The one positive constant throughout the books is the character of Marino, a police officer who is mixture of a drunken circus bear, Archie Bunker and Columbo. This guy is about as un-PC as a character can get and breathes a little corrosive energy into the stale air of the later series. Some of the articles she wrote on prostitution and crime in the downtown Charlotte area brought her a lot of attention, praise, and respect, and this is when she received her first award, the North Carolina Press Association’s Investigative Reporting Award. She also got several other awards, including the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure, the British John Creasey Award, and the American Edgar Award. Shifts in narrative, from first person to third person, from book to book, didn’t work and were jarring. She stretched plotlines and subplot lines over books and then wrapped them up in the most head scratching perfunctory way.

Everyone is out to harrass and hurt dear Kay, as usual, until in the end she calls in a few favours of her thousands of powerful friends that come out of nowhere, just like the many luxury items she buys in some limbo time. I've tried hard to stop rereading paragraphs to make sense of mistakes, not just in missing sentences or information, but also in contradicting descriptions of place, all the more annoying because detailing every move always made up most of Cornwell's novels. She still phones up a French restaurant owner at home instead of googling a word, so it's no surprise she skips over to Europe for a bit again. I was in a program called, Safe Quarters, being protected from my youngest sister and brother and I bought the audio version of Last Precinct.” I had a brand new car and I sat outside the facility in the heat of summer, runnng my car air conditioning, and read your box on my car radio. Guys, most homeless would come by the car to visit me, some getting in and listening for awhile, all wondering what I was doing in a place like that! In the four and one half months I was there I read six of your books on audio and spent a whole lot of money on gas! But I developed a love for you YOU and Kay! All conversations are monologues of people talking apart from each other, which sadly does not seem to be an intentianal post-p-p-modern statement since Cornwell has never managed dialogue, though if she enhances her incompetences to make them work for her, I guess one has to give her cudos, just don't think the target audience (see above) even recognises that.There's a killer on the loose that no one seems to understand his motives. He's vicious and very destructive to his victims body. He started his murders in Paris and has now transferred his evil doings into the United States, particularly the state of Virginia. However, there's something strange about this killer. He has a rare disease called hypertrichosis; his body being fully covered with hair. At each of the crime scenes this hair has been found on the victims. One victim was able to escape his torture but can't describe his features. The things that he does to his victims leaves them unidentifiable. The French serial killer is high class and is kept a secret by his family. He has a rare illness where his face is deformed and he has hair growing on him. So he calls himself the werewolf. He ends up at Scarpetta's and in the end Lucy ends up pointing a gun at him but Kay talks her out of shooting him. Over the years, the author sold over 100 million books all over the world and her novels were translated into close to 40 languages. An interesting side note is that the author appeared as herself on TV in one of the Criminal Minds episodes, “True Genius.” The autopsy performed by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta initially reveals neither a cause of death nor an identification. But the victim's personal effects and an odd tattoo take Scarpetta on a hunt for information that leads to INTERPOL's headquarters in Lyon, France, where she receives critical instructions: go to the Paris morgue to receive forbidden, secret evidence and then return to Virginia to carry out a mission. It is a mission that could ruin her career.

At least Agatha Christie aged her characters normally. If she were alive, I’m sure she would bitch slap Patricia Cornwell. Everyone who has read “Point of Origin” knows that both Marino and Lucy disappeared for the entire day on which the remnants of Benton’s “body” were found. Every reader knows that Benton deliberately avoided Kay before all three went off the grid. The book starts off with Kay grieving the loss of Benton which I can't decide if I like or not. At least it shows a new sign of Kay when she really goes down hill but on the other hand it's also something that veers away from the murders and such. Very unlikable new characters in the precinct and they're also a whole lotta shady. It's also a prelude to Scarpetta moving on to other things and Marino keeps being demoted and promoted so there's lots going on in terms of their careers. Also, Lucy and Kay have a fight after a long time getting along so there's a lot of tumultuous relationships in this one.Not many people know, but the author of the popular dr. Kay Scarpetta novels has also written a couple of non-fiction books, among them also being two foodie books as well – and they’re great too! If you ever want a prime example of a book series that has taken a sharp nosedive in quality, this is the one. funding scholarships and literacy programs. Her advice to aspiring authors: “Start writing. And don’t take no for an answer.” So on to this book. Once again, the premise for the storyline remains great including a surprising ending. Still, Kay Scarpetta's character continues being very depressing. Which nearly ruins the book for me. Plot - 1/2/5 : Good start, but disappointing finish. Kay and Marino come together to solve the mystry behind a unidentified body found in a container, which leads them to France to unreveal a horrible serial killer who calls himself Le Loug Garou - The Werewolf. Kay is again put down when she choses to flirt and Lucy irritates me that i feel I have reached my limit. And the way Marino is treated shows clearly that the series has started to sink.