Sharp Force by Patricia Cornwell

Sharp Force by Patricia Cornwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE SERIAL KILLER

NOT EVEN SCARPETTA…

During the early hours of Christmas morning, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta receives a chilling call. The Phantom Slasher has struck again.

The serial killer has terrorized Northern Virginia for months. His pattern is to stalk with a sophisticated technology that enables him to invade his victims' homes and watch their every move. They wake up to a ghost-like hologram before being murdered in their beds.

Scarpetta is summoned to Mercy Island, the site of a notorious psychiatric hospital where two people have been brutalized, one of them from Scarpetta’s past. It soon becomes apparent that she could be next…
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I have been reading Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta books since day one, so when the opportunity to review her newest came up, I jumped right on it. I love the combination of government agencies with medical examiner with straight up mystery thriller that she brings to the table, sometimes with a little bit of gore thrown in. This book is no different. We have Benton Wesley and his Secret Service background, niece Lucy and her FBI connections, and Dr. Scarpetta the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have her usual foil in Pete Marino but also a little of his softer side. We have a serial killer and a bit of a grisly autopsy and the kind of forensic detail we have come to expect from this author. We have darkness and suspense and everything that makes for a good thriller. And most of all, we have the years and years of history I have with these characters and the relationships I feel I have formed with them, which is part of the joy of reading a series such as this one. I found myself so engrossed in the action of the story that I was surprised when I reached the end and found out who the killer actually was. Did the answer perhaps come a little bit out of left field? Maybe. Did I still enjoy the journey I took to get there? Absolutely. In other Scarpetta books, Cornwell has used a dual point-of-view to tease the reader throughout the book with the perpetrator's side of the story. In my opinion, this ending felt a little abrupt in comparison to some of her other works. Nevertheless, I couldn't give this one any less than five stars because the highs of this book were very high for me and more than made up for that little issue I had with it. I can't wait to see where Dr. Scarpetta takes us next.

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