FROM OUR EDITORS

Our Review
A Violent Present and a Haunting Past
Patricia Cornwell's thrilling latest, The Last Precinct, begins just after last year's megaselling Black Notice concludes. In Black Notice, Cornwell's famous chief medical examiner, Kay Scarpetta, narrowly escapes from a savage French serial killer named Jean-Baptiste Chandonne. What Scarpetta doesn't realize is that, although the freakish, werewolflike Chandonne is now in police custody, she is still under his control.

In The Last Precinct, the tables are turned when Kay is suspected in the nauseatingly gruesome murder of Deputy Police Chief Diane Bray. Before she can begin to save what she holds dearest (her reputation), she must battle some demons of her own; only then can she be objective enough to find the clues needed to clear her own name and make sure the monster who tried to kill her can never kill again.

As the clues begin to pile up, Kay discovers that Bray's murder, among others, goes far deeper than anyone realized. The scope of the Chandonne crime family's power also becomes evident. As always, Scarpetta depends on cop Pete Marino and her niece, Lucy, but Scarpetta also finds herself forced to trust Jaime Berger, a prosecutor from New York, when she learns her biggest lesson: No one can be trusted when dealing with a family that uses money and murder to get anything -- and anyone -- they want.

While Kay is moving forward with her investigation, she begins to receive crank phone calls from someone claiming to be Benton Wesley, Scarpetta's one true love, who died over a year ago. Kay is now forced to painfully return Benton to the forefront of her consciousness; somehow his murder ties into Kay's current situation and the clues she is now discovering. But the surprising connections don't end there: Pete Marino's own son, whom he disowned years ago, is also suddenly part of the picture.

There is one thing Cornwell makes clear in this brisk, cleverly constructed thriller, which even lays claim to an archaeological dig in the historic Jamestown colony: The past does not always remain in the past. Considering the way the serial killer is apprehended at the very beginnings of The Last Precinct, it's amazing that Cornwell is able to keep the suspense so high as her seemingly simple story slowly unfolds into deep complexity. The Last Precinct always remains two steps ahead until the fingernail-biting finale; there's no question that Cornwell has earned herself another bestseller.

--Jennifer Jarett

ANNOTATION

Woven through with extraordinary forensic detail, the larger-than-life presence of Scarpetta's niece Lucy and her colleague Captain Pete Marino, and a palpable sense of fear that keeps readers looking back-into the past for clues, and over their shoulders for the next enigmatic act of violence-The Last Precinct marks a new era for Kay Scarpetta and a triumphant achievement for Patricia Cornwell.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Now Patricia Cornwell brings her millions of readers a novel concerning crimes with roots in a murder from the distant past. When Kay Scarpetta is mandated to investigate the 400 year-old violent death of one of America's first settlers at Jamestown, Virginia, it seems like the perfect match: modern technology's savviest avatar versus an age-old crime. Kay's involvement in the case attracts headlines, and more-the unwelcome ire of a person or persons unknown.

Kay and those closest to her soon find themselves the targets of vicious hate crimes that are clearly inspired by her connection to the archaeological excavation. At first more nuisance than assault, the nature of the attacks quickly escalates to violence. Worse still, those sworn to protect prove to be the enemy, forcing Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and detective Peter Marino to take matters into their won hands- torquing the rule of law and changing their lives forever. In a case ranging from an 18th-century murder to mortal risk in present day, The Last Precinct pits Kay Scarpetta against a rogue enemy who will stop at nothing to stop her.

SYNOPSIS

"A character as strong as any in popular fiction, Scarpetta knows the world is evil and often overwhelming, but she continues to rail against it with all her endearing and humane self-righteousness," wrote The Wall Street Journal about Black Notice, the latest in a hot streak of number-one New York Times bestsellers by America's top crime novelist. Now Patricia Cornwell delivers a profoundly original novel that takes her readers deeper into Scarpetta's heart and soul than ever before.

We enter The Last Precinct through the reverberating aftershocks of Black Notice, inconceivably finding Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta an object of suspicion-and criminal investigation. And the nightmare perpetuated on Scarpetta's doorstep continues as she discovers that the so-called Werewolf murders may have extended to New York City and into the darkest corners of her past. When a formidable prosecutor, a female assistant district attorney from New York, is brought into the case, Scarpetta must struggle to make what she knows to be the truth prevail against mounting and unnerving evidence to the contrary. Tested in every way, she turns inward to ask, where do you go when there is nowhere left? The answer is The Last Precinct. By the end of the novel, it is clear that Scarpetta's life can never be the same.

Woven through with extraordinary forensic detail, the larger-than-life presence of Scarpetta's niece Lucy and her colleague Captain Pete Marino, and a palpable sense of fear that keeps readers looking back-into the past for clues, and over their shoulders for the next enigmatic act of violence-The LastPrecinct marks a new era for Kay Scarpetta and a triumphant achievement for Patricia Cornwell.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

"My central nervous system spikes and surges, my pulse pounds. I am sweating.... " If only readers would share this response with Cornwell's immensely popular Kay Scarpetta, Virginia's chief medical examiner. But most won't. Kay has plenty of reason to be upset. She's standing in a room in a shabby motel where a body has been found, severely tortured. She's under official suspicion of having murdered maleficent ber-cop Diane Bray (in Kay's last outing, Black Notice). She's suspected of trumping up charges against accused serial killer Jean-Baptiste Chandonne, also introduced in Black Notice. She's reeling from the aftershock of Chandonne's murderous attack on her; she mightily misses her slain FBI agent/lover Dan Belson; she's learned that her gay niece, Lucy, is quitting law enforcement for a private PI firm called the Last Precinct--and it's Christmas time. Kay has a lot of support in the midst of this law-and-disorder soap opera, from, among others, Lucy, tough cop/sidekick Pete Marino and Kay's aged friend, psychiatrist Anna Zenner--and that's part of the problem with this novel. Excessive emoting and way too much talk (including long therapeutic sessions between Kay and Anna) derail momentum time and again; the pages feel soggy with tears. Cornwell does provide intense intrigue, but it's a strain to follow as she connects events and loose ends from several novels. Within this narrative swamp, there's one new and very memorable gator, though--New York prosecutor Jaime Berger, obviously modeled on real-life ADA (and novelist) Linda Fairstein, to whom Cornwell dedicates the novel; she's sharply drawn and charismatic. Cornwell will win few if any new fans with this overlong, sluggish offering, but her giant readership is so hardcore and so enamored of Kay that the publisher's first printing of one million seems, if anything, conservative. $800,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild, Mystery Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; national satellite tour; foreign rights sold in the U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Holland, Japan, Finland, Turkey and Spain. (One-day laydown, Oct. 16) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In a continuation of Black Notice, Virginia's chief medical examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, finds herself still under attack by Jean Baptiste Chandonne as she is now accused of murdering rival Diane Bray rather than the Werewolf. Both author and her protagonist seem to suffer from too much burnout, repetition, and lack of new challenges. Much of the book is insufferably morose, and even devoted fans may be put off by Scarpetta's autopsy of her own spirit and psyche. The intelligent, independent woman is a mere shadow of herself as Benton's ghost hovers ever near. The revisiting of old cases does attempt to create what mystery is present here, though it is too easily discerned early on. Cornwell seems increasingly intolerant of her own supporting cast of characters. Kate Reading's narration is far stronger and more varied in the unabridged version, but the abridgment does cut much of the doubt and gloom that weigh down the novel. Not recommended. Packaging of all versions will not withstand typical library usage. Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

It's not often that Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself at a disadvantage and the target of a murder investigation. Roberta Maxwell presents Scarpetta with more of a Southern than a Virginia accent. She reads the dialogue in a clipped, abrupt manner, in striking contrast to the smoothness of the narration, which is in Scarpetta's voice. Given the intensity of the plot, interspersed music would have more effectively signalled the end of each side than the sudden drop into silence. A few loose ends may be the fault of the abridgment, but the story is powerful and holds together, and Maxwell maintains the suspense. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Pam Lambert - People

[This] Forensic thriller cuts deep.

Kirkus Reviews

What could be more open and shut than a case in which a widely sought killer tricks his way into the home of Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner, attacks her with a hammer of exactly the same sort he'd used in killing Richmond Deputy Police Chief Diane Bray, and is still on the scene when police arrive? But when Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the intended victim of notorious JeanBaptiste Chandonne, hears the statement the suspect (dubbed Le LoupGarou, the Werewolf, for the fine, undisguisable hair covering his entire body) has given the police, she realizes that despite her obvious suffering and terror, attested by the elbow she broke just after throwing some providential formalin into her assailant's eyes, the case boils down to her word against his. As she and her embattled loyalists—ATF niece Lucy Farinelli; neanderthal Richmond Police Captain Pete Marino; New York sex crimes ADA Jaime Berger—toil to link Chandonne's current murder spree first to the killing of a Big Apple weathercaster two years ago, then to the execution of Scarpetta's FBI lover Benton Wesley, the news gets steadily worse until Scarpetta finds herself entering a grand jury chamber not as an expert witness but as a homicide suspect.