The Last Precinct

I Love this author....but this book is different and not in a good way. I could not finish reading it after having read 5 chapters! The descriptions are too vivid and caused sleepless nights!!!! Beware.

This is the eleventh book in the series featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta whose job as the chief Medical Examiner of Virginia has put her in touch with many crimes and many conflicts with other law enforcement colleagues. In previous novels Scarpetta has always come through her ordeals with criminals such as Temple Gault and Carrie Grethen. These two in particular may have given Kay some of the worst experiences of her life yet they are far outweighed by her most recent assailant, the Warewolf. Even though Kay is clearly the only living victim of this killer, she is still accused of killing Deputy Chief Diane Bray. This mad, very hairy killer murdered Bray in "Black Notice", Cornwell's previous novel. Kay's most frightening crisis however, isn't being accused of Bray's murder, it is finally having to confront what happened to her former lover, the FBI agent Benton Wesley. Kay is forced to bring out her feelings and examine them in the cold light of day, just like one of her autopsies. Only when she does this does Kay realise that only she can help herself through this and that no longer can her niece Lucy and admirer Pete Marino, help her through what has to be the hardest time of her life.

I have read all the Scarpetta series of books, including Cornwell's latest "The Last Precinct". Particularly, I have very much enjoyed the way the characters of Kay, Marino and Lucy have developed over the series. For the first time, this novel brings you into the mind of Kay Scarpetta. The reader not only sees her as the strong, clever Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia, but as a woman with vulnerabilities just like the rest of us. She becomes "real". And Marino, who became burnt out, as many admirable law enforcement officers do with as much time and challenge as he has endured on the job.......again very "real". I would think something was wrong with him if he didn't have his disgruntled attitude. And finally, Lucy. We were introduced to her in "Postmortem" as a 10 year old kid from Miami, who was neglected by her mother but had the comfort of knowing that her Aunt Kay loved her no matter what. This unconditional love was faithfully displayed when Kay was accepting of Lucy's "coming out". Lucy's character has grown to be an intelligent, talented gay woman who is completely comfortable with her sexuality, trying to make the best of what life has to offer.......again, very "real". I commend Cornwell for touching upon the great complex realities of life in which we all live. My hat goes off to her!

I discovered Patricia Cornwell about five years ago, when I bought and read her exceptional first novel, Postmortem. As both a reader and a writer, I was deeply impressed with Postmortem. That book had an undeniable intensity that made it all but impossible to put down; the writing was very high-quality, the story itself was involving, and the central character -- Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia -- was a vivid and appealing creation, making her particularly enjoyable to read about. Put it this way, I devoured Postmortem, and soon after devoured the rest of the Kay Scarpetta books available in paperback at that time including: Body of Evidence, All That Remains, Cruel and Unusual, The Body Farm, From Potter's Field and Cause of Death. After that, it was hardcovers all the way, which meant year-long waits for Unnatural Exposure, Point of Origin, Black Notice, and now, The Last Precinct, the latest novel in this outstanding series. The Last Precinct begins shortly after the events that culminated last year's Black Notice; police are swarming all over Kay Scarpetta's beloved Richmond home in the wake of suspected serial killer Jean-Baptiste Chandonne's violent and unexpected attack on her life, and the injured Scarpetta is miserable enough to flee to her best friend's home to protect herself from the insanity of this invasion of her private life. Not long after, Scarpetta learns, to her utter disbelief, that she herself is the subject of a nasty criminal investigation. Understandably, she becomes paranoid and goes on the defensive. What follows is the riveting account of how she manages to deal with the sheer madness her life has become while at the same time doing what she can to help prove Jean-Baptiste Chandonne's guilt as a sadistic killer. One of Cornwell's most interesting achievements with The Last Precinct is that she manages to turn Scarpetta into a victim without actually killing her off; a victim whose life is dissected and subjected to as much intense scrutiny as one of the bodies the formidable Chief Medical Examiner would have no doubt posted/autopsied herself. Along the way we learn more about Scarpetta's past, her emotions and her true feelings than ever before. Lingering questions from past novels, most significantly about Scarpetta's long-time love, FBI profiler Benton Wesley, are also resolved in The Last Precinct in surprising, unexpected and satisfying ways. Scarpetta's co-hort, Officer Pete Marino, and her niece, Lucy, are larger than life in the story, too. To say, as some reviewers have, that The Last Precinct is no more than a rehash of events in Black Notice, is an unfair understatement. To me, The Last Precinct is a logical outgrowth and continuation of those events, and Cornwell not only deepens them, but makes them even more sinister and suspenseful than you can imagine. As always, Cornwell's attention to detail is impeccable in The Last Precinct, from the scenes of grisly autopsi

Patricia Cornwell's last book "Black Notice" left me, as many of her other fans, a bit disappointed. There was less of the usual complexity, the unexpected twists and turns in the plot, the richness of the characters. Like her heroine, Kay Scarpetta, the reader had not recovered from Benton Wesley's death, and Black Notice offered no relief, not many explanations and no insight into Kay's dealing with the loss of her lover. In "the last precinct" we finally get all of the above and much more. It is a very gratifying book on every level. We find out many new sides to Kay's character and revisit her relationship with Wesley on the backgound of a harrowing tale that picks up where the last book left off. It seamlessly leads us into a complex darkness we suspected but did not find in "Black Notice" where solutions seemed too obvious to be really true. As the story races on and we are drawn in deeper and deeper we realize that "Black Notice" was really the beginning of another great multi-novel story as Cornwell has crafted before when she created the evil Temple Gault character, Kay's nightmare that ended in a NY subway. Cornwell also skillfully builds new charcters on the good side of events: there is the prosecutor from New York and the psychiatrist friend who we will undoubtedly meet again. At the end of this extremely involving and suspenseful story we are once more, as in her best books so far, left craving for more and wondering where Kay will go next and what darkness lies around the corner.