Book Review: Unnatural Exposure by Patricia Cornwell

Unnatural Exposure by Patricia Cornwell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Don't let jealousy bite you because it can destroy you. Be content.

This is the first Patricia Cornwell book I've read and I somewhat like it. I love the main character's attitude, namely Dr. Kay Scarpetta. I like that she's firm with a lot of gentleness and kindness to people who needs it.

I hate Ring, too bad the book doesn't say if he's been punished. Maybe that will be in the next Cornwell book.

I just don't like how the book ended. It's like it's cut short and I had no inkling whodunit because if memory serves me right there was no mention of Dr. Phyllis Crowder. Maybe I'm used to other books like this where they give clues as to whodunit and you have to make a choice only to be proved wrong in the end.

No matter, I am still going to read other Cornwell books. That's definite.

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Book Summary
Virginia Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta has a bloody puzzle on her hands: five headless, limbless cadavers in Ireland, plus four similar victims in a landfill back home. Is a serial butcher loose in Virginia? That's what the panicked public thinks, thanks to a local TV reporter who got the leaked news from her boyfriend, Scarpetta's vile rival, Investigator Percy Ring. But the butchered bodies are so many red herrings intended to throw idiots like Ring off the track. Instead of a run-of-the-mill serial killer, we're dealing with a shadowy figure who has plans involving mutant smallpox, mass murder, and messing with Scarpetta's mind by e-mailing her gory photos of the murder scenes, along with cryptic AOL chat-room messages. The coolest innovation: Scarpetta's gorgeous genius niece, Lucy, equips her with a DataGlove and a VPL Eyephone, and she takes a creepy virtual tour of the e-mailed crime scene.

Unnatural Exposure boasts brisk storytelling, crackling dialogue, evocative prose about forensic-science sleuthing, and crisp character sketches, both of familiar characters like Scarpetta's gruff partner Pete Marino and bit players like the landfill employee falsely accused by Ring. Plus, let's face it: serial killers are old hat. Cornwell's most vivid villains are highly plausible backstabbing colleagues like Ring, who plots to destroy Lucy's FBI career by outing her as a lesbian. Some readers object to the rather abrupt ending, but, hey, it's less jarring than Hannibal's, and it's the logical culmination of Cornwell's philosophy about human nature. To illuminate the novel's finale, read Cornwell's remarks on paranoia in her Amazon.com interview. --Tim Appelo (from goodreads.com)

About the Author
Patricia Cornwell ’s first novel, Postmortem, is the only novel to have won the Edgar, John Creasey, Anthony and MacAvity awards, and the Prix du Roman d’Adventure in one year. Her second and third novels, Body of Evidence and All That Remains, attracted equal critical acclaim and became international best-sellers, establishing the author as one of the top crime writers. She received the Gold Dagger Award for her fourth, Cruel and Unusual.

A former award-winning reporter for the Charlotte Observer, Patricia D. Cornwell worked for over six years as a computer analyst in the chief medical examiner’s office in Virginia, where she witnessed hundreds of autopsies. This experience inspired her to create Dr Kay Scarpetta, the tenacious, intelligent and compassionate Chief Medical Examiner.

She has written a total of 18 novels featuring Dr Scarpetta, as well as 3 police procedurals set in North Carolina; 2 cookbooks and 1 children's book.

She lives in Richmond, Virginia and New York. (from goodreads.com)