POINT OF ORIGIN by Patricia Cornwell - SIGNED FIRST EDITION BOOK
See all titles by Patricia Cornwell.
Cornwell is back, and in a big way! Kay Scarpetta has never been so
sharp and on top of things, and murder has never been more foul.
Patricia Cornwell returns to familiar ground with another Kay Scarpetta
novel, sure to delight fans of her previous novels as well as to draw
in a whole slew of new readers. This is top-notch blockbuster fiction,
wrapped up with strong character development and superb suspense. A
treat for readers, Cornwell's fiction manages to combine the best of
both the thriller and mystery genres, and here, with Point of Origin
she rockets into the stratosphere with her best work yet.
Kay
Scarpetta, to those unfamiliar with Cornwell's most complex and
intriguing character, is the Chief Medical Examiner for the state of
Virginia. Operating out of Richmond, Scarpetta receives an extremely
threatening letter from a disturbed woman named Carrie Grethen. Readers
familiar with Scarpetta's previous dealings in Cornwell novels will
recognize Carrie from The Body Farm. Carrie Grethen is currently in a
psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. In her letter, she
indicates that both Kay Scarpetta and possibly her niece Lucy are
somehow bound up in one of Carrie's twisted schemes.
To recap for
Scarpetta newcomers, Lucy was Carrie's lover before Carrie's true
psychopathic nature reared its ugly head. Kay ended up killing Carrie's
partner-in-crime, Temple Gault, and not a night goes by that she
doesn't relive that moment. Carrie may be incarcerated, but she has
managed to touch Scarpetta's life in a creepy way, and Carrie's
threatening letter only adds to her distress,arriving right before Kay
and her lover Benton Wesley are due to go off for their first vacation
together in more than a year. Benton knows it spells trouble, but Kay
ignores the implication of the letter.
Just before she's about
to take off with Wesley to Hilton Head, Kay is called in on an
emergency case. Up north, in Warrenton, Virginia, a horse farm has just
burned to the ground. Racehorses worth millions died in the blaze, and
the media mogul Kenneth Sparke also may have perished in the fire. But
when Kay arrives, joined by Lucy, there is more at the scene of the
crime than dead animals. Someone was burned, fully clothed, in the
shower of the rich man's house. A young woman, glass seared into her
flesh, is the only human corpse recovered.
But as the story
progresses, other surprises are in store for Kay. Kenneth Sparke is
alive and well, apparently having no knowledge of why anyone would
destroy his ranch, although he suspects it was a racially motivated
attack. After the arson investigation is under way, Kay hears the news
that Carrie has escaped from the psychiatric hospital. Kay's first
concern is for her lover. She reaches Wesley by phone on Hilton Head
Island, worried that Carrie will try to hunt him down there because of
his involvement in bringing her to justice. As the plot twists tighter
and tighter, terrifying and shattering secrets are revealed, and Kay
finds herself on the trail of a truly nightmarish psychopathic killer.
Patricia Cornwell is at the top of her form with Point of Origin. The
suspense is high wire, a taut, haunting story of family, love, and
murder. No one does it better than Cornwell in the thrills department,
and Kay Scarpetta proves, once again, to be the smartest, classiest
woman in fiction. Patricia Cornwell has another hit on her hands.
