Books 11/12/07

"Mary Mary" James Patterson
This is a 2005 Alex Cross mystery. The time is after Alex was involved in "London Bridges. He is on vacation at Disney Land in California with his family when The head of the FBI calls him and apologetically asks Alex to "just spend a few hours to look at a high profile murder as a big favor" A famous movie star and her chauffeur were found shot to death; the woman’s face was mutilated with a knife. Cross finds himself deep into what becomes a search for a vicious serial killer. An editor for the L.A. Times begins to get e-mails from the killer signed "Mary Smith". Forensic evidence seems to support the theory that the killer is a woman.
As usual, Alex’s personal life takes another bad turn; while his grandmother Nana and his children understand he has an important job they do not like to have him away so much and the memory of the death of Alex’s first wife being killed by a man Alex was pursuing and the kidnapping of his second wife Christine (now estranged) are very much in their mind and Christine is, again, taking action to get permanent custody of their son Alex Jr. These conflicts are always part of the "Cross" stories.
There are more killings but no one can find a pattern and the L.A. Police and Alex seem helpless as prominent Hollywood and L.A. people are brutally murdered. Alex is not totally convinced that the killer is a woman but he has nothing to back up his feeling. E-mails continue until the Times editor, himself becomes a victim.
We, also, follow the thoughts and actions of the killer throughout the story; it is a man with a very clever plan. It is not until the police find a woman suspect that they eventually arrest and using DNA match the forensic evidence to her that the action takes a quick turn and Alex, after interviewing the woman pursues another exciting line of investigation. A good "Cross" novel; it is fun to go back a few years with a developing character to see what was happening "back when", particularly, if you missed the novel when it originally came out.



"The Pest House" Jim Crace
A cataclysmic event, not explained has turned the United States into a sparsely populated wasteland. Land is contaminated people are sick and dying and there is severe weather and earth quakes. Those that have survived are trying to get to the East coast and Europe.
Two brothers, Franklin and Jackson started the trek with only a minimum of supplies and are suffering for it. The stronger brother leaves Franklin to go ahead to find food and get help for Franklin who has hurt his knee. Franklin, miserable from pain and weather, comes upon a stone house where he meets a woman, Margaret, who was sent to this "pesthouse" in isolation because of a sickness. The town people have been frightened by what they call "the flux"; they don’t know what is is or how to treat it except to remove all bodily hair from the victim, burn it and everything the person has touched and isolate the person until he or she either dies or gets well. This is a story of misery; author Jim Crace uses powerful imagery that carries the reader through the novel. Sadness and hope prevail, be prepared for vivid descriptions of people at their worst and at their best.

"Book of The Dead" Patrica Cornwell Published 2007

From America's # 1 bestselling crime writer comes the extraordinary new Dr. Kay Scarpetta novel. The "book of the dead" is the morgue log, a ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to take on a new meaning. Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace, not only personally and professionally but geographically. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues-including Pete Marino and her niece, Lucy-offer expert crime-scene investigation and autopsy services to communities lacking local access to modern, competent death investigation technology.
It seems like an ideal situation, until the new battles start-with local politicians, with entrenched interests, with someone whose covert attempts at sabotage are clearly meant to run Scarpetta out of town. And that's before the murders and other violent deaths even begin. br/> A young man from a well-known family jumps off a water tower. A woman is found ritualistically murdered in her multimillion-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is discovered dumped in a desolate marsh. Meanwhile, in distant New England, problems with a prominent patient at a Harvard-affiliated psychiatric hospital begin to hint at interconnections that are as hard to imagine as they are horrible. Kay Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones confronting her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names-and the pen may be poised to write in her own. The first name in forensics. The last name in suspense. Once again, Patricia Cornwell proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthrall.

Alan's comments: This is the the exact language from the book cover of this very confusing novel, what do you think the story is about? The opening chapter describes, very graphically, a man, subjecting a young girl to torture and is terrorizing her before he kills her. It is inferred that the man might be a veteran from Iraq who was involved in the violent interrogation of prisoners and may have been traumatized by what went on. We kind of loose track of him as the story develops. Kay Scarpetta's companions continue to act like a dysfunctional family and the story spends too much time on their problems instead of focusing on the history and the motivation of the very disturbed killer. Many pages of dialog are filled with Ms Cornwall's rather impressive knowledge of forensics but they do not keep the story going. I was very disappointed in the novel. I went to my library and reread an earlier "Scarpetta" novel "Cruel and Unusual" and enjoyed it very much.