Depraved Heart: The gripping no. 1 bestselling crime thriller series (The Scarpetta Series Book 23)

Its an awesome read..Patricia Cornwell does it again..

3.5I started with the first book (Postmortem) in Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series way back in 1990 when forensic mysteries were becoming popular. Her latest release, Depraved Heart, is the 23rd entry in this series.Now, I must admit, I just haven't enjoyed the last few books - they seemed mired in extraneous detail and became repetitive. But I was willing to give this latest a go. And up front, I want to say, I did enjoy Depraved Heart.Scarpetta and Marino are at the scene of what appears to be the accidental death of a wealthy young woman when a video link appears and starts playing on Kay's phone. Although her policy is to never interrupt a scene investigation with personal calls, she is powerless to stop watching. The video is a twenty year old video of her niece Lucy - and her then lover Carrie Grethem. Grethem was thought to be dead, but surfaced in the last book and attempted to kill Kay. It looks like she's back and still determined to wreak havoc with Kay and her family."The FBI placed the niece I raised like a daughter into a psychopathic monster's care, and that decision changed the course of our lives. It has changed absolutely everything."Depraved Heart picks up two months after the abrupt ending of the last book, Flesh and Blood. Readers who have kept up with the Scarpetta books will have a better understanding of this perpetrator and plotting.One key element of Depraved Heart is the concept of 'data fiction'. "It's what can happen if we're so reliant on technology that we become completely dependent on things we can't see. Therefore we can no longer judge for ourselves what's true, what's false, what's accurate, what isn't. In other words if reality is defined by software that does all the work for us, then what if this software lies? What if everything we believe isn't true but is a facade, a mirage?" I was fascinated - and somewhat disturbed - with this notion. (I thought of how much time I spend online...) Are the videos (yes there's more than one) true? Or false? Is Benton lying to her? Who and what can she believe and trust? The reader sees the entire book unfold through Scarpetta's eyes and thoughts.Marino is a perennial favourite of mine and this time Scarpetta seems to be a little kinder towards him. For the life of me, I have no idea why she stays with Benton. Lucy just annoys me, but I think there's more of a forthcoming story with her new partner Janet.The book takes place during a twenty four hour period. The book moves along quickly as Kay and Marino attempt to deal with both their latest case - and the apparent danger to Lucy. The tension is palpable as everyone's actions and motives are called into question. I was easily caught up in the story and possibilities. Cornwell does weave an intricate plot, one I appreciated. (But one glaring omission by investigators, that is mentioned and is part of the final whodunit, will be caught by sharp eyed readers.)The title? "Legal definition of Depraved Heart - 'Void of social duty and fatally bent on mischief.' Mayes V. People, Illinois Supreme Court. 1883."The ending leaves the door open for a continued story in this vein. Although I quite enjoyed this latest entry more than the last few, a wee bit of me thinks it's time to end this ongoing storyline and give readers a fresh mystery and investigation next time 'round.

Very good thriller.

I have not enjoyed last three Patricia Cornwell books. She used to be one of my favourite thriller writers but she has definitely lost her way. Wish I'd read the reviews on this before I bought it. Last chance saloon, will not be buying any more of her books until I read she has significantly improved.I only read 52 pages and was bored out of my mind. Wordy, self indulgent twaddle. Enough of the Carrie/Lucy story lines. Lets get back to what she used to do well, fast paced murder investigations full of fascinating forensic detail. I find I don't like any of the characters anymore, all too morose.

Its not very often that I give up on a book but when I do, its usually when a popular author has just overdone a franchise. It happened for me with Kathy Reichs and Tempe Brennan, and its happened here with Cornwell and Scarpetta. This story really is one too many and, after being totally bored for several hours of reading, I gave up at the 30% mark.Please Patricia, accept that this character has run its course and find another. Or just retire and enjoy what I'm sure are very considerable rewards earned from Scarpetta over the years.

The early books were intelligent and exciting. But the stories became increasingly unbelievable and outlandish.She spent several books establishing that Benton was dead, then he reappeared like Bobby Ewing in a shower. I stopped reading the books, then read one recently when it appeared that she had returned to form. So when this came up at 99p I bought it. What a mistake. A tedious book, where her niece Lucy ( always an unbelievable character) and her partner become involved in a double, triple cross with the FBI. This is a result of a supposedly dead character coming back from the dead (now where I have I read that storyline before?) At some point there is a murder, but it gets lost in the absurd plot. My best advice is Do not waste your time and money on this book.

I've read, & often re-read, all of the Scarpetta Series & it's increasingly disappointing that with each progressive book any death worthy of Scarpetta's time & narrative is hard to find scattered in between pages & pages about herself, Lucy & Lucy's narcissistic yet mundane life (for a character kitted out as a novice femme 007), Benton - the lover come husband resurrected from death & not even discretely seems boring, & bored, merely covertly watching everyone in the family with distain or distaste, then Marino, the painfully inept rapist 'cop' who doesn't have a bone (excuse the pun) of respect, morality, empathy or even sympathy & rides on his bipolar & fading character somewhere on the periphery mainly ~ oh, and then an assortment of Lucy's psychotic lesbian throwaways, one or two dogs for a barely heard "ahh" or "aww" factor, far too many recurring Kay Scarpetta nemesis (are we even sure Scarpetta IS a Forensic Pathologist anymore?) who do nothing but make the heroine out to be fair game for target practice when she should be predominantly in the morgue & investigating victims of death (very much how it all started so well) instead of dodging death, being insufferably moralising, providing us with grocery lists, wine recommendations & recipes!Please can we just go back to the build-up of being a tad squeamish reading a great piece of fiction made more realistic with each paragraph & chapter of an account of recovering bodies (the remains of suspicious deaths), the questions raised as to who, when, why, how etc - all factors pondered during autopsy, the forensic scene, the suspects & so many of the forensic sciences that are not for the faint hearted yet fascinate a growing audience.Scarpetta should have remained the pathologist. Whenever she described the smell of death within the morgue, the putting on of the white lab coat we mostly all anticipated the grisly details & the culmination of what it all eventually led to. We knew Scarpetta was 'getting down to business'. For me this book really showed how irrelevant the dead are now & how preposterous it is to keep labouring over niece Lucy's illegal arsenal & high IQ, really?? It's hinted the dead woman was high on social ranking, that her Mother was going to bring the echelons of hell down on Scarpetta & Co - yet all that anticipated angst dissipated in favour of a torrential storm of the rain & wind variety! Huh? Irrelevant! Furious Mother of the deceased? Compulsive reading! Apparently not.Stop chasing ghosts of the likes of Walter Sickert being Jack the Ripper - that was compelling reading some years ago now by another writer & it gets boring when each theory is just repeated almost word for word by a writer further down the line.Personally I'm sorry to say I also have no use for a cookery book written by a fictional character! I don't like the egotistic boasts of pasta for breakfast, brunch, lunch & dinner but it's one of Scarpetta's facets & so tolerated but usually only skimmed through.Bring back the Kay Scarpetta that had us engrossed in past books. Please? I expect to hear about the permanent limp thanks to yet another assassination attempt but don't make it just another distraction that is diluting Scarpetta & her gritty investigations of bygone days. Put her back to work again or please just kill her off for good - maybe food poisoning. Or by Lucy with her penknife maybe.

I read all the Dr Scarpetta's series back to back (but I won't buy the last one, Chaos, not yet, at £9.24, what is going on here?). Honestly, I am getting dissatisfied as the series grows. I find myself skipping too many pages of tedious descriptions and technical definitions. Maybe the only thrill would be to kill the series now. Scarpetta is getting on my nerves. I used to like her until Port Mortuary but she is getting increasing too judgmental, too self absorbed and thinks she knows better and frankly, she has lost her sparkle. I don't like Benton either, nowadays he feels like a wet sock but a manipulative creep. My favourites were Lucy and Marino. But even Lucy has become extremely unlikeable. A total narcissist.Though there was one line in the book that redeemed Kay Scarpetta's series in my eyes. It is when she says she realised she forgot how Marino was one of the best investigators. Yes, he is. Marino surely has issues but Scarpetta never really confronted him and can only talk about them behind his back. Yet, I think Marino is a brilliant character. It is just a shame he has been reduced to a stereotype foul mouthed, aging and balding, bumbling and stupid, bully cop. Marino has hidden depths that could have been exploited.But this book was better than the last 3. At least, a bit of excitement from time to time. Though it seems to me it was again too far fetched. Maybe if I can get the next one from the Library, I will read it but I am not going to spend more money on this series. I wonder which crime/thriller writer will replace Patricia Cornwell. After all, I have been immersed in the stories for the last five months, I read nothing else...I feel sad but I have had it with Scarpetta.