book 142
Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I haven't read a Scarpetta book in years and now I'm reminded as to why. Kay was no longer a smart intelligent woman, but rather a whiner who second guesses herself ever ten seconds. I've never liked Lucy but she was even more annoying. Marino has become an idiot. I got this on cd and this hot mess took three cds to even get to the morgue (so that's three hours).
There was a nugget of a good idea with the death of a young man in the park but it was lost under enough fat to make twenty pounds of sausage. Instead of concentrating on the mystery, we get to listen to Kay whine that Benton is keeping secrets from her, that Marino gossiped too much with her boss in the military, screwing her, and everyone telling her how much Jack Fielding has betrayed her. She uses four descriptions were one will do. We learn every odd and sod on Lucy's helicopter and how to fly it (we get it, you did research and now you're boring us all to death it it).
Instead of honing the story onto that young man whose insides were exploded as if with a bomb and the nano tech spyware found with him (possibly thanks to DARPA) we have endless second guessing. Is Lucy hacking again (who cares), Is Benton pulling away from her (who cares, they has as much chemistry in this as well...a lab with exactly one chemical), What has Jack been doing because no one is doing their job at the new crime lab and people seem to resent her? (and if it was ever addressed why the heck she was working for the military when she's supposed to be the chief of this new lab but she's never really been there, I missed it. That was so stupid though maybe addressed in the previous book).
It was a convoluted hot mess and dull as dishwater and pretty unbelievable to boot. There's this interconnecting old crime she and the military covered up when she was little more than a medical resident (I just don't see the military dragging someone so green to Africa). That could have been axed entirely.
And the voice actress for this was dubbed the voice of the century. Boy did she not bring her A game then because this was just bad. Hard to distinguish the voice and I swear she was pinching her nose closed for Marino.
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