The Bone Bed (A Scarpetta Novel) [Hardcover]

Patricia Cornwell (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 16, 2012 | Series: A Scarpetta Novel (Book 20)

A woman has vanished while digging a dinosaur bone bed in the remote wilderness of Canada. Somehow, the only evidence has made its way to the inbox of Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, over two thousand miles away in Boston. She has no idea why. But as events unfold with alarming speed, Scarpetta begins to suspect that the paleontologist’s disappearance is connected to a series of crimes much closer to home: a gruesome murder, inexplicable tortures, and trace evidence from the last living creatures of the dinosaur age.

When she turns to those around her, Scarpetta finds that the danger and suspicion have penetrated even her closest circles. Her niece Lucy speaks in riddles. Her lead investigator, Pete Marino, and FBI forensic psychologist and husband, Benton Wesley, have secrets of their own. Feeling alone and betrayed, Scarpetta is tempted by someone from her past as she tracks a killer both cunning and cruel.

This is Kay Scarpetta as you have never seen her before. The Bone Bed is a must read for any fan of this series, or an ideal starting point for new readers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“When it comes to the forensic sciences, nobody can touch Cornwell.”

—The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Patricia Cornwell's most recent bestsellers include Red Mist, Port Mortuary, and Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed. Her earlier works include Postmortem—the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year—and Cruel and Unusual, which won Britain’s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the best crime
novel of 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American author.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (October 16, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780399157561
• ISBN-13: 978-0399157561
• ASIN: 0399157565
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,086 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Medical

More About the Author

Patricia Cornwell was born on June 9, 1956, in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Montreat, North Carolina.

Following graduation from Davidson College in 1979, she began working at the Charlotte Observer, rapidly advancing from listing television programs to writing feature articles to covering the police beat. She won an investigative reporting award from the North Carolina Press Association for a series of articles on prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte.

Her award-winning biography of Ruth Bell Graham, A Time for Remembering, was published in 1983. From 1984 to 1990, she worked as a technical writer and a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia.

Cornwell's first crime novel, Postmortem, was published by Scribner's in 1990. Initially rejected by seven major publishing houses, it became the first novel to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventure in a single year. In Postmortem, Cornwell introduced Dr. Kay Scarpetta as the intrepid Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1999, Dr. Scarpetta herself won the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author.

Following the success of her first novel, Cornwell has written a series of bestsellers featuring Kay Scarpetta, her detective sidekick Pete Marino and her brilliant and unpredictable niece, Lucy Farinelli, including: Body of Evidence (1991); All That Remains (1992); Cruel and Unusual (1993), which won Britain's prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the year's best crime novel; The Body Farm (1994); From Potter's Field (1995); Cause of Death (1996); Unnatural Exposure (1997); Point of Origin (1998); Black Notice (1999); The Last Precinct (2000); Blow Fly (2003); Trace (2004); Predator (2005); Book of the Dead (2007), which won the 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards' Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year, making Cornwell the first American ever to win this award; Scarpetta (2008); The Scarpetta Factor (2009); and Port Mortuary (2010). In 2011 Cornwell was awarded the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, one of France's most prestigious awards to honor those who have distinguished themselves in the domains of art or literature, or by their contribution to the development of culture in France and throughout the world.

In addition to the Scarpetta novels, she has written three best-selling books featuring Andy Brazil: Hornet's Nest (1996), Southern Cross (1998) and Isle of Dogs (2001); two cook books: Scarpetta's Winter Table (1998) and Food to Die For (2001); and a children's book: Life's Little Fable (1999). In 1997, Cornwell updated A Time for Remembering, which was reissued as Ruth, A Portrait: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham. Intrigued by Scotland Yard's John Grieve's observation that no one had ever tried to use modern forensic evidence to solve the murders committed by Jack the Ripper, Cornwell began her own investigation of the serial killer's crimes. In Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed (2002), she narrates her discovery of compelling evidence to indict the famous artist Walter Sickert as the Ripper.

In January 2006, the New York Times Magazine began a 15-week serialization of At Risk, featuring Massachusetts State Police investigator Win Garano and his boss, district attorney Monique Lamont. Its sequel, The Front, was serialized in the London Times in the spring of 2008. Both novellas were subsequently published as books and promptly optioned for adaptation by Lifetime Television Network, starring Daniel Sunjata and Andie MacDowell. The films made their debut in April 2010.

In April 2009, Fox acquired the film rights to the Scarpetta novels, featuring Angelina Jolie as Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Cornwell herself wrote and co-produced the movie ATF for ABC.

Often interviewed on national television as a forensic consultant, Cornwell is a founder of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, a founding member of the National Forensic Academy, a member of the Advisory Board for the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, NYC, and a member of the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital's National Council, where she is an advocate for psychiatric research. She is also well known for her philanthropic contributions to animal rescue and criminal justice, as well as endowing college scholarships and promoting the cause of literacy on the national scene. Some of her projects include the establishment of an ICU at Cornell's Animal Hospital, the archaeological excavation of Jamestown and the scientific study of the Confederacy's submarine H.L. Hunley. Most recently, she donated a million dollars to Harvard's Fogg Museum to establish a chair in inorganic science.

Cornwell's books have been translated into 36 languages across more than 50 countries, and she is regarded as one of the major international best-selling authors. Her novels are praised for their meticulous research and an insistence on accuracy in every detail, especially in forensic medicine and police procedures. She is so committed to verisimilitude that, among other accomplishments, she became a helicopter pilot and a certified scuba diver, and qualified for a motorcycle license because she was writing about characters who were doing these things. "It is important to me to live in the world I write about," she often says. "If I want a character to do or know something, I want to do or know the same thing."

Visit the author's website at: www.patriciacornwell.com

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#53 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery

#65 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#65 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#68 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

#76 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery

#53 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery

#65 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#65 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#68 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

#76 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

163 of 178 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The True Scarpetta October 17, 2012

By T.B. Grant TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

"The Bone Bed" by Patricia Cornwell
Published by Putnam
Hardcover Edition: 463 pages
Genre: Mystery

Maybe Cornwell needed to write the last eight Scarpetta novels to get where she is now: back to basics. Back to where avid readers of the series remember the true Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta: a resilient, no-nonsense, vulnerable human being.

The Bone Bed, the 20th novel in the ongoing Scarpetta series, is a solid, riveting return and homage to the early years. The novel is also a much more personal journey for Scarpetta. She struggles with aging in a raw intensity like we have never seen before. In a past squabble that occurred between she and husband, Benton, she recalls that night in Vienna: "I feel Benton's implications like an internal injury, a depressing symptom of being damaged..."

The image of Scarpetta's psychologist friend, Anna Zenner, a "confidante of old," brings readers back to that quiet time in an earlier book, "The Last Precinct", where the two strong, independent women sat in Anna's living room, recalling tales of yesteryear, their professional and private lives, and Scarpetta's unclear future in forensic science.

And the recent dark case she investigates in Boston's harbor is reminiscent of another earlier mystery: when Scarpetta dived deep into the cold waters in 1996's "Cause of Death".

As Scarpetta connects the dots in her newest horrifying exposition to date, she realizes just how grisly murder can be. Working on a riddle involving a severed human ear, an endangered leatherback turtle, and a dead, almost mummified woman in Boston's cold bay waters, Scarpetta comes face to face with a ruthless killer and a past fueled with unspeakable cruelty.

Whether you decided, years ago, to abandon the Scarpetta series because of POV change (first person to third person), dull plot lines shrouded with too much science procedure, and/or underdevelopment characterizations, the good news is that the real Scarpetta & Company (Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and niece Lucy Farinelli) are back. It is almost as if the gang has continued their lives from where we remember them in 2000's The Last Precinct. In The Bone Bed, characters reminisce on past cases and close relationships with each other. Ardent fans will recognize said scenes and conversations immediately. Example: In chapter six, Marino and Scarpetta, en route to the death scene in Boston: Marino, in his usual haughty persona, telling Kay, "Like those cartons for organ sections that said Fish Bait? Back in our Richmond days. Remember?" Scarpetta: "It's not exactly something one could forget." Another highlight in the book: camaraderie between all four characters, especially Marino and Scarpetta, which has been missing since The Last Precinct. Throughout the novel, Scarpetta recalls her previous relationship with her deceased father, evoking beautiful, haunting, emotional imagery for the lonely girl from Richmond, Virginia.

Fans, new and old, are in for a real surprise. The Bone Bed is true to form, a real treat, a novel worthy of any mystery reader's time. It can be read as a standalone. Let's hope Cornwell continues along the same familiar path with future Scarpetta puzzles.

T.B. Grant
10.17.12

118 of 128 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Still Missing the 90s October 19, 2012

By Elise

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

What can I say about Scarpetta number twenty? I didn't dislike the book, but in my opinion, Cornwell has yet to produce a follow-up book that is in anyway comparable to the quality of her first six to eight books. This review does contain a few mild spoilers!

Before I air my complaints, I will give credit where credit is due. Bone Bed reintroduces readers to the Kay Scarpetta they met in Virginia. For the first time in I don't know how many books, Scarpetta is back in her diving gear and working the crime scenes like she used too. That is the one thing I really appreciated about this book. Kay is sharp. I had forgotten what an impressive investigator she could be. As she goes through a crime scene, very little escapes her attention. Her intelligence, ambition, and compassion are magnetic. I can't speak for everyone, but that is the character that captured my attention and held my interest in 90s.

With that said, I found her supporting characters highly annoying and redundant. Marino and Benton are still stuck in a downward spiral of regret and resentment. I know that real life issues (you know, your average faked death and attempted rape) don't go away over night, but I think Cornwell has taken it to a level that is entirely unnecessary. I for one, am very tired of hearing the sad song that refuses to end. Benton played dead; Mario got drunk and tried to play hooky. Naturally, these flaws in character will keep the two of them from being best friends and undoubtably leave some skeletons in the closet, but Cornwell has strung it out to the degree that she has allowed it to monopolize the chemistry that made the characters so captivating in the beginning.

Another issue I had with this book is that I felt like I had read it already. Scarpetta and her team discover links between several different homicides and find themselves chasing a deranged serial killer. As they close in, the lunatic loses control and ends up going after ... Wait, I don't want to spoil your fun, I'll let you guess, but I'm betting you'll get it right without even having to buy a vowel!! Any of that sound familiar? It's almost as if Cornwell follows a formula. She changes the locations, characters, and modus operandi, but the big picture remains the same. While this formula may be making her millions, it has flattened her series and turned into average and predictable. She has sold Scarpetta out and it's a d*** shame.

91 of 103 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Pat Cornwell's Best "Scarpetta." October 16, 2012

By Eva Braadshaw

Format:Hardcover

The Bone Bed had me captured for 18 consecutive hours of almost unbroken reading. Still based at the Cambridge Forensic Center, all of the usual characters are present. Her FBI Profiler husband, Benton Wesley, her niece Lucy and the ever present Marino. Lucy is still ensconced in electronic data, but she is keeping secrets from her aunt. Like wear did that heavy gold ring she is wearing come from. Marino seems to be drinking again and collecting miniature Skull Head vodka bottles and making ornaments from them. Benton, well Benton has a new partner, and he is a bit muddy with Kay about the relationship there. With the arrival of a very disturbing email and the death of a palaeontologist in Alberta, Canada, closely followed by a body found in the Charles River, attached by nets and a number of things to a leatherback turtle, and another seemingly unrelated murder, the book picks up pace quickly. I wouldn't suggest starting it at bedtime and planning on reading a chapter or two because you will have problems putting the book down. Probably what I did enjoy most about The Bone Bed as well as it's predecessor, Red Mist, is the return of Patricia Cornwell's writing style. Back again is the Scarpetta who is strong and sensitive and the intelligent woman that we had all known. After the writing of her Jack the Ripper book, Ms Cornwell couldn't seem to pull together a cohesive writing style. The story lines and Kay Scarpetta suffered for it. We saw Scarpetta second guessing herself and seeming to need others to make a simple decision. Thankfully that is sorted and we once again have gotten Patricia Cornwell and Kay Scarpetta back at their best.