The Bone Bed: Kay Scarpetta Mysteries, Book 20

Wonderful and Riveting Twentieth Book of the Kay Scarpetta Series and one of my favorites in this series of books. The book starts with a leatherback sea turtle tangled up in fishing tackle attached to the body of a white haired older woman and Kay Scarpetta being called to take the body to the morgue while marine biologists from The New England Aquarium come to rescue the massive leatherback sea turtle. Scarpetta has to go to court where she is fined for being late and put through the wringer by a defense attorney and when the victim recovered from Massachusetts Bay is Identified they check online and discover that Marino has been communicating online with someone pretending to be her but who cannot be because she was already deceased by that time. The female FBI agent, Douglas Burke, working with Scarpetta's husband, Benton Wesley has developed a huge crush on him and has started to become nasty, inappropriate and threatening towards Scarpetta and Wesley had to tell her superiors at the Bureau that he doesn't want to work with her. They keep investigating and following leads and then everything comes together.

ANOTHER GREAT EPISODE SO TO SPEAK.

A body is found who maybe of a missing woman and her husband isaccused of killing her. But another woman is missing and there aremore secrets that Kay must untangle. Why were they taken and whatis the purpose? Must read.

As the series continues the plots are more unbelievable, the forensic discussion is more tedious and reletative, and the characters become more shallow and sanctimonious. Kay has become an elitist snob and Benton is oh so boring. Sad because first books seemed promising.

Relaxing with good book

Kay Scarpetta is back -- I was initially ambivalent about buying this book, given I didn't care for the quality of the last two but reluctantly made the plunge. I was pleased to see somewhat of a return to the basics with less emphasis on wild conspiracies or the ongoing ponderous drama of Scarpetta's personal life (husband in witness protection -- thought to be dead but not, niece blackballed by the government agencies, etc).Background: this story focuses on a serial killer who has apparently sent a video clip to Scarpetta to taunt her. The entire plot involves Kay linking two deaths to multiple other deaths and drawing the connection to a central figure.The Good:1. More focus on the case than Kay's relationships. I confess I tired of her niece's antics, Benton's strange life, and Kay being at the center of every killer's thought pattern (or so it seemed). This book focuses much more on the case and how Kay prosecutes the case, so there's more emphasis on the process and detective work.2. The characters seem to have more normal roles and functions. Kay's niece assists with her unique skills but doesn't go overboard, Benton is more the normal FBI agent doing his duty and Marino is handled adeptly in a storyline that is fitting and appropriate.3. The case is interesting with an engaging plotline -- the pacing is smooth and easy to follow.The Less than Good:1. Fixation: Kay must be the only medical examiner in the world that is ultimately targeted for death or becomes the enemy of every serial killer on the planet. This plot feature gets old. When was the last time we opened the paper and a medical examiner was the target of a killer or convoluted conspiracy? In reality, you never even know the name of the medical examiner involved in a murder case! I realize this is what sells the books but sheesh, Kay, you're not THAT important to the safety of the planet. Why can't we just focus on telling a plausible, interesting, engaging, seiral killer story without making Kay the killer's focus all the time?2. Plot: it's generally solid. However, at the end, I was left wondering why the killer notified Kay of his crime by sending the video. It seems like he was asking to be caught by challenging her directly -- guess this is the point of the story, but it didn't seem to match the overall motives for the other killings. In other words, the killer wasn't killing for attention, he was killing for deeply personal (and psycho) reasons -- it wasn't supposed to be a challenge against authority.3. Characterization: Kay seems unusually focused on whether Benton is cheating on her and on her attraction to other men in this book. It's perplexing. After all they've been through, this is a concern? I mean, he was "dead" (in witness protection) and they've worked out far more serious issues and our number 1 all-star ME is worried about being hot for two other guys or Benton's fidelity? Ugh.All in all, it's a solid read. I'd like to see the pricing come down to the once-promised 9.99 range as I hate paying 14.99 for ebooks but that's a different topic. Die-hard Scarpatta fans will probably love this, for me it was a solid okay.

What can I say about Scarpetta number twenty? I didn't dislike the book, but in my opinion, Cornwell has yet to produce a follow-up book that is in anyway comparable to the quality of her first six to eight books. This review does contain a few mild spoilers!Before I air my complaints, I will give credit where credit is due. Bone Bed reintroduces readers to the Kay Scarpetta they met in Virginia. For the first time in I don't know how many books, Scarpetta is back in her diving gear and working the crime scenes like she used too. That is the one thing I really appreciated about this book. Kay is sharp. I had forgotten what an impressive investigator she could be. As she goes through a crime scene, very little escapes her attention. Her intelligence, ambition, and compassion are magnetic. I can't speak for everyone, but that is the character that captured my attention and held my interest in 90s.With that said, I found her supporting characters highly annoying and redundant. Marino and Benton are still stuck in a downward spiral of regret and resentment. I know that real life issues (you know, your average faked death and attempted rape) don't go away over night, but I think Cornwell has taken it to a level that is entirely unnecessary. I for one, am very tired of hearing the sad song that refuses to end. Benton played dead; Mario got drunk and tried to play hooky. Naturally, these flaws in character will keep the two of them from being best friends and undoubtably leave some skeletons in the closet, but Cornwell has strung it out to the degree that she has allowed it to monopolize the chemistry that made the characters so captivating in the beginning.Another issue I had with this book is that I felt like I had read it already. Scarpetta and her team discover links between several different homicides and find themselves chasing a deranged serial killer. As they close in, the lunatic loses control and ends up going after ... Wait, I don't want to spoil your fun, I'll let you guess, but I'm betting you'll get it right without even having to buy a vowel!! Any of that sound familiar? It's almost as if Cornwell follows a formula. She changes the locations, characters, and modus operandi, but the big picture remains the same. While this formula may be making her millions, it has flattened her series and turned into average and predictable. She has sold Scarpetta out and it's a d*** shame.

I haven't read a Scarpetta book for quite some time. After this one it will be quite some time before I read another one.I guess when you are a best selling author like Patricia Cornwell there comes a point where editors get fed up of trying to fight your ego and just give in. That's exactly what it feels like in this book, the editors gave in.Scarpetta in this book comes across as a power mad egomaniac who is fighting against the entire world, a world that she sets out to provoke/anger and then is surprised when it bites back. Everyone hates her. Which is no surprise she is completely unlikeable.She's indignant about her husbands partner and paranoid they are having an affair, while at the same time fantasising about her young assistant. A point of view she thinks is completely reasonable. An assistant with the most contrived back story ever.Lucy her niece has now crossed the line and belongs in a Marvel comic with her own super hero name, such are her apparent powers. The Helicopter Hacker.There's a social media plot line, well because you had to have one, it was all the rage when this book was written. It's so ridiculous it's sad. There was a time when you felt Cornwell spent time researching her plot lines, but hey why bother when you've knocked out over 20 books people will buy any old rubbish.I don't often write book reviews, this book was so bad I felt I should try to forewarn it's next victim.

Oh good grief. This is the second bad Cornwell book I have read in two weeks.There are four main characters in this book, Kay Scarpetta, forensic genius, Benton Wesley, profiling genius, Lucy Farinelli, computer genius, and Peter Marino, fat red neck.This book has all the hallmarks of a typical Kay Scarpetta irritating character traits book. Scarpetta is so ‘holier than though’ that it’s no wonder almost everyone in the book dislikes her. She pronounces from on high like she sits in heaven as if she’s some sort of forensic goddess.In addition, Scarpetta and husband have the weirdest relationship I have ever seen in books. I lost count of the number of times I thought ‘No one actually behaves like that, unless you’re in a book where the author is trying to pad the page count, without having to create more mystery, in you know... a mystery.Then there’s Lucy Farinelli, who has been sacked by every one of the law enforcement agencies she has worked for, yet is able to come and go in a criminal forensics lab, despite her dubious reputation, and history. Even Scarpetta says she wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a courthouse, given her history.Okay, so now I’ve debunked the characters, what about the story? The story is non existent. A body is found in Boston’s bay, during a high profile trial, because of course it is. Scarpetta’s reputation is demolished in the process, because of course, and this makes her paranoid, because of course she is.She continues to investigate the body, bickering with her husband on the way till they solve the case. The problem for the reader is that you’re not going to solve it, because the murderer isn’t introduced till almost the end of the story, when you’re past caring anyway, and just want the book to end.So, all in all, not a good read.

If you liked the early volumes in the Scarpetta series, you will feel you are on more familiar ground here. There is less angst and pontification from Kay and more action than in many of the later novels - and, crucially for me - more emphasis on the work of the Chief Medical Examiner's office.In the old days, it was the forensic approach and the characterisation which drew me to the series and I am pleased to find them both here - though I did get rather irritated by Kay's newly developed penchant for younger men, to which she referred rather too often.What else stands out about this particulary novel? Well, without revealing anything about the plot, for me, the inclusion of a paleontologist, the description of scuba diving to examine a body found in water and the law court scenes all added to the overall experience.

I bought this book only because it was reduced. I've been getting more and more fed up with the direction of this series so I thought I'd give it one last chance. Well it was just more of the same - everyone is out to get Scarpetta despite her being kind, nice and helpful to them (her assessment). It is getting farcical. Kay Scarpetta has become an extremely unpleasant character - narcissistic, paranoid, intolerant and a control freak. Who knows what Benton, her husband, is as he's only there to spout profiles and get in her way career wise. It is a very dysfunctional relationship and badly portrayed. Pete Marino is the only normal human being among them and he is constantly portrayed as stupid and lacking judgement. It seems to me that Ms Cornwell is losing touch with the reality of human nature.The plot in this book - a turtle gets tied up in fishing lines and when it is rescued they find it has also ensnared a dead body - is an interesting concept but rather poorly executed. There is no real explanation as to how the murderer knows enough about Marino to try to frame him or why he drags Scarpetta into it in the first place. It's all a bit half baked.

I keep on buying the next in the Scarpetta series as I (like others) am always hopeful that the brilliance of the early novels will be repeated. This one is better than the last episode in the series by quite a way but, while I found it a quite entertaining yarn, I also found it irritating.Why irritating? First, because the pace for the first two thirds of the book is desperately slow partly because Cornwell feels for some reason that she has to give us the minutest detail about everything rather than just getting on and telling the story. It almost feels as if she is just showing how clever she is in knowing so much about, for instance, all the forensic procedures she describes. It may impress some, but not me.Secondly (and sadly) the main characters have just lost their appeal for me: Benton has become nothing but a dreary add-on without any real personality, Marino a shadow of his former self (literally, too) and Lucy too enigmatic and focussed on her geekiness to be either convincing or interesting. But I suppose I did at least read it to the end . . .Will I buy the next one? Maybe - but I think a better idea will be to re-read  Postmortem: A Kay Scarpetta Novel, Volume 1 (Scarpetta Novels)Postmortem: A Kay Scarpetta Novel, Volume 1 (Scarpetta Novels)