Cause of Death (Kay Scarpetta)

My review of this Patricia Cornwell/Kay Scarpetta book "Cause of Death" doesn't
have to do with the author or the story but with the publishers who designed a
different cover for an old book. It's a ploy I see frequently and find very
annoying. Unfortunately I got caught, for the umpteenth time. They reprint the
same book a few years later, with a new cover, and people buy it - again.

'Cause of Death' is a well-written spy mystery, what a shock, and I think it is a little strange for Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Virginia ME and a superb mystery maven, to be involved in a possible international case of terrorism. She always is an extraordinary superwoman ME, though, and I love this over-the-top series because of that fictionalized exaggeration of her as a character. So, improbable as the direction this #7 in the series seems to be leading Dr. Scarpetta, it is a fun read! I think the reader will enjoy this series better if it is read in order, though.

Through six harrowing, expertly crafted crime novels, Patricia Cornwell has earned an international following of passionate readers who are addicted to her singular blend of spellbinding storytelling, absorbing forensic detail, and characters who grow more complex and interesting with each book. Now Cornwell submerges Dr. Kay Scarlett in labyrinthine case that wraps a wep of danger around those closest to her and threatens to wreak fear and death far beyond the confines of Virginia.
With CAUSE OF DEATH, Patricia Cornwell brilliantly delivers the high tension suspense that has secured her status as the best crime writer of our time it's breath taking book took 10 straight hours to complete everything this is my first book but it won't be the last.

One is sometimes left with the impression that Ms. Cornwell is expecting to be paid by the adverb (he thoughtfully opined). She anally observes the correct grammar with unerring repetition of the form throughout the book, with one exception about halfway through, where she slips and lets an adverb follow a verb. It was the only such sentence in the book that was uncringingly readable, since all those other adverbs were entirely unhelpful to the narrative (she would have written "entirely were unhelpful...") and as irritating as Chinese water torture. The other things that make this book silly are too numerous to mention, but the improbability of the ending stands out like an exploding nuclear power plant. Two stars is a generous rating.

I'll probably spend more time on this post-mortem than Dr. Kay Scarpetta spends in the autopsy room. What with having to conduct international missions for the FBI, or was it the Justice Department; being relied upon for expert advice on everything from Civil War battlegrounds to satanic cults; lending out critical evidence in a murder case with less care than a librarian would use with the latest Patricia Cornwell novel; and then being forced to save the East Coast from a nuclear disaster by intervening in crucial hostage negotiations that would otherwise be conducted by a local police captain and a profiler (there apparently being no one more qualified to do that sort of thing...)

Well, suffice it to say, there is precious little time left for Dr. Scarpetta do the mundane work of an M.E.

This is the first book I've read by Patricia Cornwell, and it's in a dead tie for Most Implausible Suspense Novel with the last book I'll ever read by Catherine Coulter. Mercifully, I've forgotten what that one was called. (It might have been "Eleventh Hour.") I had also forgotten what it felt like to have paid only a few cents plus shipping for a nice used copy, and still suffer Buyers' Remorse. Now I remember.

Question: is "Cause of Death" typical of the famous Kay Scarpetta novels? Or was it just an unfortunate choice from an otherwise stellar series? I've become a fan of Tess Gerritsen's M.E. character, Maura Isles, and was expecting a similarly fascinating look at the forensics side of detective work. Instead, I found myself reading a sci-fi/spy fairytale. I rate it two stars only because I read the entire book. The one-bomb is generally reserved for books I find unreadable.

Patricia Cornwell has been on my to-read list for some time now, but the last two books I've read from her Scarpetta series are making me doubt my steadfastness! This one especially goes to prove the point that Ms Cornwell doesn't have the gift of consistency, as I'd expected from such a writer, some of whose works are unarguably brilliant and remarkable, very nearly landmark. This, however, most certainly doesn't come in that category.

The story is badly written, the plot very flimsy, the premise kind of hard to believe, and as someone else has mentioned in their comments here, Ms. Scarpetta is shown to be a know-it-all in everything she comes across. IMHO, this is the most unbelievable aspect of this book, which takes away any credit that might have come to this book otherwise.

Not worth a read, unless you (expect to) have difficulty NOT reading it!

Any average reader could see through the clutter and guess the plot less than halfway into the book, and it is painful to see the usual retinue of Ms. Scarpetta - her prodigal niece Lucy, the ever-resourceful Wesley and Marino - wasted on this sub-quality, ridiculous plot!

Overall: 1 / 5

In Cause of Death the mysterious death of a journalist scuba diving around obsolete US warships leads to an investigation that takes several twists and turns. The result is a taught thriller that is marred by flawed research. The investigation is workmanlike but the trail is unpredictable. Cornwell does a good job of leading the reader on. Along the way Cornwell manages to push a couple of politically correct buttons but not enough to stand in the way of the story. There were two serious problems that I did note. First, the element uranium U-238 plays a pivotal role in the story. Cornwell states that the only place that U-238 could be found would be in a research reactor. U-238 is the fuel used in Canadian nuclear reactors that are used in several countries throughout the world. Without spoiling the plot this lack of proper research undermines the whole story which was pretty farfetched to begin with. Second, the story requires the handiwork of a graduate student computer hacker. I had trouble rationalizing that a computer hacker with the skill demonstrated couldn't ensure that a PC disk drive was permanently erased so that no crucial data would be recovered. So, Cornwell has provided the reader with a plot that has too many holes. It's too much of a stretch for the willing suspension of disbelief.

This is my second-time around for "Cause of Death"...i like her books THAT much. This time i'm working through them in order, which is one thing i made the mistake of not doing when i first came across her.
Anyway...on first reading, this one wasn't really my favourite, but when i read it a second time, i absolutely loved it. The plot is really exciting, intriguing, fast-paced...in fact, everything we have come to expect from Ms Cornwell.
Scarpetta is back, and a it more jaded than usual. Lucy too is back, and its good to see her working independent from her aunt, proving she is equally capable. (What Cornwell does to the character in later books is a shame).
The first half of the book is a tad better than the second, but the electrifying conclusions really makes up for that. Otherwise, this book is extremely well written (whatever the minor faults of some of her books, they always are) extremely fast-paced, and with a dark and muddy plot which stinks of corruption and intrigue.
The first couple of paragraphs are possibly the best first couple of paragraphs which Ms Cornwell has ever penned. The book begins right at the deep end (literally) with invetigative reporter Ted Eddings found dead whilst diving under the murky surface of the ELizabeth River. The way COrnwell describes this scene is extremely evocative and more than a little scary. The way Scarpetta has to don diving equipment and take a dive into the muddy depths of the water to find the body is chilling...
The climax is great, the plot is exciting and a good puzzle, the characters are good, if a little unrealistic. But nonetheless, Cornwell is still a (possibly THE) maestro popular fiction.

As I have said in an earlier review, Patricia Cornwell's earliest books (particularly Potter's Field) really influenced my life. After I read Cause of Death...probably the worst book I have read in my life, I decided I'm going to go back and re-read the books I thought were great and see if they really were great, or I was just young when I read them. In Cause of Death, it seems like Patricia Cornwell is trying to prove how ingenious (or genious) she is through Lucy (I think that's Cornwell's real wishful alter ego). I find it hilarious that Kay Scarpetta, the ME of Virginia, thinks, she is of equal ranking with a flag officer - ha! Furthermore, I can't believe she could get away with calling a flag officer in the Navy a Major General! The Navy, Coast Guard and Public Health Service have admirals, NOT generals! I think it's pathetic that kind of detail even got through the editor. Anyways, I never even finished this book, it just got too stupid and unrealistic -- Kay Scarpetta gets to conveniently be in the middle of a power plant take over (by the way, nuclear power plants don't have that lax of security), pleeeeease.

I like a good thriller, mystery, police procedural novel, whatever these are called. The best authors seem to be women: P.D.James, Minette Walters, Elisabeth George. I will also gladly read a competent techno-thriller, like those from an old reactionary Tom Clancy (but emphatically not those from "his workshop"). Recently I tried to add another one to the trio of my favorite lady writers, a quite popular Patricia Cornwell. I was a bit doubtful after reading her short work, a kind of truncated Dr. Scarpetta'a cookbook. The recipes were incomplete and quite uninspiring - nothing to learn there. Anyway, there was nothing new from my favorite reliable authors at the place I was browsing (for a dead tree variety of the book, before I got my Kindle) and 'Cause of Death' is a full novel, so perhaps it's worth a try... Well, it wasn't.

I don't know much about forensic pathology and postmortems, but do a bit about computers, technology in general and physics (all of which play a part in the novel). I can warn you that Cornwell has done a very poor job at research. She obviously has no first idea how a computer works (which is not a big deal - you ask someone who does), but decides to impress the reader by phrases such as "programming discs of his 486 computer". Of course, it did not occur to her that "486 computer" has no meaning (for the purpose of placing the machine as ancient, mainstream or bleeding-edge, which was the intention) without knowing the time-frame within months (and being computer history buff). Scarpetta's wunderkind niece designs databases and pattern-recognition software FBI uses for forensic ballistics, constructs robots, writes telepresence software for them and operates them (a piece of dialogue between her and one of colleagues about robot's software is particularly laughable), all while being 23 year old self-destructive alcoholic. Very realistic. Cornell commits more writers' mortal sins, like developing a sub-plot and then simply forgetting it, because the main one concludes. Et cetera. Nuclear physics parts are no better (though power plant bits seem to be at least perfunctorily researched).

But I have another gripe: for Scarpetta (and, I am afraid, Conwell) those who cannot afford to live in "mansions" or at least gated-in communities are almost sub-human. Scarpetta is divorced without children, but finds it necessary to build a two-story house inside one of those guarded compounds. She does not know her immediate neighbors, and considers that a virtue. Very exceptionally, someone who consistently and reliably does Scarpetta's bidding (like a police captain who follows her like a puppy) can be reluctantly granted human status. Only "mansions" are called "homes" by Cornwell; anything where people have actual neighbors is a "project", something to be avoided at all costs and populated with drug addicts at bests and dealers and other criminals more probably; they are just Scarpetta's "cases". For example:

"Century-old row houses and Greek Revival homes had been brilliantly restored by people bold enough to reclaim a historic section of the city from the clutches of decay and crime. For most residents, the chance they took had turned out fine, but I knew I could not live near housing projects and depressed areas where the major industry was drugs."

Therefore, live in the "project", and you are doomed to a early death from a bullet, stab or overdose.

Sigh.

Kay Scarpetta is called to another crime scene to investigate. This time she is called to a ship graveyard where she dives into the murky water to find the corpse of Ted Eddings, a reporter. It seems Eddings had been dragging around for a story and gotten in the crosshairs of a cult. The cult will stop at nothing to do the bidding of their leader, who they revere as a god, even if it means the potential for mass murders.

Not the best in the Scarpetta series, but an ok read. With the killing off af a major enemy and antagonist in the last book, I hope the rest of the series doesn't become formulaic.

'Cause of Death' is the exact point that the Scarpetta series jumps the shark. Ever since Scarpetta joined Wesley at the FBI, I was worried that the basic forensic science of the early books would be phased out in favour of increasingly silly and unrealistic stories. The hunt for Temple Gault delayed the inevitable, but with this book my worst fears were confirmed. While it starts off quite well, it quickly degenerates into ridiculousness involving nuclear waste and some Waco style quasi-religious nutjobs. This sort of stuff has almost nothing to do with a city Medical Examiner, even one working with the FBI.

Even more annoying than the stupid plot is Scarpetta herself. Cornwall has succeeded in turning her heroine from Kay Scarpetta, M.E. to Kay Scarpetta, Superwoman. She is a doctor, a lawyer, holds a diving certificate, can shoot any kind of gun, can work with complicated IT....all while still cooking perfect pasta and disarming those stereotypically sexist macho men with a cutting remark. She's become almost as big a smug know-it-all as Lucy! But even though our heroine and her colleagues are so clever and perfect, they don't spot the obvious until it's too late. Even I knew where the story was going...they couldn't figure it out? And the ending relies entirely on luck and a pretty unconvincing deus-ex-machina rather than any bright ideas our heroes can come up with. If these are the best and brightest in the FBI, America's in big trouble.......

'Cause of Death' might have worked better as one of her stand-alone novels than a Scarpetta, and it's no surprise that Cornwall began writing non-Scarpetta books after this one. The series was clearly in a rut at this point and you can almost feel Cornwall's desperation and lack of ideas. She did redeem herself with 'Unnatural exposure', but 'Cause of Death' is tired work by a tired author.

Although this book was not my favourite in this series, there is still a lot to recommend it. The forensic detail is wonderful, and written in a fashion that makes it easy to understand. My main complaint with this book is Kay's niece, Lucy. She is not a believable character, and I find her even more unbelievable in this book. My main reason for this is that I don't think an agency like the FBI would have an untrained, young agent like Lucy involved at the heart of their big cases. Yes, I realize she's supposed to be a genius, but seriously, please!! But other than Lucy, I like the other characters, and they are developing very nicely. My favourite is of course, Marino. In this book Kay and Marino are trying to determine the cause of death of a diver that is found dead in the water in an old ship graveyard. Everyone is trying to convince them that it was an accident or suicide, but Kay knows differently, and both her and Marino know that there is very real evil surrounding this death. As they dig deeper, the true extent of the evil is revealed to all, many lives are at stake. This book, like all the others in the series is chock-full of suspense from the opening paragraph right to the very end.

Spoilers towards the end of review. I finished this book...barely. I began reading the Scarpetta series because I wanted some light summer reading, and Cornwell fits the bill: her writing is nowhere near sophisticated (try Scott Turrow or Caleb Carr for crime/mystery writing that assumes that you're an intelligent reader), but entertaining? Yes, most definitely. Her first half dozen books were great, and Temple Gault in particular was a fabulously evil villain. This book, however, takes a total and almost laughable nosedive right from the beginning. My paperback edition...which I fortunately paid only 50-cents for at a yard sale...starts with an intro by Cornwell, who proudly boasts about how she learned to scuba dive in order to convincingly write this book. So why does she then go on to write a lame story that reads like a long, constipated crap? Maybe her money and time would've been better spent re-whetting her writing skills? Her first books were fantastic...what the heck happened here?!

Now 7 books into the series, I can definitely say that somewhere along the way, Cornwell decided that her audience will love whatever she writes because hey, it's Scarpetta. Wrong. Every book is the same, with everyone conspiring to make Scarpetta look bad and cause her as much bodily harm as possible. *yawn* Lucy's total lack of human quality has been way over-played and is already bone-tired *yawn*. Scarpetta's continued wimpy relationship with Wesley *double yawn* seems totally incongruent with the toughness, ethics, and self-possession her character supposedly possesses, not to mention the stiffness and dullness with which Cornwell always writes of their amorous interactions. Only Marino remains fresh as a character, his peppery and persnickety moods the only wake-up calls the reader can periodically look forward to in an otherwise tortuous replay of Cornwell's increasingly formulaic writing.

The plot line...complete with religious fanatics and scuba diving and nuclear threats and Middle Eastern terrorists and ROBOTS, doncha know, and a convenient trip to London for two during which Scarpetta and Wesley get a shag on...is ridiculously out of hand. What ever happened to the great murder cases Scarpetta started out with? Now she's single-handedly clearing the way for the FBI to disarm nuclear terrorists in a radioactive plant with a virtual-reality robot housing a secret bomb in its head?! LOL!!! Come ON! Good god, Patricia Cornwell, where were you when this was written?! The ending stinks, another trend I'm noticing in the books: the endings have grown progressively weaker and rushed. All of a sudden, the day wll be suddenly saved by Scarpetta, just like that, and everyone is on their way home, safe and sound. *yawn*

Cornwell got tired here...it's obvious...and judging from reviews of future installments in the series, I have a feeling she stays tired. Too bad...the series started out so promising. I'm willing to read one more...what the heck, it cost only 50-cents from the same yard sale.

Although this book was not my favourite in this series, there is still a lot to recommend it. The forensic detail is wonderful, and written in a fashion that makes it easy to understand. My main complaint with this book is Kay's niece, Lucy. She is not a believable character, and I find her even more unbelievable in this book. My main reason for this is that I don't think an agency like the FBI would have an untrained, young agent like Lucy involved at the heart of their big cases. Yes, I realize she's supposed to be a genius, but seriously, please!! But other than Lucy, I like the other characters, and they are developing very nicely. My favourite is of course, Marino. In this book Kay and Marino are trying to determine the cause of death of a diver that is found dead in the water in an old ship graveyard. Everyone is trying to convince them that it was an accident or suicide, but Kay knows differently, and both her and Marino know that there is very real evil surrounding this death. As they dig deeper, the true extent of the evil is revealed to all, many lives are at stake. This book, like all the others in the series is chock-full of suspense from the opening paragraph right to the very end.

Spoilers towards the end of review. I finished this book...barely. I began reading the Scarpetta series because I wanted some light summer reading, and Cornwell fits the bill: her writing is nowhere near sophisticated (try Scott Turrow or Caleb Carr for crime/mystery writing that assumes that you're an intelligent reader), but entertaining? Yes, most definitely. Her first half dozen books were great, and Temple Gault in particular was a fabulously evil villain. This book, however, takes a total and almost laughable nosedive right from the beginning. My paperback edition...which I fortunately paid only 50-cents for at a yard sale...starts with an intro by Cornwell, who proudly boasts about how she learned to scuba dive in order to convincingly write this book. So why does she then go on to write a lame story that reads like a long, constipated crap? Maybe her money and time would've been better spent re-whetting her writing skills? Her first books were fantastic...what the heck happened here?!

Now 7 books into the series, I can definitely say that somewhere along the way, Cornwell decided that her audience will love whatever she writes because hey, it's Scarpetta. Wrong. Every book is the same, with everyone conspiring to make Scarpetta look bad and cause her as much bodily harm as possible. *yawn* Lucy's total lack of human quality has been way over-played and is already bone-tired *yawn*. Scarpetta's continued wimpy relationship with Wesley *double yawn* seems totally incongruent with the toughness, ethics, and self-possession her character supposedly possesses, not to mention the stiffness and dullness with which Cornwell always writes of their amorous interactions. Only Marino remains fresh as a character, his peppery and persnickety moods the only wake-up calls the reader can periodically look forward to in an otherwise tortuous replay of Cornwell's increasingly formulaic writing.

The plot line...complete with religious fanatics and scuba diving and nuclear threats and Middle Eastern terrorists and ROBOTS, doncha know, and a convenient trip to London for two during which Scarpetta and Wesley get a shag on...is ridiculously out of hand. What ever happened to the great murder cases Scarpetta started out with? Now she's single-handedly clearing the way for the FBI to disarm nuclear terrorists in a radioactive plant with a virtual-reality robot housing a secret bomb in its head?! LOL!!! Come ON! Good god, Patricia Cornwell, where were you when this was written?! The ending stinks, another trend I'm noticing in the books: the endings have grown progressively weaker and rushed. All of a sudden, the day wll be suddenly saved by Scarpetta, just like that, and everyone is on their way home, safe and sound. *yawn*

Cornwell got tired here...it's obvious...and judging from reviews of future installments in the series, I have a feeling she stays tired. Too bad...the series started out so promising. I'm willing to read one more...what the heck, it cost only 50-cents from the same yard sale.

Patricia Cornwell has taken her characters from perfect strangers to best friends, lovers, and respected colleagues with finesse. The emotional ties that hold these people together are so palpable I can feel them on the pages. She makes the characters and the events that make up their lives so convincing that I can feel what they would were they real. It's easy to get completely taken away with any of her novels. Her knowledge of the criminal system never ceases to amaze me, and the attention to detail keeps me turning the pages. The book was just as good as the first novel I read from PC, "Postmortem." I started reading Patricia Cornwell back in 1995 and I have just read every one of them up to this novel for the second time in the past month. I look forward to reading her next book, Unnatural Exposure. She has the recipe for a perfect mystery novel down to the T.

I really liked "Cause of Death" by Patricia Cornwell until the climactic sequence. When she rolls out the big guns, so to speak, it seemed so ridiculous to me. I laughed out loud and finally quit reading.
Until then, I liked the central character, who is well educated and high strung and has trouble relating to people and is surrounded by conflict and troubles. I liked the forensic stuff and the who-dun-it structure.
(This is only the second Kay Scarpetta novel I've read.)
I liked Pete Marino and Lucy and the setting for the first killing and Roche and the way the mystery unfolds.
The best thing is that most of the time the setting and the characters mimic the real world in a good way. She is a very responsible person, who is both doctor/pathologist and a lawyer, and who is in conflict with people all around her, because she is a woman, because she does a good job, and because she uncovers crimes that other people would overlook.
I don't think the author needed all that elaborate hokum at the end. I like a smaller story, where evil is not about to destroy so much of the world but is about to destroy the life of one or two people.
This is still a decent crime novel and worth reading, but I'd give it a B minus. (Sorry, Ms. Cornwell. You are a heck of a writer.)

When investigative reporter Ted Eddingds is found dead in the Elizabeth River, Dr. Kay Scarpetta is filling in as the cheif medical examiner in the Tidewater area. Everything about this case is puzzling and she is certain her presence there is not appreciated. This is an excellent start to the book, however the plot quickly changes as Dr. Scarpetta returns to Richmond. Soon after, the death of her Tidewater assistant occurs in Richmond and she is quickly called to the scene of the murder. It takes over 200 pages for this story to begin to pull together, so for most of the book you are left wondering why the you are given all of these random bits of information. If you make it through, you will find out that it is all fairly relevant, and what does come together is a very complex and thouroughly researched mystery.

“I (…) walked out into what was becoming a beautiful day”

Patricia Cornwell has a nice, casual way of writing and her novels are a pleasant easy read. But over three hundred pages about little more than solving a few murders by some silly religious sectarian group was a little too much for me. These detectives and thrillers, even when written by women, are just not my cup of tea.

Very rarely there are some interesting remarks. For instance about a relation between an older man and a younger woman, when she lets the man explain how he is constantly worrying about his health and even is afraid of having sex. No man would easily write about that, they would just describe the wonderful sex they are having. Dream on guys.

And hidden away in those three hundred long pages there are some beautiful sentences:
“I noticed that people in the Concorde did not talk to each other much, and I decided that being rich and famous or royal must be rather boring.”
And my favorite:
“I (…) walked out into what was becoming a beautiful day”
This last sentence alone makes it worthwhile for me to read the other three hundred not to interesting pages.

Once again, Cornwell will hook you with the first chapter ...but this time, you'll get mired in an ending that has all the reality of a romp with Ian Fleming. I can believe that Dear Dr. Kate is a doctor and a lawyer. I can believe that she is a sharp-shooting, tough-talking gal for whom the sight of decomposing bodies is no-big-deal. But I'm drawin' the line on her saving the world from Nuclear Terrorists. Author know your audience!! When I started reading Cornwell's books it was the grim reality of the writing that blew me away -- not only was the main character as tough as any male protagonist, she got to have a beautiful home (even if she does keep adding security), a great car and didn't melt everytime a guy looked at her. Please Dr. Kate -- don't turn into James Bond -- we miss you

i have read the first six books - the series started well, but detoriated book by book. now i have to quit, because i can't believe this nonsense any more. how old is scarpetta ? diving in winter ? this she learn to dive with cornwell ? what has this to do with her job ? in a shipyard ? and her diving gear brought along and cooking all the time ? ok - there are worse things in the world. but f.i. could anyone tell me why lucy was not supposed to read the book of hand (chapter 5). the book lacks logic. it's lame. the conspiracies against scarpetta repeat themselves. okay. so nobody likes the lady, but then who the f... is interested in her omelette a la chi chi. thats it - i quit. i can't stand her any more

Cornwell's seventh Kay Scarpetta novel opens with Virginia State Pathologist Scarpetta insisting on a New Year's Eve dive in a frigid murky river where a diver's body has been found caught on a decommissioned sub in an unused Navy Yard. An odd hostility from local police and Navy officials only makes her more assertive and determined.
The diver is a journalist Scarpetta liked and the autopsy - colorfully described, as always - reveals murder. Scarpetta quickly finds herself and, inadvertently, her brilliant, difficult niece (a recent FBI graduate and computer wonder), in the center of a maelstrom of menace which soon includes her protective friend, police captain Pete Marino and her erstwhile, married lover, FBI brass Wesley Benton.
Meanwhile the journalist's apartment turns up an arsenal and a book - the "bible" of a right wing cult, full of recipes for murder and terrorism. Then another murder occurs, even closer to Scarpetta, and conspiracy and intimidation loom larger.
Cornwell's writing is vivid and Scarpetta is a prickly, sharp-edged heroine who exudes authority and keeps her private fears hidden. The story will keep you turning pages as Cornwell ratchets up the suspense but the explosive ending is jarringly sudden - never giving the reader much chance to put a human face on evil or comprehend its motives.
Still, this is Cornwell in her prime.

The book started off well with attention-grabbing events related to the death of a reporter. In no time, it bogged down into neurotic reflections on relationships of all sorts. This is billed as a suspenseful crime novel, but it has more romance, both hetero and homo, than crime and suspense. By page 140 I was so bored, I did not think I could continue, but I hate to start a book and not finish it.

Then another murder occurred about half-way through, and the pace picked up a little then but quickly slacked off again. The descriptions are voluminous, peripherally related to the plot, and almost as interesting as a textbook.

Admittedly this is not the type of book I enjoy but I wanted to try a Cornwell book because she is a very successful author. (A $750k advertising budget helps, I'm sure.) It was tough for me to plow through.

It violates the Third Commandment repeatedly, which I find offensive and unnecessary.

On page 287, there are daffodils, crocus, and ivy growing in window boxes in London in early January; one would think it too cold! Does the Putman group not have editors any more? Where are the good books?

I agree with many of the other reviews - it showed promise in the beginning. I read the first 2/3's of the book in a day. I enjoyed the initial action and mystery. By the end, however, the book had fizzled to the point that I hard to force myself to finish it. Dr. Scarpetta is a thoroughly unbelievable character - she's an "expert" on everything from medicine to firearms to scuba diving to nuclear power plants! I'm a big Clive Cussler fan, and my wife bought this for me because of the scuba diver on the cover. Don't let that fool you - the diving aspect is a very minor part to the book (although it was one of the more exciting, at least for me). Bottom line- I wouldn't waste my time with this one again.

I have read all of the Scarpetta novels & this is by far the WORST Scarpetta novel I have read. I thought the story began well enough, but it went down hill fast. The plot was completely implausible & ridiculous.

Dr Scarpetta is involved w/ a global nuclear disaster involving foreign powers. I just find it hard to believe the chief medical examiner from Virginia would be involved (& basically runs the show) when there is a nuclear crisis looming.

Lucy is nauseating as ever & wish she'd die. Having to hear Scarpetta brag endlessly about her Mercedes got beyond old.

The only positive thing in this bk. is Marino. This book should only be read for die hard fans.

I have been sucked into the Scarpetta series with a passion. I've furiously burned through all of the books before this one. I really wanted to like Cause of Death, but there were several problems.

1. It started out really well, with all of the suspense and mystery that the rest of the books had. However, that fizzled out toward the middle of the book.
2. The plot was all over the place as if Cornwell didn't know who or what to focus on. It just never made sense.
3. This is the first time Scarpetta has been after terrorists and I didn't buy it or enjoy it. I don't read murder mysteries to read about terrorism.
4. The traits of the great characters: Lucy, Marino, Wesley and Scarpetta herself seemed stifled and boring. There was no life to it.

Overall, this is the worst book of the series so far and I actually found myself skipping pages just to get through it, which is normally a big no-no to me.

In '96, when written,this might have seemed a little "over the edge". But today, the science, the technology and the multiple, fringe ideologies that are trying to take over the world, make this story very current. With the scientific and technical details described- a little too much for this reader- it makes a tense and well plotted story.

Combining scientific realism with true-to-life characters, Patricia Cornwell has crafted the best book of the series.
After taking a few detours in the previous book in the series ("From Potters Field"), Cornwell gets back to what her readers like most ­ a mystery, tinged with science.
Favorite characters ­ Lucy, Marino, and Benton Wesley ­ have bigger roles this time, and, by giving those co-stars more attention, Cornwell
shows us even more about the perfectionist Dr. Scarpetta. This book may lead you to learn more about forensic science. If so, check out
"Dead Men Do Tell Tales," a memoir about a true-to-life medical examiner.

Dr. Kay Scarpetto seeks the answer to the death of a close aquantaince.
But the answers are not easy, our doctor scuba dives and does some footwork
on her own in this story. But this book starts to pull you in and you get to know
the characters, then it drops off and you lose the suspence. Seems that
Patricia Cornwell struggled to come up with this part of the book and in the
struggle lost. The book ends as well as it started. I would never tell you not to
read this author, but there is no need to rush. And Pat if you read this we don't
want you to rush either, we love your books, and the wait is worth it.

While I'm not the type who notes inaccuracies very well, it was the story that bothered me most. Nevermind that many writers these days have serious problems with prose.

I had a very hard time trying to convince myself that a forensic pathologist could be rambling endlessly about "evil". All this with hardly any conscience over having an affair with Benton and sullying his marriage.

Furthermore, Patricia Cornwell pulls out the old trick of "men versus Scarpetta" again. While it was vaguely interesting in the first book or so, this constant reminder is tiring.

Finally, the "conspiracy" part has been beaten to death. It doesn't mean you can't use it though but Patricia employs it to poor effect.

I felt that Cruel and Unusual and The Body Farm were the better books out of this series. I think she has finally worn out her characters and they would've been better laid to rest.

I always enjoy a Patricia Cornwell book. This one is no exception to the rule. I did have a feeling of incompleteness when the book was over, possibly because another book is coming which answers some of the questions. Enjoy it.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" and "To Whom It May Concern"

This was my first (and last) book by Patricia Cornwell. I picked it up at the suggestion of another customer at the book store and I'm sorry I did. My mom read this book first and when it took her almost two weeks to finish I knew it wasn't good. I didn't even get half way through before I gave up. My mom is far stronger than I and will see a book till the end no matter how bad it is. I must agree with other reviewers, there's no plot and it's truly predictable.
And to quote another reviewer:
"I like to be challenged by a story, not to be fed a pointless story because she had to write 'x' many books to fulfill a publisher's contract. This is what this book is, no less, no more."
Avoid being bored to death. Don't buy this book.

Dear Dr. Scarpetta,
I have been following your adventures for nigh on ten years, and wish to bid you farewell. I doubt we shall ever meet again in a reader-main character relationship. Yes, I am sorry but you have become a pain and a bother to me, and I can no longer summon up the sympathy necessary for you, nor the patience and interest necessary to turn the pages of your story. My spare moments shall have other characters peopling them.

"Cause of Death" has done me in. I was able to read only a few dozen pages this time, although up until now I have succeeded in finishing your increasingly irritatingly surrealistic adventures.

How did this happen? Did I love you too much at the beginning? Do I expect too much from the main character in a hastily-edited serial novel?

My dear, over the years you have become more and more haughty, negative, paranoid, self-absorbed, self-centered and self-satisfied. You relate less and less well to others, to whom you show evermore coldness, anger, disdain and general ill-feeling. You are in a constantly bad mood, constantly vying for power, constantly feeling miffed and disrespected, constantly showing that you are the best at everything including scuba diving on New Year's Eve without your license, so that you are unable to enjoy even the cottage your colleague Dr. Mant lent you. There is never enough hot water for you, not even in the women's washroom of a dock/naval/abandoned ship facility.

Your author obviously cares little about the image you project anymore. You need a sense of humor. You need to lighten up. You need to become attractive to readers again. You need to ask your author to set your adventures in the summertime rather than the dreary days before Christmas or New Year's. You need a bit of humility, modesty, humanity, good sense and...some sort of authentic, altruistic caring. In short, you need a new character-life.

I know what will happen to you over the next few books, through the magic of reading reviews and have decided that I do not want to follow you to New York, or anywhere, with your miraculously resurrected True Love or your nemesis the Werewolf. Seeing how you behaved in France in another book was enough for me.

I am no longer going to be the witness to your author's acting out, either.

So this is good-bye, dear Kay. Goodbye.

I always liked the old Jack Klugman TV show, "Quincy," so I figured that murder mysteries centered around a forensic pathologist's work would be interesting. This is what Patricia Cornwell offers, so I picked up *Cause of Death* and read it during a recent vacation trip (fortunately for me, I was able to check it out from the library).
After finishing the book, I figure the author needs to change her name to "Patricia Cornball." Aside from the sometimes interesting material on forensic pathology, this is thin fare, folks. What starts out as a reasonably intriguing mystery spins out of control over the final hundred pages into a ridiculous, soap operatic, thwarted made-for-tv movie script. The ending is one of the worst I have encountered in decades of reading fiction.
Aside from Marino, the characters overall are uninteresting (Scarpetta's niece Lucy is just plain horrible); the "romantic interest" is annoying and unconvincing; and the "factual content" aside from pathology (about which I know nothing so I cannot be sufficiently critical) is sloppy. For example, in asking for a Nikon camera, protagonist Kay Scarpetta asks for the one "with the single-reflex lens." Say, what? We're also informed that exposure to uranium is not harmful (tell that to the hundreds of former uranium miners who have developed cancer).
Overall, this is a book that only diehard fans of Ms. Cornwell will enjoy.

I really have enjoyed the Kay Scarpetta series... (Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All That Remains, Cruel & Unusual, The Body Farm, From Potter's Field, Cause of Death, Unnatural Exposure, Point of Origin, Black Notice, The Last Precinct). I have read them all except The Last Precinct which I expect to begin very soon. I recommend you read them all for pure pleasure. They are an absolute delight to read. I also recommend these books to you (as well as to my clients) because they are a great way to see how vibration and reflection works with fictional characters while you are learning how your own vibration and subsequent reflections occur.... Enjoy!

I was eagerly waiting for the release of "Cause Of Death". I am captivated by Patricia Cornwell's writing, however this book was no match for her previous. I think she did a wonderful job on "From Potter's Field" and that book held my attention, and gave me chills all the way through. I can usually finish a Cornwell book in a weekend, this one took me a couple of weeks. Not an easy book to get into. I look forward to reading more of her books, and can't wait until she writes another

You can't start reading the Scarpetta novels in the middle, you have to start with the very first one and work your way through. This is in the middle, with characters already developed, and it is very difficult to like them if you start with Cause of Death. While I agree this is not her best work, and I REALLY wish she'd kill off the niece, Lucy, she really is a good suspense writer. SUSPENSE, not mystery. There is a difference in that in suspense you often know who the bad guy is, and the suspense is finding out what happens next. I would suggest The Body Farm and From Potter's Field as a couple of good ones.

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chefin der Gerichtsmedizin von Virginia und forensische Beraterin des FBI, ist zurueck! In gewohnt fesselnder Manier zieht Patricia Cornwell die Leser gleich mit der Eroeffnungszene in ihren Bann: Am letzten Tag des Jahres wird die Leichenbeschauerin auf einen alten Schiffsfriedhof gerufen. Den toten Taucher, den man dort fand, kennt sie gut. Es handelt sich um den Reporter Ted Eddings, der zwischen ausrangierten U-Booten und Frachtern der US-Marine etwas suchte und dabei umkam - vergiftet, wie Kay spaeter herausfinden soll. Um sich ein genaues Bild von den Umstaenden zu machen, will Kay die Leiche selbst bergen. Dafuer muss sie 10 Meter Tiefe in einem schlammigen Gewaesser ueberwinden, in dem man nicht die Hand vor Augen sieht. Gefaehrlich und unheimlich ist die Szenerie, und Patricia Cornwell schildert sie so, da¤ der Leser das Beklemmende der Situation intensiv miterlebt. Auch bei der folgenden Obduktion hat der Leser das Gefuehl, mit am Seziertisch zu stehen, und so geht es weiter: Atemlos liest man sich durch die ersten 2/3 des Thrillers. Das Auftauchen der satanischen Bibel einer dubiosen Sekte, der Mord an Kays Mitarbeiter Danny und die Bedrohung ihres eigenen Lebens, die Kay spuert, kann nur zu einer Reaktion fuehren: weiterlesen! Dabei begegnen dem Leser alte Bekannte: Kays Nichte Lucy, inzwischen FBI-Agentin und Computergenie, Benton Wesley, FBI-Kollege und Liebhaber sowie Captain Pete Marino, ihr alter Freund. Ihnen raeumt die Autorin mehr Raum als in den vorangegangenen Buechern ein, und damit gewinnen nicht nur die Nebencharaktere, sondern auch die Protagonistin selbst weiter an Profil. Leider haelt die Story nicht, was sie verspricht, allzu konstruiert kommt der Schluss daher und laesst einen hoechst entaeuschten und irritierten Leser zurueck. Kay mutiert von der kuehl abwaegenden Wissenschaftlerin unvermutet zur Einzelkaempferin, die in James-Bond-Manier eine atomare Weltkatastrophe abwendet. Ist das dieselbe Frau, die wir als Perfektionistin kennen, die zwar risikofreudig und mutig, nie aber leichtsinnig oder uebereilt handelt? Ganz bestimmt nicht, und so steht am Ende die Frage, was die Autorin dazu bewogen hat, ihre Heldin in ein solches Abenteuer zu schicken. War es der Blick nach Hollywood, der sie das Ende des Romans wie ein Drehbuch gestalten liess oder meinte Cornwell, mit einem reisserischen "Showdown" einem zweifelhaften Trend folgen zu muessen? Schade ist es allemal, denn Patricia Cornwell, die frueher selbst als Polizeireporterin und Computerspezialistin in der Gerichtsmedizin taetig war, wurde gerade fuer die Glaubhaftigkeit ihrer Geschichten in den USA, in Frankreich und in England mit hohen literarischen Auszeichnungen bedacht. Kein Leser legte eines eines ihrer Kay-Scarpetta-BŸcher aus der Hand, ohne viel ueber Polizeiarbeit und Gerichtsmedizin gelernt zu haben. Diesem Anspruch wird "Truebe Wasser sind kalt" nicht mehr in demselben Masse gerecht. Cornwells grosse Fangemeinde sollte sich auf ein ueber weite Strecken spannendes, zum Ende hin aber unglaubwuerdiges Buch einstellen