Hornet's Nest - Patricia Cornwell

Hornet?s Nest is yet another one of Patricia Cornwell?s wonderfully written crime fiction mysteries. This book is from a few years ago, published in 1996, and has a sequel, Southern Cross. The title of this book comes from what is the official seal of the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as being the seal of the police department. We are first introduced to Deputy Chief Virginia West, who is experiencing the stresses of being forced to protect the reputation of the police department, as the police chief requests her to bring a reporter along on assignment. Andy Brazil fills the role of the unwanted reporter who tags along with the police ...  Read the complete review

Patricia Cornwell is one of my favorite authors. I have tried to read everything she has written and loved all of it. I have followed the thrilling cases of her ongoing character, Dr. Kay Scarpetta who is present in most of her novels that I have read and loved. So, when I saw a novel I hadn’t read yet, I didn’t read the inside dust cover to see what it was about. I just expected Dr. Scarpetta to appear on the first page and thrill me with another tale of suspense and crime. However, this was not to happen. After the first 20 pages, I realized that my much admired doctor was not going to make an appearance. When you find a favorite author, ...  Read the complete review

Hornets Nest marks Patricia Corwell's first attempt to move away from her hugely successful series of novels about Dr. Kay Scarpetta. These would have to rank amongst my favourite novels of all time and she won the Golden Dagger(crime fiction's highest accolade) for her efforts with these. It is hard then to imagine how such an excellent author could manage to come up with a novel as poor as this one - or the follow up Southern Cross... We are sent to Charlotte in North Carolina for the setting of this novel - in particular the police headquarters of Charlotte. The plot revolves around three main characters: Judy Hammer: Chief of Police ...  Read the complete review

I do not often read books like Hornet’s Nest, although, I enjoy a good thriller/mystery, Colin Dexter as the writer behind Morse and Ian Rankin’s Rebus series, spring to mind as excellent examples of the genre. I am a bargain book hunter and recently the Sunday Times was offering numerous books at half price. This was one of them, so being the cheapskate that I am, I ordered all the books I did not already own. Feeling like reading a book that involved little mental effort (a page turner, as I call them) I plumped for Patricia Cornwell’s, Hornet’s Nest. Patricia Cornwell, is an American writer and a previous winner of the Gold ...  Read the complete review

I borrowed this book from my mum who is a big Patricia Cornwell reader. This is the first of two books which feature the trio of: Andy Brazil : A journalist who really wants to be a cop like his murdered father Virginia West - Deputy Police chief in Charlotte, the books setting, who takes Brazil under her wing when he travels the city writing stories and generally trying to improve the profile of the police. Judy Hammer - the Chief of Police who allows Brazil to ride alongside Virginia. The Plot ======= There are a number of sub plots in this book. The major one being the serial killer at large who is killing business ...  Read the complete review