| Product: |
The Body Farm - Patricia Cornwell |
| Date: |
28/06/00 (74 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: see above
Disadvantages: see above
I am a great admirer of Patricia Cornwell’s books. I think her writing style is superb, her characters
believable and developing rather than static, the quality of technical detail flawless, and the plots thoroughly gripping. So I am slightly confused as to how she managed to miss so badly with this one.
The main problem is the plot. You can see the murderer from the beginning. I don’t want to give too much away, but a few things don’t add up in someone’s statement, and it is plain as day that she did it from about page 20.
Which leaves you with 350 pages of watching Cornwell engineer ways to prevent the investigative team seeing it. She has the main characters, Kay Scarpetta and Pete Marino, fall out and quarrel like a pair of children. Then Marino starts behaving like a spoilt 2 year old, shutting out the rest of the team and refusing to even communicate with them. In the end the characters become completely unconvincing, simply so Cornwell can prevent them working together for two minutes, and seeing through what is the simplest case they've had.
Still a good enough read, but slightly disappointing, given the expectations which the previous books had prepared. It felt like watching a clockwork toy – I already knew what was coming, and it was simply a case of watching the cogs turn, and wondering if it would grind to a halt before the end.
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