Patricia Cornwell

ThumpyG said:
cat, sorry for the earlier reply. Had I been thinking, I would not have replied to the post in such a manner- at all.
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Ahh, that's cool, Thumpy.
Sometimes i know how you feel.
 
I finished Postmortem, finally :) I really really liked it alot and I was so excited towards the end. I'm glad that Dr. Scarpetta was okay though.

I went to the library and got All that Remains, because they didn't have Body of Evidence, which really bummed me out. But would it be okay if I read All that Remains before Body of Evidence? I am already on page 20 in All that Remains and so far, I haven't seemed to miss anything important. But can someone maybe summarize Body of Evidence for me?
 
Wolfe, the biggest thing you're going to miss from Body of Evidence is the introduction of Mark, who plays a part in All That Remains. Other than that, plot-wise, you don't need BoE in order to understand whats happening in ATR (its only later in the series that major plotlines start to happen that are paid off in later novels)

However, you should try to read BoE at some point - its excellent.
 
:lol: Right now, Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta books and CSI are keeping me sane, with grad school, work, personal stuff, etc.

I just picked up From Potter's Field this evening and am looking forward to reading it!

Wolfe , just to followup with what everyone else is saying about B of E, and so on, It is a great book and I recommend reading the rest in order (if you can) because of some things that happen in B of E, and follows through to All that Remains, and Cruel and Unusual. ( I was surprised when I started C and U after I finished All that Remains.)
 
I am intrigued with All That Remains right now, that I am actually suprised I put it down. But it is right next to me and flipped to the page I was reading before :lol: I think I am getting addicted to these books.

I am still a little fuzzy about Mark but I'm sure I will find out more about him somehow.

I hope you enjoy reading From Potter's Field, Thumpy.
 
Spoiler here, so don't look if you haven't read anything. Especially anything from Point of Origin on.

Blow Fly surprised me, and here's why!

I really thought Benton was dead, but now a lot more makes sense, like with Lucy and Marino! In a way I wanted him to be dead, and now I can't wait to see what happens when Kay finds out...which I'm sure she well, eventually. It'll mess her up BADLY, that's for sure. Seriously, when I started reading about Benton in Blow Fly, I was like "Is this a flashback???" It completely surprised me.

As for the format of Blow Fly, the way it's now 3rd person, at first I didn't like it but it's growing on me. However, Kay seems less...complex. It doesn't sound like Kay when she speaks, if that makes sense. That's the only thing I'm missing. But overall, I do like seeing into the other characters' lives and thoughts and whatnot.
 
All of these spoilers you guys are putting up are so tempting. But I know that if I try to read any of them, that I will probably be confused from now on. So, I will resist the urge! :lol:

So in some of the books, it isn't from Kay's point of view? I don't know exactly what you mean by that... I like the way it is in Postmortem and All that Remains (those are the only ones I have read so far, and I am only in the middle of All that Remains).
 
Wolfe, all of the books, up to "The Last Precinct", are in the first person - so its all from Kay's perspective.

Then, in BlowFly, as stripforensics mentioned, it changes to the third person - and all the books after that are the same way.

I like it in that you get to follow the other characters around, get to know them as they are, not just as Kay sees them. I love Lucy (tee hee), but when she wasn't physically in the presence of Kay, she wasn't in the story. Now, with the 3rd person narative, you can go off with Lucy for a while and get to know her better.

However, I think the later stories have lost something with the loss of Kay as narrator. She's no longer the focus of the stories, and as a result, I don't think the stories are as rich. One of my favorite things about the books was getting inside Kay's head, knowing where she was coming from, getting her perspective, learning things as and when she learned them. So I'm sad that the format has changed.

That being said, I acknowledge that the story that is being told, particularly in Blow Fly, probably could never have been told in the 1st person.
 
I really like how the books are in Kay's point of view. I really like it alot especially when she talks with Marino and all that.

I am really curious to see how the 3rd person narrative would work out. You just gave me another reason to read the books even faster!

Thanks for telling me about all of that forensicsgirl. I really appreciate you trying to help me understand.
 
I finished Blow Fly today! I was waiting for my friend to pick me up so I just...read :lol:

I decided I really like the multi-person narrative because right when something "Woah!" happens it switches to someone else and makes you really hungry for more. *starts Trace*
 
I loved all the novels up to Blow Fly, I thought that the 3rd person narrative was really difficult to follow and that the books lost something from not being writted from Kay's perspective. But thats just my opinion.
 
I just went to Books-A-Million yesterday and I thought that I was going to die and go to heaven. I found a whole section of Patricia Cornwell books, oh and I got so excited.

They actually have Body of Evidence there at the store, and that's the one I skipped because the library didn't have it. So I think I might buy it there and then read it after I finish All That Remains.

My mom just bought me the Jack the Ripper book that she wrote. I have to say that so far that the Ripper book rocks! So detailed, I love it!

Also, can anyone post like a list of how her books go in order? I know Postmortem is first, then Body of Evidence, and All That Remains, but after that I have no clue what comes next!
 
Hope this helps:
Postmortem (1990)
Body of Evidence (1991)
All That Remains (1992)
Cruel and Unusual (1993)
The Body Farm (1994)
From Potter's Field (1995)
Cause of Death (1996)
Unnatural Exposure (1997)
Point of Origin (1998)
Black Notice (1999)
The Last Precinct (2000)
Blow Fly (2003)
Trace (2004)
Predator (2005)
 
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