Cruel and Unusual [Paperback]

Patricia Cornwell (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Warner Books; paperback / softback edition (1993)
• ISBN-10: 0751501689
• ISBN-13: 978-0751501681
• ASIN: B000S959E0
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,866,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not as Gruesome as the Last One., September 29, 2003

By 

Vesta Irene (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cruel & Unusual (Kay Scarpetta Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book opens with the execution of rapist/murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell and the following autopsy. Not long after murder victims start showing up around Richmond that look like they were committed by Waddell. How can that be? He's dead. Then his prints show up at a crime scene and to top it off, Kay's assistant in murdered and the press blames Kay.

As usual PC carries over characters from her previous novels that we've come to know. Any second we expect cop buddy Pete Marino to drop dead from his excesses and niece Lucy is still annoying (to me anyway). Thankfully, the descriptions of the murders and the autopsies don't seem as gruesome as the last one ("All that Remains) and like the last one, this thriller gets five stars, because I just couldn't put it down.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Plot hole dampens...plot, September 17, 2000

By 

Kristen Heiss (Atlanta Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cruel & Unusual (Kay Scarpetta Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

In this fourth installment of the Kay Scarpetta series, we find the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia chasing a most challenging miscreant - a murderer with no pattern to his destruction except the intent to play games with the authorities hunting him. The book is a must-read for those addicted to Cornwell's well-researched suspense novels, since it sets the stage for a showdown in From Potter's Field. But a major plot hole revealed in the first few pages leaves the reader feeling cheated for the remainder of the novel.

We enter the story with Scarpetta recovering from the death of a close friend. While this development certainly bodes well for future plot twists, it leaves the reader frustrated with the current one. The few details of the death surface mostly at the end of the story and while we're told of Scarpetta's devastation, we really don't witness it. Seasoned Cornwell fans are accustomed to these shallow depths in characterization but it nonetheless puts a damper on an otherwise entertaining mystery.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One bad egg is forgiveable, November 2, 2001

By 

RachelWalker "RachelW" (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cruel & Unusual (Kay Scarpetta Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the worst of the Scarpetta series. which is quite an achievement seeing as all the others are brilliant. My favourites being the claustrophobic "The Body Farm", and the superbly dark "Point of Origin". I have loved all the Scarpetta's, and read them at least twice over, and i still think this is the worst.

The plot was very complicated, and it all seemed a bit of a mess. The characters were nothing special, and i this is the only book in which Cornwell manage to bore me with her normally insightful computer terminology. It's too long, and basically i dont think it has any substance. There is a great potential. The idea for the plot is superb, and could well have been one of the best, but somewhere along the line it all slips. I cant put my finger on it, but i just didnt come away from this with the satisfaction i normally get out of a Kay Scarpetta book.

Nevertheless this is still a necessary book to read if you intend to read the entire series. It is one of the major turning points. The first book to feature Temple Gault, who would later lead to Carrie Grethen, Newton Joyce, and all the other catastrophic events which culminate in the next turning point of "The Last Precint". each one has signalled a new era for Patricia Cornwell, and each one has not been quite as good as the others. But The Last Precint was still much better than this. It is, admittedly, very clever, but far too complicated, and im surprised it got the CWA's gold dagger.

nevertheless, i have given it two stars purely because it is such a major point in Scarpetta's life. You must read it if you intend to read the entire series, but dont expect to enjoy it as much as you do the others.