Patricia Cornwell & "Kay Scarpetta"

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Pop detective fiction writer & her gory creations? Whatd'y think? I rather enjoyed them, the characters were convincing & likeable, & the stories good for the most part (the last few have been rather repetitive, tho' I liked the most recent one a lot) VERY dark & gothic eg the bits where Scarpetta finishes off the crazed killer Temple Gault (I ph33l queasy contemplating this bit even now), or Where they open the fridge @ the end of "Point of Origin". And what of the author herself? She was recently interviewed on radio4, and seems to be a genuinely fascinating & unusual individual. She also seems to identify w/her creation to a startling degree. The picture of Cornwell in the front ov thee books basically IS Scarpetta! Anyway I think Cownwell is about as good as a pop middlebrow writer whose books have shiny embossed writing on the cover is ever likely to get (this is not meant to sound snidey) and is 10x better than that fellow who wrote the hannibal lector books. Go on, call me a twit......

― Norman Phay, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Didn't she recently stake her reputation on Walter Sickert being Jack The Ripper? [Has anyone seen 'From Hell' BTW? Any good?] But my mum certainly has a lot of time for Cornwell, I think she's got all her books, and seeing as she reads NOTHING but murder mystery things that might well be a compliment.

― DG, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

o rubbish norman: thomas harris = 1000 x more insightful and deft, even in the ahem somewhat wayward HANNIBAL.

Also no way wuz Sickert = JtR. Nor William Gull. It's the american whose name i alwiz forget.

Is Scarpetta a lesbian yet? Cornwell's gf was murdered by her ex-husband. That make her interesting anecdotally, but not a bettah writer (I don't think).

― mark s, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hannibal, Mark? eh? WTF? That was quite poss the very worst book I have ever read in my entire life!!!! (Silence of the Lambs = OK IMO, the other one - er "Red Dragon" (?) not bad IMO) I mean, there's this guy whose scarpered and we absolutely can't find him - oh, and he has 6 fingers on each hand, and red eyes...gnnnn.....well I think she's better anyway. Temple Gault is a much more convincing & scary psychopath than hannibal, though he's still abt 1/100th as believable as "Mr Ripley"

Anyway, Cornwell's theory re JtR seemed to me no less or more convincing than any other, & to be quite honest not terribly inert-eresting to me. She did knacker one of his paintings (APPARENTLY) though I hear it was already in bad shape - still, a dumb thing to do IMO. Anyway again, staking yer rep as middlebrow crime fic writer not the same as, say nick serota staking his rep on a similar therory, eh?

― Norman Phay, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

HANNIBAL = goth-prog
Cornwell = alt.country

― mark s, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The G household has, for some reason, at least 3 copies of Hannibal lying around. I have no idea why either.

― DG, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry Norman, I tried the first Scarpetta and struggled to reach the end - something abt the humourless pc smugness of the writing turned me right off. Agree that Cornwell identifies bigtime with her character, but in a far less interesting/kinky way than TH w/ Lektor. Cornwell also a BIG pal of Billy Graham, which gives me the creeps (moreso than anything in her novels, haha.) Give Michael Connelly a go, the best post-Harris thriller writer I know of - 'The Poet' is a good one to start with - or for sheer smooth pro pleasure, the Scudder series by Lawrence Block.

― Andrew L, Sunday, 20 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

scarpetta's niece is the worst type of plot device - how she saves the day by hacking [like that kid in jurasic prk]- but hey, she's a computer genius lesbian fbi agent.

the one with 'field' in the title was obv. written with a view to tv as it's too visual, there is one about murders by a river in the middle of nowhere that i found OK during a hospital stay but i was sedated.

― , Sunday, 20 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

COrnwell is very good at the pathology proceedural - which gets me partially through the book, but humourless characters, plot device neice and piling up body count of Scarpetta's sig others (the one blown up by the IRA was particular homey) makes for a pretty unsatisfactory read.

I get my chick detective kicks with Kinsey Millhone.

― Pete, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

wot do they look like then? Are they a pair of tasty wedges? What's their figures like? They got good legs whats their measurements?

― Chingford Tor Ascender, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm with you Norman. I've often entertained notions of being a forsenic pathologist so these books satisfy that curiousity while keeping my hands clean. great plane books.

― Samantha, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My crime needs are satisfied by Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus books, I got into them about two years ago and quickly bought the lot, they're bloody good.

― chris, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Inspector Rubbish more like. Played by John Hannah in the TV version. I find Rebus tedious to the extreme - but then outside of Ed McBain I cannot be doing with police proceedurals. Especially ones with maverick cops. In the real world Maverick Bobby=Bent Peeler.

― Pete, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

not seen the TV rebus, didn't want to watch when I saw that they had got John Hannah to play him, who is plainly too young and handsome. and I knew they'd ruin it. The books are very well written, and give an excellent sense of place to it all, I love 'em, in fact I got a new one last night and I'll probly finish it tonight.

― chris, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I bet John Hannah has never been called 'too handsome' before in his life.

― Emma, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think Rankin is quite good at evoking a sense of place, its just the place he is evoking I don't particularly like. I find his stories a bit samey and cookie cutter. That one about his daughter and the victims initials spelling her neame - that was hokey join the dots stuff.

I think I've said before that the less time the book spends on the mystery, the more I like it.

― Pete, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In my mind Emma, Rebus is one gritty bastard, and must have a squashed nose. I dunno Pete, they're about the only crime books that have ever managed to grab my attention, they make the tube journey between here and home simply fly by and I often end up carrying on reading once I get home, and for me this is the sign of a good book.

― chris, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fair enough - I'm quite a crime/detective fiction reader and he is one which just seems to derivative (can't go near Morse for pretty much all the same reasons). Personal preference and all.

Your definition of what makes a good book works well for me. I would also be happy to break and squash John Hannah's nose for you to make him come nearer to your mental image.

― Pete, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Join the Hannah-punching queue Pete, I am at the front.

― Emma, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no probs, I'll hold him down, and you bat him about head and neck yeah?

― chris, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What with Hannah-bashing and mate-icide it's been quite a violent day on ILE. Good.

― Emma, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

seven years pass...

Started on a COrnwell reading spree. PostMortem was read in a few days and now Body of Evidence. Pretty good, predictable and fun.

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Saturday, 14 February 2009 16:48 (seventeen years ago)

I haven't read one of her books since I started this thread, I think? I enjoyed reading about them, but can't remember much about them right now. I might pick a couple up & see if I still like them.

― Pashmina, Saturday, 14 February 2009 16:54 (seventeen years ago)

its fun reading pm and body of evidence but i know the mold inside out. if you can get past that, you realize she is one of the best in this genre which is essentially throwaway popcorn fodder.

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Saturday, 14 February 2009 20:39 (seventeen years ago)

I read the first chapters of Postmortem recently, but her writing is so bad I probably won't make it through. Are the later books better written? Say, not opening with a paragraph on the weather, nor devoting a page to the appearance of every character?

― abanana, Sunday, 15 February 2009 22:25 (seventeen years ago)

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Patricia Cornwell & "Kay Scarpetta" - C/D?