Livid: The new Kay Scarpetta thriller from the No.1 bestseller

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We do eventually get back to the court case late in the novel but by then I felt the plot had been rather rambling and while the various strands of the story are pulled together, the ending seemed rather rushed compared with what had preceded it. The story was very slow at the start and the end was rushed to try and tie up what had taken place in the previous 300 pages. It worked well, and I loved listening to the history of their friendship but also the connections to the governor. Sphere is home to some of the world's best-loved authors and books, ranging from Jenny Colgan and Carole Matthews to Mark Billingham, Val McDermid and even Gwyneth Paltrow.

The crimes and crime scenes are described in quite gory detail that, while shocking and not unexpected from the novels featuring Kay Scarpetta, now strike me as rather gratuitous and a little dated.Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, in 1990 while working as a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. Thus the FBI and the Secret Service, as well as the Virginia police, are all involved in the investigations. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. As things play out, Rachael's homicide seems to have a connection with an attempt on the life of the POTUS, as well as the murder of a Virginia merchant. Kay Scarpetta is not only still fresh, she's the same grumpy, wonderful, riveting personality she's always been - a full-on human being - and she's only getting better with time.

Scarpetta and Marino discover some odd burn patters that could mean something even more problematic, as everything points to a new age weapon. Because of that, I have read and reviewed the 25th Kay Scarpetta novel – “Livid” – under a bit of self-induced protest. Kay Scarpetta is a character who surpasses every other fictional medical examiner, in my humble opinion. As tensions mount for the case to be decided, Scarpetta must determine who is out there, lurking in the shadows. Cornwell received widespread attention and praise for her series of articles on prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte.At this point we are 73% through the book at this point and it has not even been 24 hours since the book began. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventures - the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. What's interesting is that by the end readers (especially those of us who started with the first book in the series) realize all the main characters are now related by either blood or marriage. No money out of pocket and the only risk is the time spent reading it in case there’s no improvement in the storytelling and development in the characters. I remember discovering Patricia Cornwell and this riveting series, which started with a binge read of the first number of novels.

Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy. I recently picked this book up along with the latest in Sandford's Prey series, and Kellerman's Alex Delaware series. I am so pleased that Patricia Cornwell is back and can only hope there are more Kay Scarpetta novels to come of this calibre.

Hachette Book Group is a leading book publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the third-largest publisher in the world.

While I disagree with her choice of villains, good guys, and the whole misinformation hype, long-time fans--and I am one-will appreciate the specs and technical explanation of a new weapon, the Virginia-DC axis, the dynamic of Marino now married to Scarpetta's sister, and an element at which Cornwell outshines virtually all other authors--that of the added conflict of job-related betrayals. Scarpetta ultimately finds herself facing a powerful, invisible enemy who’s planning the unthinkable . After a "One week Later" chapter heading (thank goodness we did not have to endure 1733 additional pages detailing the week's passage based on the 10 pages on average each previous hour was allotted) we are given a summary of how the bad guy was formed from a horrible childhood. I challenge anyone to name one book in the series in which other members of the family did not know more about one of Kay’s murder investigations than she did herself. At the time of writing this review 80% of the ratings for Livid are either four or five stars and I have to admit I don't fully understand why I am not as enthralled by this story as most others obviously are.Although I enjoy finding out about Kay and her family, this book, of 350 pages takes place over 2 days.