Comments on: The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell

By: Lesley

Lesley — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:53:54 +0000

I am so disappointed in Patricia Cornwell. Her books have progressively become more and more depressing, weird-character based, and unreal. I cannot even imagine this character Lucy, and am having a harder and harder time even imagining (by which I mean, getting the characters from the written word) Kay and Benton.

And is it just me, or is the typeface more dense and the book just so closely set and in such long chapters, that it’s just plain hard to read.

Sorry Patricia Cornwell – I was a HUGE fan of your earlier novels, but you lost me in the last 2 or 3…….

By: mark

mark — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:51:01 +0000

60% read so far and quite frankly I am bored with it, I agree the victim’s aspect is totally ignored and way too much internal dialogue.
Will I finish it, maybe, but I am not drooling over turning every page, a pity cause I like her characters, Kathy Reichs is so much more appealing I am afraid.

By: K hopkins

K hopkins — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:22:12 +0000

I love Patricia Cornwell. I have read and re-read all of her books. The Scarpetta Factor was quite a disappointment. One the best things she typcially does is character development. She had a perfect opportunity to work more with Lucy in this book, it was left open….In the past, I have fallen in love with her cast of characters. This book left too many open stories and unanswered questions. The bottom line, the mystery was missing and solved with the crazy list of responsible people. I thought that maybe, since I am not a literary genius, I was missing something. But, after reading the comments, I felt a little better. Perhaps,there was some brilliance in the numerous characters, but a professor would need to evaluate that. The complicated web of characters was, likely, not be appreciated by the average reader. I am looking forward to Patricia getting back to basics and working on the characters and really making the reader think.

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:28:29 +0000

I’m reading her last book ‘Scarpetta’ at the moment and am not all that impressed. It is nothing like her older books. I think I’ll give her latest one a miss.

By: Megan

Megan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:14:55 +0000

Agree with the other comments here – have been an avid Scarpetta fan for many years but I am struggling through this one. She doesn’t assume any intelligence of the reader, explains too much in a very unrealistic way, such as within dialogue between the characters. Characters who already understand the information, so it makes no sense why she would explain the intricacies in so much detail.
And I am getting bored with Scarpetta being perfect, no flaws to speak of, never an error in judgment. It is getting beyond the realms of believability that all of these inter-connected people are obsessed with a Medical Examiner.

By: Chris Hill

Chris Hill — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:05:00 +0000

I wasted my time and money on such dross. My liking of Patricia Cornwall has gone. I wondered at times if she even wrote it!!

By: Kib

Kib — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:38:07 +0000

I haven’t read this book yet, but I have become more and more disappointed with each book I have read in her series. I miss the forensics and mystery from her earlier books. In her earlier works, I enjoyed reading about her morgue days and investigating whodunits? Now its more about whether Scarpetta is depressed or not.

By: Karen

Karen — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:20:32 +0000

I totally agree with all the above.. I feel Scarpetta is turning into a cold robot and miss the days in which she used to sit back with a wine and cook some pasta while reflecting over events…the books are becoming less human and warm as they go along I feel. I have been thinking this way over the past few books actually.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:55:15 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. I have loved the previous books and generally, once started, don’t put the book down until finished. This time, I have spent about two weeks trying to plough through all the analytical twaddle and have given up. I think, I just don’t care anough about the charcters to waste any more of my time being in their heads. Such a shame.

By: Linda Champion

Linda Champion — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:54:21 +0000

I ditto your criticism! Spot on! I only finished the Scarpetta Factor because I’d already invested so much time in it. Kept hoping it would get better. To much time spent inside the characters heads. I want some action back!

By: mums

mums — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:47:41 +0000

I totally agree. This book was an enormous disappointment. I have enjoyed the Scarpetta books… the characters seemed quite real. But this book (which was about twice as long as it needed to be) was just plain boring. The last portion of the book didn’t even seem to belong within the same jacket as the first part but at least it finally started to show some of Cornwell’s excellent story telling. I wondered all though the book if she shouldn’t have fired her editor! (That is assuming an editor was blamable for the lack of continuity) I finished the other Scarpetta novels wishing for more. I finished this one wishing I hadn’t wasted so much time.

By: Jo Ann Fredin

Jo Ann Fredin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:34:37 +0000

So disappointed. Read the whole Scarpetta series in order and was anxiously awaiting this new book. Too many angry/moody people, and too much minute by minute detail.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:01:31 +0000

Your last point is excellent.