SOUTHERN CROSS by Patricia Cornwell - SIGNED FIRST EDITION BOOK
See all titles by Patricia Cornwell.
Cornwell resurrects Police Chief Judy Hammer; Hammer's right-hand
woman, Deputy Chief Virginia West; and West's much younger love
interest, newspaper reporter turned police officer Andy Brazil. Only
this time the trio has hauled their crime-fighting expertise and their
weighty emotional baggage to a new location: Richmond, Virginia.
Still coming to terms with the death of her husband, Seth, and
frustrated by her experiences with the Charlotte PD, Hammer has made a
proposal to the National Institute of Justice to serve as a consultant
to troubled police departments throughout the South. When she is hired
by the city council to act as interim chief for a year to the
much-beleaguered Richmond PD, she hauls West and Brazil along for the
ride. Once there, they are greeted with as much enthusiasm as the
second coming of the Civil War. But Hammer is nothing if not
determined, and she makes a valiant effort to rally her force together
with pep talks, motivational strategies, and COMSTAT -- a new
computerized technology borrowed from the NYPD that monitors both
crimes and the cops accountable for handling them.
Hammer's plans begin to unravel when she and West overhear part of a
cell phone conversation between two men named Bubba and Smudge, who
seem to be plotting a racially motivated, cold-blooded murder. Before
Hammer has a chance to look into the ominous phone call, a number of
other incidents focus her attention elsewhere. First, a hacker breaks
into the COMSTAT system and renders it inoperable, leaving a
fish-covered grid map of Richmond on the screen. Next, the city's
populace grows restless over a string of increasingly daring ATM
robberies, the most recent of which involves the execution-style murder
of an innocent old woman. The final straw comes when a very talented
graffiti artist sneaks into Hollywood Cemetery -- the much revered
burial ground for Richmond's most famous and infamous -- and paints a
statue of Civil War hero Jefferson Davis to look like a black
basketball player. When the local press gets wind of what's going on,
the pressure on Hammer and her colleagues increases.
As Hammer struggles to get both Richmond and her uncooperative police
force under control, Brazil and West struggle with one another and the
apparent death of their burgeoning love affair. Brazil's attention is
diverted by the travails of 14-year-old Weed Gardener, a young man with
a dark secret and an exceptional talent. Reeling from the tragic death
of his beloved older brother and his mother's subsequent emotional
withdrawal, Weed makes the tragic mistake of getting involved with a
teenage sociopath named Smoke, the leader of a small but deadly gang
known as the Pikes and the source of much of Hammer's troubles. As
Smoke's thirst for mayhem and murder grows, it sets him on a collision
course with Hammer and her crew, who find themselves in a race with
death as they try to stop Smoke from committing mass murder.
Rounding out the cast of characters and adding to the fun by further
hampering Hammer's every effort is a hapless redneck named Butner Fluck
IV, or Bubba to his friends. Growing up with the name But Fluck has
made Bubba overly sensitive, and when combined with his flair for being
in the wrong place at the wrong time, Bubba's travails bring high
hilarity to the story.
Cornwell's liberal use of real landmarks and her intricate knowledge of
Richmond's eclectic and often eccentric residents offers a comical and,
at times, scathingly satirical look at a city where some still believe
the War of Northern Aggression never ended. Irreverence and fear walk
hand-in-hand through the pages, toying with the reader's emotions in a
delicious mix. There's even a little treat for sharp-eyed, die-hard
Scarpetta fans.