Ann’s Pick
October 2019
All That Remains, a Scarpetta Novel, #3
Patricia Cornwell
Scribner, 1992, 373 pages
Mystery/Police Procedural
Strong Female Characters
Having just finished All That Remains, I’m ready for another Patricia Cornwell novel. This novel was fast paced and suspenseful as it is narrated in first-person by Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, VA. Cornwell writes an intricately plotted, detail filled thriller which also has an atmospheric sense of place. We follow Dr. Kay Scarpetta and Police Detective Pete Marino as they strive to find a serial killer before he strikes again to murder another young couple along I-64 near Williamsburg, VA. The latest victim is the daughter of Drug Czar Pat Harvey. But this particular killing did not follow the usual pattern – was the victim chosen to intimidate Harvey? Was the killer a rogue FBI agent? Is there a federal cover up?
All That Remains is a hard-to-put-down page turner. It isn’t as famous as Postmortem, Body Farm or From Potter’s Field, but it does advance the characters as we learn more about Dr. Scarpetta’s friends and family, and the marital problems of Det. Marino. Scarpetta has a close brush with the killer. The ending is swift and deftly explained. However, the novel hasn’t withstood the passage of time well. Reading it, I expected Scarpetta to reach for her cell phone instead of search for the nearest pay phone. At her office she sends and receives faxes, drives in the snow to D.C. to meet with experts. There are no emails sent with attachments of photos that would have made life so much easier. And DNA is a new tool in the field of forensic science in the early ‘90’s. Edgar Award winning author Cornwell is still respected for the huge impact her Scarpetta novels have had advancing forensics in crime novels and influencing popular television series such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Criminal Minds.
Still, I plan to pick up Cruel & Unusual, the next Scarpetta novel, from the library. And while I’m there I’ll look for Quantum, Cornwell’s newest mystery series featuring another strong female lead character, Captain Calli Chase, a physicist, cybercrime investigator, and NASA pilot. Will she discover the sabotage to her secret mission in time? And who is responsible? Patricia Cornwell gives us another richly detailed, thrilling new series to take on challenges and crises of the 21 st century. Happy Reading!
And Coming October 2019, the 1st of Patricia Cornwell’s newest series: QUANTUM, By Patricia Cornwell; A Captain Chase Novel, #1;Thomas & Mercer 2019