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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780399153938
ISBN number: 0399153934
Label: Putnam Adult
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: October 23, 2007
Publishing house: Putnam Adult
Release Date: October 23, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 16268
Studio: Putnam Adult
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
From America's # 1 bestselling crime writer comes the extraordinary new Dr. Kay Scarpetta novel.
The 'book of the dead' is the morgue log, a ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to take on a new meaning. Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace, not only personally and professionally but geographically. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues-including Pete Marino and her niece, Lucy-offer expert crime-scene investigation and autopsy services to communities lacking local acess to modern, competent death investigation technology.
It seems like an ideal situation, until the new battles start-with local politicians, with entrenched interests, with someone whose covert attempts at sabotage are clearly meant to run Scarpetta out of town. And that's before the murders and other violent deaths even begin.
A young man from a well-known family jumps off a water tower. A woman is found ritualistically murdered in her multimillion-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is discovered dumped in a desolate marsh. Meanwhile, in distant New England, problems with a prominent patient at a Harvard-affiliated psychiatric hospital begin to hint at interconnections that are as hard to imagine as they are horrible.
Kay Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones confronting her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names-and the pen may be poised to write in her own.
The very first name in forensics. The last name in suspense. Once again, Patricia Cornwell proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthrall.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Normally I find an author and read absolutely everything they've written.
However, I have found that Ms. Cornwell's writing has become increasingly depressing, and at an alarming rate.
With each new book, Ms. Cornwell has managed to drag every character, however peripheral, in Kay Scarpetta's infintesimal world further into a dysfunctional grey hole. Each and every character should be on a ledge by now.
At least the victim is lucky enough to be tortured and killed off early in the storyline.
Rated by buyers 
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This book is very different from older Cornwell novels. She normally writes a very first person, past tense narrative. This is written in an unusual third person, present tense. The characters in Book of the Dead are absolutely cartoonish in behavior and dialogue, unlike the more rational characters in previous books. I find it difficult to believe this is the same author. If this were my very first Scarpetta Mystery, I would not read another.
Rated by buyers -
I really wanted to give this book zero stars but they won't let you do that...
In looking back over the list of Scarpetta books, a series I fell in love with long ago, I find it difficult to remember the last one I enjoyed. The characters have no redeeming qualities anymore and are completely unlikeable.
I think it's sort of silly to continue coming back to them when this obviously is not going to change so I'll make this my last Scarpetta read. Cornwell would be better off killing them all spectacularly with no hope of resurrection so she could quit flogging them and move on to something else. Unless of course she's lost the muse. Hmmm, maybe that's the problem.
Rated by buyers -
I too have never submitted a review but after discovering how bad it is I felt I just had to add my impression of this piece of work.
I agree with many of the complaints express on this site by other readers. I find it very choppy to the point of being frustrating with a rambling, poorly defined storyline. Cornwell just drops readers into conversations and situations with no set up at all. It is actually disorienting ...like when you walk in the middle of a conversation or event in real life. She also has many characters with few being very well developed and seemed to be short on coming up with creatively differing names. I found several characters were given very similar names that contributed to confusion.
What amazed me most are the sentence fragments. When I learned grammar I believe that one of the rules was: sentences had to contain a subject and a verb. I don't know, have they changed that rule? Is it a `creative writing' thing?
I also find this book boring and long on conversations that really don't seem to go anywhere but to express over and over again the character's (and perhaps the author's too) political views of which I could not care less.
The bio in the back of the book lists a number of awards the author has won, pointing out some very distinguished British awards never won by any other American author. If this is what they consider work worthy of such awards, then I question the awards.
Rated by buyers 
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Very interesting book. I never read any of her books before but this was definitely a book to read. The more i read the more i wanted to know what was going to happen next. Just great. You will not be dissapointed with this book.
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