Who is in the grave? (Cruel and Unusual - Patricia Cornwell)

Member Name: Shadowtwinchaos

Product:	Cruel and Unusual - Patricia Cornwell
Date:	10/01/02 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Edge of your seat reading

Disadvantages: Can be a bit descriptive of the carnage

Can you imagine finding out too late that the wrong person was killed in the electric chair for a crime. When a fingerprint from a convict who was incarcerated for many years and had just been put to death shows up at a crime scene, the question is risen if the right person was put to death. Dr. Scarpetta is back in another thrilling medical mystery which brings up the haunting question of who is who.

Patricia Cornwell has produced a series of books with the main character being Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Medical Examiner of Virginia. For those of you who didn't grow up watching the television show Quincy, ME a medical examiner is the person who looks at the corpses brought in to determine cause of death. And if there is any questions, it is up to them to find the answers. Patricia Cornwell was the ME for Virginia in reality before retiring. Now she writes books that are mostly fictional. Some reality does creep in, which makes her books all the more interesting.

In Cruel Doubt they find finger prints from a recently executed prisoner many questions are raised. Especially when everyone connected from the murder the prisoner had committed years ago started to show up dead. Follow the twists and turns of the story as it unfolds showing how quickly lives can fall apart.

Along with the fascinating crimes, also continued is your look into Dr. Scarpetta's life, including Officer Marino and her niece, Lucy. Other characters are introduced and more is found out about her past. This is one of Cornwell's earlier novels. I started with many of her later novels, so this book in a way filled in some missing parts of the good doctor's past. While it is not necessary to read her books in order, like a series, you do get more out of it if you read the earlier novels and get the background information. But I feel I've enjoyed them just as much by working my way backwards.

However, I would recommend if you are going to read her bo
oks that you read "Cruel and Unusual" before you read "From Potter's Field" because they do have a bit of a time line to them and facts from one lead to the other. All in all, two thumbs up to Cornwell again.

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