FFS. Patricia Cornwell. Why do I bother??

[Jacksmania]

Her Scarpetta series is just crap. Why?? Why did I just get the latest one, "Port Mortuary" (especially as an audiobook so I can't just throw it across the room!).

Kay Scarpetta is a neurotic twat. Her relationship with Benton is completely dysfunctional. She is ridiculously insecure and thinks everyone hates her (and to be fair they probably do, especially me!). It's completely unrealistic that all these events should happen to one person. Yes, I know, that's why they call it fiction :o

Even DH knows how much I hate the books and at me for getting this latest one. Free, thank fuck!!! But still.

Why, why, why do I always expect the next book to be better?? That's like expecting that guy who wrote Coma and Virus and stuff (Robin Cook) to come up with something worth reading. Gggggnnnaaaarrrrrr!!!!

Patricia Cornwell has started doing that thing where you feel as though the author is busily writing a story , gets to page 750 and realises they are only contracted to write 800 pages, so they rush through the ending leaving unfinished threads all over the place.

If she can't be bothered to finish a story properly, I can't be bothered to read it.

Step away from the books!!

Ikwym though, I gave up after Benton came back from the dead. It might be fiction but still and its very hard to read books when you don't like a single character in them.

You're invested in the characters now, that's why. You want to know if anything actually good happens to them. Or if the freaky werewolf guy comes back and finally does her in.

I don't know why I read them either!

I liked her first one then it all went downhill.I prefer Kathy Reichs

The early Scarpetta books were quite good. Then they went very weird.

I completely agree about Port Mortuary. It seemed worse than her other Scarpetta novels.

PC started so well, and then it all got very samey and formulaic. I liked Kathy Reichs when she first started too, but have now given up on her books as they are boringly predictable.

Fav crime authors are Rankin and Michael Connelly.have you read them OP??More police proceedural than the pathology stuff but better written than Cornwell or Reichs

My best recent find in crime genre is Fred Vargas

She is fab

Oh and I love James Lee Burke,makes me want to visit New Orleans!!

Agree, when Benton miraculously returned (and not her first boyfriend either - Mark also came back from the dead), the books became surreal. She also started writing in short sentences and using the present tense which I didn't like. Haven't read any since she left her old job. You've only got yourself to blame, I've got no sympathy

I gave up on Patricia Cornwell long ago. Looks like a good thing too, from the sounds of this thread.

Mark came back from the dead... oh yeah, he did, but I forget which book.

Marino stopped short of actually raping her and then passed out drunk. Turns out he was being poisoned by an anabolic steroid that was in some kind of grooming aid (forget what) and it was giving him testosterone rage. Of course Pathetic Kay forgave him.

I know, I should just give up.

I have read Michael Connelly, love his Harry Bosch books.Not gotten into Ian Rankin yet. Will check out Fred Vargas and James Lee Burke. New Orleans, by the way (pre-Katrina) is aaaahhhhh-mazing.

Actually, I don't think Mark did come back from the dead, I think he just kind of popped back into Scarpetta's life after they broke up, didn't he? And then it turned out he was involved in all sorts of odd stuff... like all the characters

I agree with everything said here. I've just read Scarpetta (thankfully from the library)the one after marino assaults her and it is rubbish. She is so wet it drives me mad.

Does anyone else think she is written about in that way so that we all think that's how Cornwell is in real life. And are we all meant to admire her and wish we were like her too?

I've been reading some of the Jack Reacher series by Lee Childs and have been enjoying them.

Oooohhh, Jack Reacher!!! I would. I really really would. :o (Not Lee Child, though, he looks weedy.)

Good thought re PC wanting people to think she's really like that. I doubt it.

The problem is I'm halfway through listening to Port Mortuary and now I want to know what happens --- if someone would give me a synopsis, I'd happily chuck it...

Now you've got me thinking. I'm sure Mark was killed by a bomb in London (unless I'm getting him confused with someone else). I really don't want to have to read them again to find out, but it's bugging me now.

Oh, and BTW, Jack is mine.

Yes, I think Mark was killed in a bomb in London and then turned out he wasn't.
'Scarpetta' was a bit better than the previous few - she spent half the book going 'let's forget about the events of the last few books and pretend they never happened', which was certainly an improvement!

Don't think I've read PortM yet but honestly they're a bit of a blur...

Yep, like Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs & James Lee Burke (not often I come across other readers of his books)!

Robert Crais is also good, series of novels with a private detective (Elvis Cole), set in LA!

Iirc, PC brought out a Scarpetta cook book

Oh, don't forget Harlan Coben (Myron Bolitar books) & Jack Reacher of course

Btw I was right re cookbook

I like Myron's sense of humour but he's a bit of a mummy's boy. Jack's a REAL man. Mmmmm....

Oh absolutely

haraln coben is good, karen rose is fab and sheila quigley

I haven't read any Scarpetta novels for years. She's a narcissist, isn't she? Don't think the author thinks that, I think she's modelled the heroine on herself. Says a lot, really.

Oh god the recent Patricia Cornwell books are pants! The first 3 or 4 were ALRIGHT but very quickly descended into pants-dom.

Kathy Reichs is excellent, although I've only read the first 5 of hers.

Haven't read any of Lee Childs but they're on my Amazon Wish List. SAme with Harlan Coben.

If you're struggling for good writers in this genre I'd definately recommend Stuart Macbride, the first book in the series is Cold Granite. They're set in Aberdeen. He'll make you laugh out loud in quite a few places. Honestly brilliant books.

I absolutely loved the first 4 or 5 Cornwell books and then they became, just, well, shite really.

I actually think someone else has been ghostwriting them for some time as they are so far removed from thea early style, plotlines and characterisations.

I still love crime thrillers and my favourite authors are

Lee Child (back off ladies, Reacher is MINE! And cocolepew's, I share him with her)
Dennis Lehane
Robert Crais
Mark Billingham
Kathy Reichs
Janet Evanovich
Harlen Coben