Patricia Cornwell delivers the newest engrossing thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.
Depraved Heart: “Void of social duty and fatally bent on mischief.”
—Mayes v. People, 806 III. 306 (1883)
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.
In the latest novel in her bestselling series featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell will captivate readers with the shocking twists, high-wire tension, and cutting-edge forensic detail that she is famous for, proving yet again why she’s the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer.
How Many Light Bulbs… There are over twenty titles in the Kay Scarpetta series, and I have not read them all. Still, I was able to catch up pretty easily with the story in the pages of Depraved Heart. I have not quite finished the book as of this review, but time is a factor and I think I have a good enough grasp on the tale to tell you that this is another great title in the series.
An okay way to pass the time I hadn’t read a Cornwell book for at least ten years and couldn’t recall why. This book reminded me pretty quickly.
BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR DR. KAY SCARPETTA! The twenty-third instalment in the gritty Dr. Kay Scarpetta series, Depraved Heart by Patricia Cornwell, is decidedly one of the best in the series, and I’m sure most fans of the series and its author will love this suspense-filled and action-packed masterfully constructed work. In all fairness, the story will work best for those who have read the previous books in the series but there’s also much excitement for those who come in late too.