There's a predator lurking in Hollywood (Predator - Patricia Cornwell)

Member Name: dizzysummer03

Product:	Predator - Patricia Cornwell
Date:	04/11/09 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Part of the Kay Scarpetta series

Disadvantages: Doesn't live up to other books in the series, quite a disappointing read

I was a massive fan of Patricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta series in my early teens, but I eventually I had read everything she had written so far and I moved on to another author. So, when I noticed this book in my local library I picked it up and I was really looking forward to reading this novel.

The first thing I noticed was that the novel was written in the present tense, this took me a few chapters to get used to because it's very unusual to write in this tense, I can't think of another author off the top of my head who writes in this way.

The plot is fairly complex and interwoven so I'll do my best to give a brief outline: The main characters are Dr Kay Scarpetta who is director of forensic science at the National Forensic Academy, the Academy is financed by her niece Lucy, a techno-whizz and former FBI agent. The other two characters are Dr Benton Wesley, a former FBI psychiatrist who is currently conducting research into the minds of serial killers and Pete Marino a former police detective who is now a 'death investigator' at the Academy.

Wesley is working with a lethal serial killer, doing MRI scans trying to work out the 'why' of these people brains. The killer tells him that he has killed 10 people, however he has only been chaged in connection with four. When the killer gives the details of one of these murders to Benton, who asks Lucy to investigate.

How and why these murders are connected to a lady Lucy picks up in a bar who has handprints tattooed on her body and to a series of murder / suicides occurring in Hollywood is unravelled as the novel progresses, because of course there is no such thing a coincidences.

I had quite high expectation of this book from my memories of previous novels by this author, however this book certainly did not live up to those expectations at all. I found the use of the present tense quite hard to adjust to and it therefore took me a while to get into the book.

Whilst the book is part of a series, I do feel that it relied too much on that, we weren't properly introduced to any of the characters or given any explanation as to who they were or what their role was. Although I did have some recollections of the characters it is a good few years since I read my last Scarpetta novel so this also contributed to my finding it difficult to get into the novel. It would have been really useful to have even had a character list at the front of the book.

The plot itself was quite complex and at times hard to follow, there was also a sub-plot involving a forensic scientist who had been awarded a fellowship at the academy, this seemed to mean that he had been awarded a post there for a year, rather than he had been appointed a fellow as I understand happens in England, perhaps that's just a cultural difference in the way we use words, it did throw me a little at first.

I didn't think this sub-plot added a massive amount to the overall idea, it just seemed to add complexity and confusion rather than adding to the plot.

I won't spoil the ending for those you who have not read the novel, suffice to say I still cannot quite get my head around it! It was to be fair a completely unexpected twist, but it threw up a few frustrating questions for me!

The book was on the whole quite slow moving, building up to a fast paced and monumentous conclusion, to be honest the conclusion was almost too fast paced in comparison to the rest of the book and you didn't get time to absorb what was happening.

This book really is not for the faint hearted, it is a forensic novel in all its gory glory and is really gruesome at times,in hindsight I'm shocked I was reading this kind of thing at 13 / 14 but I'm not a psychopath (that I know of anyway) so it hasn't had any adverse impact on me, I don't remember being shocked by the level of detail in the past but I wouldn't be keen on recommending these to younger readers myself now!

Overall, this didn't live up to my expectations at all I was disappointed and reading other reviews it would seem that the later Scarpetta novels haven't hit the same heights as the earlier ones. In a way I would kind of recommend reading this if you're not put off by the blood and guts if only because I'm curious about other people's take on this book.

Summary: A shame really, I was looking forward to this!