb novel, Cornwell does a great job with Andy Brazil and Virginia West. The way they slowly begin to have a friendship, and the slowly growing heat between them is well done. I think Cornwell should continue with Brazil and West, the ending sort of left you hanging; the possibility of a sequel readily apparent. So far, that has not happened. Maybe it will, maybe not. Regardless, this is a book to enjoy, and is a very light read compared to her other books. A nice break from the normal, Patricia Cornwell! Good job! Tyler Robbins, 14, from Tacoma, Washington

Cornwell has shown the rest of the vanguard of women mystery writers the way with this one. The parodic gender reversals alone bring stunning clarity to sex-typing in genre fiction, including her own Kay Scarpetta mysteries. Look at young Andy Brazil. He could be any ingenue in a Hollywood film, a mystery, or romance novel, except that he's male. Chief Hammer and Deputy Chief West, names wonderfully parodic (not satiric--read Linda Hutcheon), have the kind of personal magnetism and powerful leverage of the best males in the field, including the new breed represented on TV in NYPD Blue, for example, and in the classics of police procedurals. Cornwell brilliantly teases us with our own trite and formulaic expectations and breaks us free of them while still giving us enough of the familiar field to enjoy the read. The stale device of the single overwhelming crime is undercut by the NYPD Blueish and very realistic episodic, coincidental, and sometimes just plain hilarious events in life, including criminal life. The virtually accidental solving of the main crime shows the texture of a realism that may not sit well with those expecting only escapism in their fiction. Even closure is not easily allowed us here with another crime revealed within the other. This is truly a watershed work for which Cornwell cannot be commended enough. It is always difficult to both find and reach the next step in literary endeavour, perhaps in genre fiction most of all. In a world not ready for "sh'ims", indeed needing to go beyond this love/hate compromise, the relations between gender and power must search for contexts that break down stereotyping and the hates built on this defensive process. I look forward to the next installment in this series, which I trust will continue to challenge these, but also continue to unpack ageism and the turf wars among truth tellers such as mayors, Police Chiefs, and newspaper publishers. No one's truth in this text is safe. The scene in the diner regarding the banana will rapidly become a classic, especially for anyone interested in semiotics, a masterfully twisted microcosm of John Fowles' daring experiment in The Collector. As for the cat, as an owner of 4 mixed breed cats I found Niles very cat-like indeed and not the least out of character