Depraved Heart by Patricia Cornwell

Depraved Heart by Patricia Cornwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 480

Publisher - William Morrow

Source - Amazon

Blurb from Goodreads

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece Lucy. But how can it be? It’s clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago.

As Scarpetta watches she begins to learn frightening secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That film clip and then others sent soon after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her confused, worried, and not knowing where to turn. She doesn’t know whom she can tell – not her FBI husband Benton Wesley or her investigative partner Pete Marino. Not even Lucy.

In this new novel, Cornwell launches these unforgettable characters on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the mysterious death of a Hollywood mogul’s daughter, aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and videos from the past that threaten to destroy Scarpetta’s entire world and everyone she loves. The diabolical presence behind what unfolds seems obvious - but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that’s the message they send when they raid Lucy’s estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life.




My Review

This is book 23 of the Kay Scarpetta series, I haven't read them all nor in order, I generally pick them up as I go. Kay is still struggling with recovery from a previous assault/injury which impacts upon her physical and dare I say mental state? Called out to a dead body, daughter of a famous star the team are making sure it has been an accident and no foul play. Scarpetta gets sent a link to a video to her mobile phone whilst at the scene and views it. Is Kays past coming back, is a killer tormenting her? Can she concentrate on the job at hand and why are the FBI at her niece Lucy's home searching and ripping it apart?

Well it has been ages since I read Cornwell and as I said I tend to just read the books as I find them so the timeline jumps a fair bit. So much has transpired and Kay seems so preoccupied with an encounter with a serial killer and the attack on her life. Lucy is under investigation by the FBI and as usual has an attitude about it. The book is drenched in a negative feel and tone, there is a whole long of throwbacks and Kay internal thoughts and kickbacks to things that have transpired. Her relationship with Lucy, Benton, Mario all the problems and issues or the past. A lot seemed like re telling of previous books which for me isn't an issue because I have been out of the loop. I think if you have been reading the previous books you would feel a bit short changed as there wasn't a huge focus on the actual current case.

3/5 for me this time, I do like the writing of this author and as I hadn't read the last few books so it was nice to catch up. I know it has irritated fans because there hasn't been a lot of input or investigation to the actual case at hand. More raking over old ground and lots of focus on a previous killer in another book (or possible books). I would read more by this author as I do like her but it would be nice to see Scarpetta go back to who she was in the earlier books and more in depth focus on the investigation at hand rather than internal thoughts and throwbacks.

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