Customer Reviews

The Body Farm (Scarpetta)

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I was going on the road for a six hour round trip and in search of the 2nd installment from Stephen King's Dark Tower series on audio book from my local library. I had just finished Patricia Cornwell's Post Mortem in paper back and was starting to become a fast friend of Dr Kay Scarpetta. So when I couldn't get Stephen King, I tried The Body Farm audio book and .... WOW I was hooked. The narrator's voice was very compelling...the story was riveting...and I found myself driving around the block in my car to finish a chapter. I am now trying to catch up with the other Patricia Cornwell books...and I will list this one at the top of my recommended reading list. For me, who frequents the library so that I won't go broke buying the two to three books I read a week.. I WILL buy this book for my personal collection. Patricia Cornwell has a great style, great details, characters that you will love to read about, and careful details of the people and places in the geographical areas she writes about. I am from Tennessee..and the Southern references ring true to me.

I've read many of Patricia Cornwell's novels and enjoyed them all. It's true that I pegged the killer in this one early on, but it was still an enjoyable read. What I like about these novels, unlike Dean Koontz's, is that we have the same protagonist and therefore can easily identify with her. Unlike other reviewers whose comments are printed here, I do want to know about the personal lives of Lucy, Marino, Benton, etc. This is part of Kay's world. If you want just the facts, watch Dragnet. And if you're going to dis Ms. Cornwell, at least spell her name right!!

The Body Farm is my first Patricia Cornwell read. It was recomended to me by a person who works in a bookstore. He said it was not absolutely necessary to read them "In order". (Note Postmortem is the first in the "series") Our antagonist is Dr. Kay Scarpetta, who is the chief Medical examiner for Virginia. She is also a lawyer and a consultant for the FBI. This story, that centers around the murder of a young girl leads us in many directions, and gives us the chance to follow many leads. The book is littered with all sorts of fascinating behind the scenes forensic activity. So if your into that sort of thing, such as analyzing photos, evidence samples, and the study of the time of death you'll enjoy a lot of the detail that goes into the development of the investigation. This book also enables to experience many of Dr. Scarpetta's relationships. We are able to see her interact with her niece Lucy, an FBI "intern", Benton Wesley a FBI collegue and romantic interest, and Pete Marino a detective from Virginia. These are all charcters that appear to be present in many of her stories. With out giving too much a way, the story uunfolds rather similarly to an onion, the way you would peel back layer upon layer to discover well in this case "who done it". The story does not drag at all, even with all the technical mumbo jumbo which was even easy for a lay-man to understand, and is filled with lot's of "page turning" suspense. Let me say, I enjoyed it so much so that I immediately picked up "Unnatural Exposure" and plowed through that one too.

As an alum of the same college that Cornwell attended, I have been interested in her books and have found them entertaining and well written. The Body Farm, however, was a disappointment! I immediately figured out who the murderer was, and I feel that Cornwell left a lot of lose ends. She rushed to the ending of the story without giving her reader follow-up on Marino, Gault, Carrie Grethan, and her relationship with Wesley. Perhaps she is trying to peak our interest for her next Scarpetta novel, but she left out too much. I respect the research that Cornwell puts into her novels, but she entitled this book The Body Farm while only giving the Body Farm in Tennessee marginal emphasis. The evidence that Scarpetta brings away from there (i.e. the quarter marking) is certainly not the key piece of evidence in her case against the actual murderer. Cornwell had ideas for a good plot, but she never pulled it all together to make this a fascinating murder mystery.

Oh, one more thought, does Scarpetta have any faults at all, besides her screwed up family and relationships with men? She eats like a bird, cooks magnificently, jogs every day no matter how much sleep she has gotten (and she doesn't need much), and has every degree in the book. I might keep reading these Scarpetta novels, but, Patricia, make her a little more human!! Let her indulge in a big piece of chocolate cake or greasy french fries every now and then!

I continue to wonder why this is the only Scarpetta book not available on Kindle in the USA. I assume it is the publisher. Someone at Amazon please pass this request to the publisher.

I have read this book but would like to read it again on my Kindle. Why is it the only one of the Scarpetta books that is not available on Kindle in the USA? I gave it five stars because in my opinion that is what it deserves. Patricia Cornwell cannot write a bad book. Amazon take note: Make this availabe for Kindle in the USA, PLEASE!

For reasons unknown to even myself, I've been reading this series completely out of order. This is the fifth book in the series of fifteen (to date), and the one with the most forensics out of the ones that I have read.

Postmortem(1990)
Body of Evidence (1991)
All That Remains (1992)
Cruel and Unusual (1993)
The Body Farm (1994)
From Potter's Field (1995)
Cause of Death (1996)
Unnatural Exposure (1996)
Point of Origin (1998)
Black Notice (1999)
The Last Precinct (2000)
Blow Fly (2003)
Trace (2004)
Predator (2005)
Book of the Dead (2007)

The main story is about the murder of an eleven year old girl in North Carolina, where the methods used and evidence found are similar to murders committed by a known serial killer. To complicate matters, the agent investigating the matter is discovered dead under strange and unusual circumstances and some incriminating evidence is found in his home.

In a sub-plot, Scarpetta's niece Lucy is under investigation for a possible security breach, and a family crisis follows soon after. Last, and certainly least, romance is in bloom for all the main characters, not always with the desired results.

If you ignore the sub-plots, affairs and unlikely romantic scenarios, the rest of the book gets down to the business of finding the girl's killer, but it takes an experiment at the Body Farm to come to the chilling conclusion.

This would have been a much better read with the excising of about one hundred extraneous pages of padding, but as it is, it's merely an okay forensic thriller.

Rated: 3.5 stars


Amanda Richards, November 16, 2007

The Body Farm is another excellent book from the Kay Scarpetta series. This time the majority of the novel is set in the Mountains of North Carolina, where a young girl named Emily Steiner has disappeared and was found murdered. It seems Temple Gault is the perpetrator of this foul deed. However, as the story unfolds and more bodies are found, other suspects emerge. Also, Lucy, Kay Scarpetta's niece, now a Senior at UVA and an intern at the FBI facility in Quantico, runs into quite a bit of trouble with the law. On top of the thrilling nature of the story, Patricia Cornwell also complicates the personal lives of our protagonists Scarpetta and Marino. If you like Scarpetta, don' miss this one. If you haven't read any of the books in the series, then start with cruel an unusual, because it leads into this one.

Cornwell didn't keep you guessing long in this one. After you knew the murderer it took all of the suspense away. This is not one of Cornwall's best stories. What about Marino and some of the others? Lucy has her problems and Scarpetta must be the good Aunt. I was disappointed in "The Body Farm." By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"

Nothing unique or compelling here! No surprises, intrigue, thrills, spills or chills! Just a good solid police procedural that focuses on forensic investigation and is predictably interesting - no ... let's make that gripping - informative reading coupled with great dialogue and compelling in depth character building in an ongoing series. This is Kay Scarpetta's fifth appearance in the literary world as the consulting forensic pathologist for FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and the series continues to move triumphantly from one success to another.

This particular novel deals with the disturbing murder of 11 year old Emily Steiner. The title of the novel derives from the most interesting part of the entire novel - the details of the research into the scientific minutiae of a body's decay after death. This research is carried out at the University of Tennessee's Decay Research facility, known colloquially as the Body Farm. It is absolutely fascinating and would lead one to wonder how it is possible in this day and age that a criminal actually gets away with anything!

Part of the appeal of Cornwell's writing is that she so effortlessly weaves Scarpetta's professional life and the details of the case at hand into the complex, uncomfortably difficult story of her personal life and the development of the characters around her. Pete Marino, her friend, long-time colleague and undoubtedly frustrated admirer with an unrequited fondness for Scarpetta, wallows in self-pity and begins to unravel as he finds himself in a most unprofessional relationship with one of the suspects in the Steiner murder. Lucy, Scarpetta's niece, is a computer whiz working on an internship at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia. She is charged with violating security and it is clear she is headed nowhere in life until she clears her name professionally and resolves substance abuse issues. Scarpetta herself wrestles with the difficulties of an affair with a married colleague.

Not a lightweight subject, to be sure, but thoroughly enjoyable light reading that will guarantee a break from the workaday world. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

"Body Farm" is definitely not one of Cornwell's best. I liked the story line, but could do w/o the "romance" & her obnoxious niece Lucy. Also, I was able to figure out "who done it" way to easily.

I think this bk. had good possibilities, however it just seemed to fizzle.