From Potter's Field (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: gold foil restorations, security floor, dental stone, Commander Penn, New York, Central Park (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Upon examining a dead woman found in snowbound Central Park, Kay Scarpetta immediately recognizes the grisly work of Temple Gault, a bold and brilliant killer from her past. Now she must hunt down a psychopath whose string of horrible murders is leading inexorably to his ultimate prey: Scarpetta herself. Even with the help of the FBI, Scarpetta knows the endgame is hers alone to play -- and it will be played on Gault's home turf, the subway tunnels beneath New York City. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta plays a tense cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer, an old enemy, in her sixth outing (following The Body Farm), and he has her badly rattled. The story begins as a rotten Christmas for Scarpetta: Temple Gault has struck again, leaving a naked, apparently homeless girl shot in Central Park on Christmas Eve; Scarpetta, as the FBI's consulting pathologist, is called in. Later, a transit cop is found shot in a subway tunnel, and, back home in Richmond, Va., the body of a crooked local sheriff is delivered to Scarpetta's own morgue by the elusive, brilliant Gault. The normally unflappable Scarpetta finds herself hyperventilating and nearly shooting her own niece. In the end, some ingenious forensic detective work and a visit to the killer's agonized family set up a high-tech climax back in the New York subway, which Gault treats as the Phantom of the Opera did the sewers of Paris. There's something faintly unconvincing about Gault (in a competitive field, it's tough to create a really horrific serial killer), and Scarpetta, stuck with her own family troubles and involved in a rather glum affair with a colleague, seems to be running low on energy. Still, this is a compelling, fast-moving tale, written in a highly compressed style, and only readers who know that Cornwell can do better are likely to complain. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild selections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1st edition (August 2, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684195984
• ISBN-13: 978-0684195988
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (140 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #317,603 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 6 in The Kay Scarpetta Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meeting the Parents of a Serial Killer, April 2, 2000

By	Andrea Egger, author of Grave Accusations (Gallup, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Potter's Field (Kay Scarpetta) (Paperback)

Another great book from Madame Medical Investigator Author Patricia Cornwell. Always well-researched, this time the book causes Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Marino and of course, FBI Agent Benton Wesley to investigate the death of a frozen naked woman propped openly in Central Park. Their path leads them to the parents of a psychotic serial killer, one of whom can see nothing wrong about her son and the other parent who would only see his if pointing a shotgun at the son's face. The woman's identity is a shock, as is Scarpetta's handiness with a side-arm. A must-read!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cornwell does it again, and again, and again, and again..., February 26, 2002

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

This review is from: From Potter's Field (Kay Scarpetta) (Paperback)

...and with this book, she has done it yet again.

The book does not start off too well, with the sherrif Santa bit being a bit confusing for the first couple of pages. I didn't like it. And i thought i might be in for a disappointing Cornwellian offering.

My, was i WRONG.

This book is yet another stunner. She has definitely veered away from the cunningness and cleverness which inhabited her first three books. But she more than makes up for it with a chilling plot and one of the most cold and clinical serial killers i have eve read of. Essentially, this is a serial killer novel, and as that it not especially original. But it is nonetheless a good one.

Marino, Benton, Lucy and of course Kay are back again for another great read. Cornwell's writing is sharp and to the point, and keeps the you turning those pages. I can't really put my finger on a reason why, but from the first time i read a Cornwell book i feel in love with the way she writes. It's simply...wonderful. I can't get enough of it. It's no more literate than the next person's, but for some reason i just relish every sentence she writes.

The plot here is sometimes scatty and random (as was Cruel and Unusual) but here, she pulls it off a lot better. I tend not to like books full of random killings, without rhyme or reason (yoo hoo, James Patterson, author of Violets are Blue, i'm talking in particular about you.), but here i really did. The randomness is chilling, and Tenple Gault is a super villain, who curdles the blood. He is just so...hateable. You loathe him absolutely. Especially when you find out how he treats his sister. You just hate him even more. With every part of i wanted him to die, die, die. It is hard to conceieve of anyone so cruel and horrifically terrifying than him. When Scarpetta talks to his parents, it's painful to read, even though it's fiction. It's an extremely moving scene, full of emotion. (As is the entire book.)

This book moves along relentlessly to it's absolutely brilliant conclusion. It is the best conclusion she has penned yet, down in the bowels of the New York subway. Dark and frightening, she really brings over the atmosphere.

I loved this book, as i have loved almost every single Scarpetta novel so far.

The identity of the first victim should come as a real shock.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Dissapointing, January 14, 2006

By	director man - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Potter's Field (Kay Scarpetta) (Paperback)

From Potters Field is one Patricia Cornwell's worst book she has written. It's not the characters, nope. It's not the writing that is wrong. It's the story that makes the book disappointing.

Temple Gault has struck again. This time we know this for sure. Both the readers and Kay Scarpetta do. Someone from Lucy's past is also back. The problem with this book is that Gault is not a strong enough villain to carry this book. He is not scary or very threatening. It's not exiting. Partly because we never get into his head we are always inside Scarpetta's. Even if Cornwell did venture inside his head I'm not sure if it would be that exiting. For a killer on the loose plot its very weak, of coarse the forensics are very good and original. But for the most part a very disappointing Scarpetta novel.