Book Review: Trace

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Trace     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 # 13
Putnam, Sept 2004, $26.95, 436 pp.

Kay Scarpetta and Benton Wesley were planning a two weeks vacation in his Aspen cottage but at the last minute he cancels because he is counseling Lucy’s girlfriend Henri who was attacked and almost killed while in bed in Luc’s home. Someone is stalking one of the ladies, leaving a picture of an eye on her on her outside door and planting a bomb in her mailbox. Lucy is busy hunting down the maniac.

In the meantime Kay is called back to Virginia by the new Medical Examiner because outside forces wants a highly renowned ME to examine the body of fourteen year old Gilly Paulson. During the autopsy, Scarpetta discovers some bruises that proves she was killed while laying on her back while somebody’s knee press her into her pillow so she couldn’t breathe.

In the burned house across the way from Gilley’s home, Henri and Marcus find mortuary magazines addressed to Kay’s old work address in Richmond. Fingerprints show that the culprit is the same person who killed a child and almost murdered Lucy’s lover but finding that person will take all the resources at their disposal.

TRACE, like BLOW FLY, is told in the third person so readers have many viewpoints, a plot device that lets the audience know what Kay, Benton, Lucy and the killer are thinking. Kay is her usual brilliant self, ignoring anyone who gets in the way of finding the truth about the killer and Lucy is working extra hard to find the stalker before the perp strikes again. Patricia Cornwell writes the best crime thrillers on the market today and readers will find TRACE a work that is one of the author’s best.

Harriet Klausner

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