At Risk by Patricia Cornwell
In case you hadn’t guessed, I have a complete bookshelf at home of books that I buy for myself intending to read them someday. However reviewing duties and work related reading seem to get in the way of the stuff I want to read for myself. But recently I promised myself that for every 10 books I read for review or for work, one book will come off that shelf for reading. Otherwise, how can I keep buying more?
The first book off the shelf was one that had been waiting for several months, a surprisingly short Patricia Cornwell. This one is not from her famous Kaye Scarpetta series, and the marketing gurus seem to disagree whether it is a one off or the start of a new series. Certainly the characters can comfortably return, you discovered virtually nothing of their personal story in this short book. There is just a hint of more depth, but in 175 pages, there isn’t time to get to know her new investigators.
Cornwell sticks with her strengths, forensic investigation combined with a willingness to think outside the box allows the two detectives revisiting a cold case to solve it. There are a few red herrings and the old incompetent detective, now mercifully dead, and that is only to be expected.
Too much of the plot and the book will be spoiled. Everyone will have their own opinion of this book, just like all the rest Cornwell has written since Postmortem. I’ll just say that I suspect Patricia had some bills that needed paying, and quickly. Or her publisher was pushing her to complete a project for which there had been a healthy advance paid. That can be the only explanation for the quickest wrapping up of a mystery I have ever read in my life.
