Discount Price: $7.99
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: unknown
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780425175408
ISBN number: 0425175405
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: 2000-08
Publishing house: Berkley
Release Date: August 01, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 38611
Studio: Berkley
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Another harrowing case for Chief Medical Examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta. Following the post moretm of a stowaway which reveals neither cause of death nor identity, Dr Kay Scarpetta travels to Paris in search of information. In Paris she is given a secret mission, a mission which could ruin her career.
Amazon.com Review:
The postmortem is in--Black Notice, the 10th in Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series, is a gore-splattered, intensely exciting read. As winter grips Richmond, Virginia, an air of somberness pervades chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta's world. Her beloved niece Lucy is involved in a dangerous undercover police operation in Miami, and auntie fears for her life. A tyrannical new deputy chief, Diane Bray, wants to get Kay's department under her jurisdiction. Meanwhile, back at the office, someone has tinkered with the e-mail system, stealing Kay's identity, and sending off slanderous and hurtful messages. Emotionally battered, Scarpetta fears she is going insane. Or, could it be that someone is deliberately sowing this harvest of sorrow?
Despite her personal problems, Scarpetta is still the reigning diva at the department of death. She is sent to investigate the putrefied remains of a man found inside a container ship, 'eyes bulged froglike, and the scalp and beard were sloughing off with the outer layer of darkening skin.' Kay finds strange, animal-like hairs on the man's clothing--the same hairs that she discovers on a murdered store clerk a few days later. In actuality, the bizarre killings extend well beyond Virginia; whoever killed the Richmond victims also butchered people in France. Kay and police captain Pete Marino are whisked off to Paris where they must collect top-secret information from a Paris morgue, and avoid becoming victims themselves.
This macabre tome is the stuff that classic Scarpetta tales are made of: creepy but compulsive autopsy scenes, plentiful plot twists, and the compelling, if slightly more vulnerable chief medical examiner herself. --Naomi Gesinger
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
One of the few books that I didn't care if I finished it or not. It is one of the Scarpetta series books and guess from the reviews that I read that the Scarpetta series is much like the Alex Cross series by James Patterson. The very first few books are outstanding and then the rest are not worth buying and reading, a waste of time and money.
I've never read a book so full of angry, bitter characters. I had no compassion or concern for any of the characters and didn't care if they lived or died. Cornwell seemed to throw in new characters and subplots without them leading anywhere (page fillers, perhaps?) Interpol requests Scarpetta and her detective partner Pete Marino, who is on suspension, to fly to France. Why? What was the purpose of Marino going? He didn't do anything except open his foul mouth and show how stupid he was. Many times I wanted to scream that people do not act this way. There is a lot of unnecessary detail that makes you want keep turning pages to hopefully get to a part that makes sense. Then finally there is an abrupt ending immediately after the one page climax.
If you don't care about any suspense and a plot that doesn't work but instead you savor words and phrases that are rich with details and descriptions, then this might be the book for you.
Rated by buyers 
-
Scarpetta does not find answers to questions she has on the autopsy she has preformed, no name and no cause of death. Scarpetta does have her personal effects and a strange tattoo that stirs her interest. This case takes her to Europe. In her pursuit for answer she puts herself and others in danger. You fly through the story as she flies all over the world. This is one of her best plots. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and Natchez Above The River"
Rated by buyers 
-
Having worked with pathologists and ME's in my life. I find them interesting people. I also like to read fiction starring their profession, regardless as to how far out from reality they may be. It's fiction, right?
But this offering from Cornwell isn't her best work. The whole book felt like a rehash of old sections of previous work. Was it worth the read? I suppose. I read most of it on a plane when my expectations were pretty low when it came to entertainment so it was fine for me. But the murderer wasn't very compelling and the regualr characters from the series seemed warmed over and predictable.
I like Cornwell's work, but this felt more mailed in than well-thought. Don't run out to get this one, but if you find it in the used paperback bin, it's worth picking up for a rainy day.
Rated by buyers 
-
I just don't get all of the negative reviews here. I guess it is a good thing I don't read them first. I've been reading the Kay Scarpetta series in order, and find this book in some ways better than the previous ones. It is best if you have read Point of Origin first, and ideally all of the other books in the series. This book is pivotal in the character development of Kay I believe. She is not the strong, clear thinking superwoman that she has been in the previous books. The woman is grieving, and fighting it all of the way. It has been a year since Benton's death, or should I say his massacre, and the way she has acted and feels is all too familiar for those who have lost someone so close to them, especially if you have regrets about the time you spent with them.
Tied into all of this is a dead body found in a shipping container on a cargo ship that is unidentified and way into the decomposition process. The details are graphic. Marino and Lucy are also dealing with Benton's death in their own ways, and a central ingredient to that grief process is anger and what people do with that emotion.
Maybe people don't like this book because Kay has changed. I like it for that reason. People change and evolve. I don't like the same old formula repeated over and over again in a series book. In Cornwell's series, her characters are flawed and troubled, nobody is perfect...kind of like this human condition we live in.
Rated by buyers -
A write must learn to end a series if they cannot keep up with strong and original plots. As a former admirer of Ms Cornwell, I am very disappointed in this book. The plot is so bizarre that it is difficult to take it seriously. There are too many references to a previous story-line (Benton) that is tiresome for those of us who have not read the Scarpetta series in chronological order, assuming that it was a recap of a previous book. The characters' flaws are so exaggerated that one wonders how sophisticated Scarpetta can even put up with a klutz like Marino, and why? Too many weird scenarios to count! Don't bother with this unless you are a die-hard fan of Scarpetta!
Find other books like this one:
