Book of the Dead (Kay Scarpetta, No. 15) | 
 enlarge | Author: Patricia Cornwell
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Rating:  652 reviews
Sales Rank: 20990
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0399153934
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780399153938
ASIN: 0399153934
Publication Date: October 23, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: along spine dust cover corner slightly torn Used - Acceptable
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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 access 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 first name in forensics. The last name in suspense. Once again, Patricia Cornwell proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthrall.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 Since when does Kay Scarpetta say idiotic things like "let's don't" ? December 1, 2008
Nicola J. Perry (Long Beach, MS)
This is truly the last Patricia Cornwell book I am going to read. First of all, I am an ative duty member of a uniformed service and I certainly hope that nobody who reads this book gets a bad impression of soldiers or sailors....the overwhelming majority of us hate war, hate killing, hate death, hate suffering and hate prejudice (including the prejudice against us). The comments she makes in the book about the war and particularly the Air Force are extremely uneducated to the point of almost being laughable if they weren't so disrespectful. However, as an American, she is entitled to speak her mind and I have to accept that, but there is NOTHING redeeming about this book. The first book I read by Cornwell was The Body Farm when I was a junior in high school and I was so inspired...the book actually had a direct contribution to me joining the military, ironic, huh? Her latest books have been getting increasingly painful to read. I can look past her obviously anti-military leanings...it's the rest of it that gets me...changing Kay Scarpetta from the narrator to being referred to in the third person; having the highly educated and once classy Kay Scarpetta saying things like "let's don't" and referring to sex as "f&*ing" and Lucy is living out a teenage boys dream; ferraris, high tech equipment, super rich, give me a break. I guess the once fantastic author has totally lost her class and buried her talent in bitterness. In short, rent this book from the library if you are really curious, but expect that you'll be grateful you didn't spend the money to purchase it. In all due to respect to Cornwell (though I am losing that rapidly), if you are a first time reader of her material, I recommend that you read her first six or seven books and you'll appreciate why she's an award winning author...just don't expect too much from subsequent writings of hers.
 The Book of the Dead November 30, 2008
Rose Ann (USA)
Not one of the best Cornwell books I have read, but never the less, held my attention to the end. Marino definately a mystery to uncover.
 Book of the Dead November 22, 2008
Diane Foster
good book but not the best to come from Patricia Cornwell. It seems to be gettin a little off the track of the Scarpetta stories.
The victim is the only 'winner' November 18, 2008
Crystal Cason (New York)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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 black 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.
 Who wrote this book? November 13, 2008
A. Jenkins (Orrville, Ohio)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is very different from older Cornwell novels. She normally writes a 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 first Scarpetta Mystery, I would not read another.
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