From Potter's Field

Another great book from Madame Medical Investigator Author Patricia Cornwell. Always well-researched, this time the book causes Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Marino and of course, FBI Agent Benton Wesley to investigate the death of a frozen naked woman propped openly in Central Park. Their path leads them to the parents of a psychotic serial killer, one of whom can see nothing wrong about her son and the other parent who would only see his if pointing a shotgun at the son's face. The woman's identity is a shock, as is Scarpetta's handiness with a side-arm. A must-read!

Ugh. Worst series ever. I gave Kay Scarpetta a heroic try, dragging myself through 6 awful books waiting for things to get better, but they never did. At least the boring Temple Gault (horrendous name by the way) is over and done with. I have so many gripes about this series it's hard to know where to begin.

First off, isn't she the medical examiner? Shouldn't she be doing more corpse examining? Why is she always running off somewhere to go investigate? I understand the consultant forensic pathologist role for the FBI, but she doesn't just lend her knowledge about the body she has to try to be a profiler and an investigator too. I don't know why the FBI has Benton or Marino when they could just keep Scarpetta full time.

Second, the characters suck. There is not one likeable person in this whole series. NOT ONE.
-Kay Scarpetta, rages and whines all day long about everything under the sun. Is snooty and moody, bitches about everything and puts herself in the dumbest situations I have ever read a main character doing. It is unbelievable to me that a medical examiner would have to kill so many people within their career much less in 6 years.
-Lucy, the niece. Totally gets her moodiness & bitchiness from her aunt. Her smart ass attitude and Kay's bragging about her genius (which only works for computers because in commonsense that girl is a dud - also something she inherited from her aunt) is tiresome. And of course, she must be a lesbian because her mother is an asshole. eye roll
-Marino, grumpy, overweight, overprotective and unattractive. ‘Nuff said.
-Wesley Benton, emotionless adulterer who not only cheats on his wife (who is friends with Kay also) but cheats on his wife with his dead best friend's lover.

Thirdly (is that a word?), the stories all get so boring and long winded. There's so much talking about what they're going to do that when it finally happens it takes about 5 paragraphs and the whole thing is over. The books end so abruptly and begin the same way I always have to double check that I didn't miss a book in the series.

All in all I am done with this series for awhile, if not forever. I would much rather read Kathy Reichs. At least some of her characters are decent human beings.