Book Review: Blow Fly

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Blow Fly     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Patricia Cornwell
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural   Thriller   Woman Main Character
Series: Kay Scarpetta # 12
Putnam, Oct 2003, $26.95, 480 pp.

Six years ago Benton Wesley was tortured and murdered. Since then life has become exceedingly difficult for Kay Scarpetta. Serial Killer Jean Baptiste Chardonne, the unwanted son of a crime cartel family, tried to make Kay one of his victims. When he was caught, he tried to turn the situation around and Kay was forced to go before a grand jury to defend her reputation and honor. Her one time lover Jay Talley, Jean-Baptist’s fraternal twin, used her to find out if Benton told her anything about the Chardonne crime cartel.

Unable to live in her precious Virginia home, Kay moved to Del Rey Beach, Florida working as a free lance consultant. Talley and his lover are fugitives living in the bayou near Baton Rouge where ten women in fourteen months have disappeared. Jean-Baptiste is days away from state execution and wants to see Scarpetta. Marino’s son is a lawyer for the Chardonne family and is a threat to all of Kay’s friends. All those people are being played by one of the world’s most intelligent puppet masters.

BLOW FLY brings the various players from the last three books together allowing the audience to see what is happening to each of them. Patricia Cornwell has written a brilliant crime thriller starring a vulnerable Scarpetta, a person who has endured heartache, legal troubles, a violent attack and near death by a violent sociopath. She is nowhere near healed and when she discovers the secret those closest to her have been keeping, she will feel betrayed and anger. Ms. Cornwell is at the top of her game with her latest novel. It keeps readers on the edge of their seats absorbing one shock after another.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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