Black Notice (Hardcover)

by Patricia Cornwell (Author) "The late morning blazed with blue skies and the colors of fall, but none of it was for me..." (more)
Key Phrases: morgue supervisor, decomposed room, black notice, Kim Luong, Senator Lord, Deputy Chief Bray (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The postmortem is in--Black Notice, the 10th in Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series, is a gore-splattered, intensely exciting read. As winter grips Richmond, Virginia, an air of somberness pervades chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta's world. Her beloved niece Lucy is involved in a dangerous undercover police operation in Miami, and auntie fears for her life. A tyrannical new deputy chief, Diane Bray, wants to get Kay's department under her jurisdiction. Meanwhile, back at the office, someone has tinkered with the e-mail system, stealing Kay's identity, and sending off slanderous and hurtful messages. Emotionally battered, Scarpetta fears she is going insane. Or, could it be that someone is deliberately sowing this harvest of sorrow?

Despite her personal problems, Scarpetta is still the reigning diva at the department of death. She is sent to investigate the putrefied remains of a man found inside a container ship, "eyes bulged froglike, and the scalp and beard were sloughing off with the outer layer of darkening skin." Kay finds strange, animal-like hairs on the man's clothing--the same hairs that she discovers on a murdered store clerk a few days later. In actuality, the bizarre killings extend well beyond Virginia; whoever killed the Richmond victims also butchered people in France. Kay and police captain Pete Marino are whisked off to Paris where they must collect top-secret information from a Paris morgue, and avoid becoming victims themselves.

This macabre tome is the stuff that classic Scarpetta tales are made of: creepy but compulsive autopsy scenes, plentiful plot twists, and the compelling, if slightly more vulnerable chief medical examiner herself. --Naomi Gesinger

From Publishers Weekly
It's like a splash of cold water on a hot day to be plunged, after the irritating third-person satire of Cornwell's last novel, Southern Cross (1998), back into the bracing narration of medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. As in the nine Scarpettas past (Point of Origin, etc.), here it's not the novel's events, startling as they are, that propel the story so much as the deep-hearted responses of Kay, as real a hero as any in thriller fiction, to the "evil"Aher wordAthat threatens. Evil wears several faces here, from petty to monstrous. Most insidious is the office sabotageAinsubordination, thefts, fraudulent e-mailsAthat's making the grieving Kay look as if she's lost her grip since her lover's murder in Point of Origin. More destructive are the overt attempts by calculating Richmond, Va., deputy police chief Diane Bray to ruin Kay's career as well as that of Kay's old friend, Capt. Pete Marino. Then there's the wild rage at life that's consuming Kay's niece, a DEA agent. FinallyAthe plot wire that binds the sometimes scattered plotAthere are the mutilation killings by the French serial killer self-styled "Loup-Garou"Awerewolf. The forensic sequences boom with authority; the brief action sequences explode on the pageAin the finale, overbearingly so; the interplay between Kay and Marino is boisterous as always, and there's an atmospheric sidetrip to Paris and an affecting romantic misadventure for lonely Kay. A thunderhead of disquietude hangs over this compulsively readable novel, sometimes loosing storms of suspense; but to Cornwell's considerable credit, the unease arises ultimately not from the steady potential for violence, but from a more profound horror: the vulnerability of a good woman like Kay to a world beset by the corrupt, the cruel, the demonic. One million first printing; $750,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild main selections; unabridged and abridged audio versions; foreign rights sold in eight countries.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 415 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1St Edition edition (July 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399145087
• ISBN-13: 978-0399145087
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (628 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #264,318 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 10 in The Kay Scarpetta Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SCARPETTA AND THE WOLF..., August 3, 2000

By	Nick Gonnella - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Black Notice (Paperback)

A cargo ship containing the remains of a stowaway arrives in Virginia's waterway. Kay Scarpetta is called to examine the remains. Why would this man hide in a shipping container, and what does the strange tattoo on his back symbolize? These questions, as well as the identity of the man are a mystery to Scarpetta.

Kay's neice, Lucy, has a new lover, Jo. Lucy and Jo are working in Miami, and their latest mission has gone terribly wrong, leaving two criminals dead, and Jo, fighting for her life in the hospital.

Another body is found, this time, a young woman, brutally attacked, with strange bite marks on her body.

Kay and Marino, end up in France, working with Interpol on the cases of victims who have also been brutally attacked, with strange bite marks left on the bodies. Once there, the two will have to solve the bizzare puzzle of the strange killings, and make connection to the mystery man in the container.

"Black Notice" is one of the better entries in the Scarpetta series (it takes a while to get steam, about 250 pages before things start to move, and the plot involving the wolf-like killings comes into play). Long time readers of the series will notice each new novel is taking the series in a new direction; with less time being spent on the thrill a minute plot twists, and more time being spent on various sub-plots, and character development.

Patricia Cornwell is the leading practicioner of the forensic crime thriller, but over the years she has lost her knack of creating "up all night" reads, she is trying to balance too much in each novel, and at times it takes away from the main theme of the book. The story line is interesting in this new book, and the characters are all likable, but we want more page-turning plot twists.

If you are a fan of the series, you will enjoy this book, new readers should start off with one of her earlier novels, such as "All That Remains", "Cruel And Unusual", "The Body Farm", etc.

Nick Gonnella

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Strange Loup, August 16, 2000

By	Rob Lawrence (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Notice (Paperback)

I was starting to feel that the Kay Scarpetta series was getting a little tired. But, my roommate bought Black Notice, and I decided to go ahead and read it. On the whole, it is a fairly good book. The strange victim with a strange tattoo found with strange hairs starts the book off. The primary plot revolves around this death, and becomes a little too fantastic (Who's Afraid of Virginia's Wolf?) . However, the book is saved by having a subplot involving what appears to be a new nemesis for Dr. Scarpetta: a strong woman Deputy Police Chief, attempting to shake up the department and Marino, Kay's close police friend, and Scarpetta herself. Ultimately, these two seemingly divergent plots must come together.

I have read all the books in this series, yet I will not profess to understanding all the complex personalaties and relationships in the primary characters. Therefore, if you are thinking of delving into this series, try the earlier books first.

The secondary plot, which almost becomes primary, and solid writing help make up for an odd story and a weak ending. Furthermore, Patricia Cornwell attempts to throw some things in the mix to keep interest, such as the question of "Is Benton really dead?".

My suggestion: Read the book and enjoy, but don't analyze it.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Diasappointed, August 17, 2000

By	David Miller "millers375" (DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Notice (Paperback)

Once again I am drawn in to Kay Scarpetta's world by the fascinating details of forensic science. But with with each novel I am finding the chief character increasingly annoying, self-centered and and one-dimensional. When the story strays from the police procedural stuff I find myself wading through the worst kind of melodrama involving Kay, her murdered lover and everyone surrounding her. I mean, can anyone read the dialogue between Dr. Scarpetta and Talley (at the Paris restaurant) without gagging or giggling. The whole issue of how Kay faces adversity is treated by the author without the slightest hint of (intentional) humor or irony. The book is extremely joyless. How could someone with no coping mechanisms stand to be a medical examiner at all?

Tne major flaw of the book, and one that occurs in several of Cornwell's novels, is that the eventual capture of the serial killer has very little to do with the following of forensic clues to expose the criminal. Rather, once again, the villain is undone by his obsessive need to go after the Chief Medical Examiner herself, and is defeated in hand to hand combat by our heroine. Won't these guys ever learn?