Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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PREDATOR
By Patricia Cornwell
She’s back. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is back in Patricia Cornwell’s new bestseller, Predator. In fact, not only is Kay Scarpetta back, her long-time beau Benton Wesley is back, along with niece Lucy and long-suffering sidekick Marino.
All of this would be good news except for the fact that these characters we’ve loved for so long are getting really weird. I must say I liked Predator better than the last Scarpetta novel, Trace, because Scarpetta is back to her strong and independent self. But Marino? What is going on with Marino? He’s a leather-wearing, disrespectful, obnoxious, shrink-seeing thorn in Scarpetta’s side – and the author never tells us why. I kept thinking she’d explain where the bad blood came from between Scarpetta and Marino, but she never does.
And Lucy – Lucy is having serious problems of her own too, some of which we come to understand later in the book – but never to this reader’s satisfaction.
I guess that is my general complaint about the book – it leaves too much unexplained, too much confusion. I wanted to have some resolution to a number of issues and relationships that Cornwell just doesn’t give me.
Now – before you think I didn’t enjoy it – let me tell you what Cornwell does give me. She is the original CSI read. If you enjoy crime detection, forensic psychology and all of the good scary stuff that we hope we only see in movies and books, it’s here. After a couple of business books, Predator had me curled up and happy on the couch for hours. After admitting mild irritation with some of the details, I give a thumbs up to Patricia Cornwell’s new bestseller – Predator. On the Book Beat for KSL Newsradio, I’m Amanda Dickson.
