As a fan of this series, there have always been things that bugged me. The complete dropping of characters book to book, plot holes, the morphing of Lucy's business from her own personal MI6 to a school to a quasi-official agency... Most of this is forgivable. (The two dropped characters that deserved better were Lucy's ATF boss who she partnered with to start her business and her injured ATF girlfriend Jo who is literally waiting in the driveway for Lucy to nurse her back to health at the end of one book and broken up with and dispatched to her parents at the start of the next.) The weakest point in the series, which began with the all time worst book Blow Fly, featured third person narration, Lucy's absurd James Bond period, and the unreality of Benton's return to the world of the living. (They'd found his skinned off face and it's never explained.) Getting them back to more official investigative work, returning to first person narration, and settling into a more permanent set of locations, characters, and relationships has greatly helped the series. Though not as satisfying as Dust, Flesh and Blood is another entertaining entry. Unfortunately, my biggest pet peeves with the series have yet to be addressed.
#1. Scarpetta continues to doubt, question, and mistrust her niece. There was hardly any action or words spoken by Lucy that wasn't met with a "I wonder what that means..." discussion from Scarpetta. (Her conclusions seem way off much of the time.) This constant suspicion is bad enough coming from others. For all the talk about damage done to Lucy by former girlfriends and her mother, the questioning and doubt from her aunt seems far worse to me.
In one of the early books, Lucy is accused of a crime. (Not uncommon. Lucy is frequently in the suspect pool, this book included. It's getting old.) Instead of taking the opportunity to say, "You're my niece, I know you didn't do it, we'll find out who did," Scarpetta accepts it as a possibility until it's proved otherwise. She's improved somewhat since, but all of Lucy's actions are still met with questions. ("Why the new car? Why'd she park here? What does this mean?" She borders on paranoia. She's a hypocrite too since she gets angry when info is kept from her but she hides things from Lucy she doesn't think she can handle.) Scarpetta clearly believes her niece has limitless potential and is capable of anything, but she continually fears what that might be. Lucy's tortured herself over whether or not she's a good person and Scarpetta has made it worse not better. Lucy is often secretive, but so is Benton and she rarely questions his motivations. I'm sick of Lucy constantly being a suspect and even the main characters doubting her. The reader never believes her capable of it, even if her family does.
#2. Janet needs to play a bigger role. Since her reappearance in these books, she has been "onscreen" for five or six pages per book if that. Involvement in the plot would be nice since it would allow for some character development. A pretty momentous event for Janet happens in this book, yet she only appears in the last chapter and has no dialogue. Granted these books focus on the cases and even Benton frequently finds himself on the periphery. Still, there should be a way to get her more involved so we can actually learn something about her as a person. She's Lucy's partner, she's pretty, she's good at the job we don't see her do, and Scarpetta thinks she's the only thing keeping Lucy in line (more doubting her niece.) Add to that the smattering of family detail we learn in this one and it's still not much to hang your hat on.
Cornwell could kill two birds with one stone by involving Janet more and getting her and Scarpetta to spend time together. Ideally, Janet would be someone who unconditionally trusts and believes in Lucy. Seeing that in her, Scarpetta could face the doubt she harbors and address it directly. We have tension between Scarpetta and Lucy, Scarpetta and Marino, Scarpetta and her staff... Enough already. They face more than enough outside pressures. They're a family and I'm hoping, in future, a more trusting and functional one.
#3. Scarpetta has terrible taste in associates. I can't remember how many of her employees, co-workers, and law enforcement friends have turned out to be criminals, involved with criminals, dishonest, or incompetent. How long does this have to go on? She has Benton, Marino, and Lucy. Everyone else going back to the beginning has failed her. Plus she doesn't particularly trust Lucy and Marino tried to assault her. For being at the top of her field for as long as she has, Scarpetta sure has a horrible record of working with others. The first time we meet the woman who replaced Marino we're treated to a whiny complaint about how she made a horrible mistake but now they're stuck with her. Later, problems arise because of other unreliable PD and lab people. Is this because Cornwell wants everything to be done only by the main characters and making everyone else they work with incompetent, annoying, or a bad guy ensures that that will happen? By this point she should have a good group she can believe in. The only person she seems to completely trust is Benton and that's just not good enough. In the book she says she doesn't forgive carelessness or incompetence. Since she's been surrounded by that and worse her entire career, I'm not sure I believe her.
Those are my big annoyances and this book not only didn't fix them, it emphasized them. Scarpetta's constant questioning of Lucy and wondering at her thoughts and motivations really annoyed me. And she shouldn't always be a suspect, we know Lucy didn't do it. Janet undergoes a big impactful event in this book that will greatly affect them going forward, yet she's barely seen. Even when it's important, she hardly shows up. If she's here to stay, she needs to play a bigger role at least occasionally. Lastly, Scarpetta's continued run of poorly chosen associates reminded me again of the long string of horrible people who have worked with her. For such a smart group of people, they frequently have terrible judgment. (Scarpetta, Marino, and Lucy have all slept with murderers, and virtually all of the series' villains were people they once trusted. That's some pretty bad judgment.)
In the future, I hope she addresses the problem areas. I can't imagine having invisible Janet, Lucy eternally viewed as an unstable sociopath, and every single associate causing them problems for another 20 books.
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As always. Patricia Cornwell writes an interesting ad suspenseful ...
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2015
As always. Patricia Cornwell writes an interesting ad suspenseful story that makes you want to keep on reading. Can't wait for her next book. I've read them all.
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2015
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