RED MIST by Patricia Cornwell

Years ago when I changed from reading only true crime to include other genres such as crime fiction, Patricia Cornwell quickly became a favorite author.

Her books were filled with details of the murders, as well as the technical aspects of their resolutions. They were realistic, yet you knew good would triumph over evil in the end. They were chilling and adrenaline-packed, holding my attention from the opening paragraph till the last sentence.

As I began listening to RED MIST, her current release, it didn’t seem to fit into this category. While it was suspenseful, it was more personal-related than murder-driven.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta has traveled to Savannah to visit an inmate in the Georgia Prison for Women. The inmate is a convicted sex offender and the mother of a vicious and diabolically brilliant killer. The inmate is the one who sexually abused Scarpetta’s former deputy chief Jack Fielding when he was just a boy at summer camp. From their union a child was born. That child, Dawn Kincaid, six months earlier killed her own father (Jack) and attempted to kill Scarpetta. She is in prison, but the fallout is far from over.

From her meeting with the inmate, Scarpetta is lead to a secret meeting with Jamie Berger, a former New York prosecutor and former lover of Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy. There she also discovers her investigator, Marino, is working with Berger. Feeling betrayed, Scarpetta is pulled into helping Berger with a case involving a young woman set to be executed for killing a Savannah family nine years earlier.

Then a number of people related to the case begin to die seemingly of natural causes. This drives Scarpetta to dig deeper into the earlier deaths to find a connection. What she finds is more terrifying than she had imagined and could have an international impact.

The deeper into the story I got, the more the initial personal issues tied in with the now adrenaline-driven, heart-pounding plotline. While I didn’t enjoy the pity-party bouts Scarpetta has in the beginning of the story, it does lead to her being more driven as the plot goes on.

RED MIST may start off a bit slow for a Scarpetta book, but the pace picks up for a breathless ride at the end. The action comes fast and furious near the end as you try to put the pieces together.

Narrator Kate Burton does an excellent job bringing the characters to life. She conveys the emotions of each character giving them depth. Her cadence gives each character their own unique voice.

In the end author Patricia Cornwell with her forensic expertise did what she always does, caused me to consider the vast possibilities of terror and destruction humans are capable of. 

 
Red Mist by Patricia Cornwell, Read by Kate Burton, Penguin Audio, @2011, ISBN: 978-1611760361, Unabridged, 11 Discs, Listening Time Approximately 13 Hours 

FTC Full Disclosure - This audio book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

Do you have series that you follow no matter what? Thanks so much for stopping by. Sorry that I’ve been absent from blogdom this week, hope to be back visiting with you soon.