Over the years, our heroine Scarpetta has been through so many scrapes that she must be superhuman. I think newcomers would find this a difficult book to fathom, as so much of the back story is, literally, taken as read. And unfortunately that makes things all too familiar and predictable. In addition to Marino and Benton, she also has her niece Lucy – a loose cannon if ever there was one – plus assorted colleagues, both good and bad. All Scarpetta followers will know the clique to which I’m referring.
By the end of this book, it will be a miracle if anyone at all is left. As fans will know, Kay has very few people in her life that can be truthfully described as her own flesh and blood, but the ties that bind her and her little clique together are stronger than those created genetically. Each target has tenuous links to Scarpetta or the people she holds dearest. It soon becomes clear that a talented sniper is on the loose, and as the list of victims grows, a worrying trend is also uncovered. The shot that killed him is uncannily accurate and no-one seems to have seen or heard a thing. A high school music teacher has been gunned down while unloading groceries from his car. It’s Detective Pete Marino, who wants her help at the scene of a murder just five minutes’ drive away. As the pair puzzle over their find, Kay’s phone rings. But seven pennies, all bearing the date 1981 and polished to a dazzling shine, laid on the wall behind their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, soon put a spanner in that works. The break is long overdue and both are looking forward to it. They’re preparing to fly to Miami for a celebratory vacation. With her history of forensic expertise, she is now the chief medical examiner for the state and husband Benton Wesley is an FBI profiler. The story begins on Scarpetta’s birthday.
Flesh and Blood is the 22nd to feature Kay Scarpetta and in truth the series appears to have run its course and deserves to be towed away to the scrapyard, so tired is the formula. Written by Patricia Cornwell - Have you ever been stuck in an interminable traffic jam on the motorway? One where time seems to slow down as you stare, bored, out of the window and pray for rescue? In a nutshell, that’s how I felt while reading this book.
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