Andrea Delicata Delicata itibaren 01010 Puntoni VT, İtalya itibaren 01010 Puntoni VT, İtalya

Rating: 3.90 Now that I've finished it - I have to say this: The mystery itself isn't all that good but it's what happens on the way to the final answer which is interesting. I loved the writing. Loved the little tidbits of knowledge I could get. The characters were interesting although some were under-developed...

This book was good but there was just something about it that was a little off to me. The main character, Fire, seemed to be almost identical to Katsa from Graceling. I loved Katsa though so it was okay but... I didn't understand why Cashore did that. The writing in this book was not as good either although after about 80 pages or so I became so engrossed in the story that I didn't notice. I liked how this book gave a back story to Leck and I truly enjoyed seeing Fire lose her control. I honestly don't think this book should be considered Young Adult. There is so much in here that is more adult in matter then in Graceling even. All the politics and not to mention the hints of sex and promiscuity. It never goes into details but it's all there. I know i've read a lot of review that bash Cashore for her mention of herbs that are used as birth control and in this book herbs that can be taken to make you baren or herbs to be taken after you find out your pregnant that will cause miscarriage. Apart of me understands the upset but only to the point of the fact that this is considered young adult. I mean all that stuff is already out there in our world today. Don't think that teens of today don't know that. So i don't really see what the big deal is other than the fact that this is targeted to young adult, which as i said it shouldn't be -- although i really can't figure out where it would be best suited. definately not adult sci fi, not even paranormal romance or fiction. Who knows... All in all a good book. I would say a 3 1/2. Not one that i would most likely reread though and after reading this one i'm not sure if i will ever reread Graceling again either. It will be interesting to see what she does with her next book, Bitterblue. Hopefully she'll figure out a way to make that character different then Fire and Katsa and not just stick to the same mold.

When starting this one, I became immediately aware that I'd missed a few in the series (hmmm...isn't Benton dead?), but was not overly worried as it's just so nice to be able to spend some time with Dr. Scarpetta again. And this is a long one--weighing in at close to 600 pages, but I simply couldn't put it down and made my way through it in two evenings. I think other fans of the genre will find it equally compelling reading. In retrospect, this may well be the most complete and well-written in the Kay Scarpetta series to date. The exchange during which Kay is in a lab of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner's (OCME) DNA Building carrying on a speakerphone conversation with Dr. Geffner regarding midwestern Gray Wolf fur vs. dog fur and the finer points of symbolism associated with the former in ritual magic while, simultaneously on the other side of the room, Lucy and Marino are tracking a muder victim's last movements via a unit she wore that recorded her vital signs and GPS locations is some of the tightest, fast-paced writing I've read in a long while. Heck, I felt my heartrate increasing as we bounced back and forth between the victim's last minutes and the painstaking range of analyses with which breaks in such cases are generated. And the fact that Kay refused to interrupt Dr. Geffner to give her full attention to Lucy and Marino was pure brilliance--is so quintessentially Dr. Scarpetta. That is, you don't interrupt the experts who make time for you out of their intensely jam-packed days simply because a hot lead develops simultaneously. Such would be as inappropriate as leaving one's cell phone sitting on the table during dinner. Kay's determination to observe manners in the face of the horrors she witnesses daily is one of the many things that makes her so endearing--okay, that and her extreme competence and determination. The Scarpetta Factor, named for a tagline used to tease viewers into watching a CNN program on which Kay appears as a forensic consultant, is Patricia Cornwell at the top of her game--in terms of the forensic and police procedural parts, in indicting cable news stations as well as the FBI in terms of how they allow out-of-control people the latitude to manipulate circumstances and ruin other peoples' lives while never acknowledging their own institutional culpability. I also very much appreciated the fact that the interpersonal tensions created between Kay and Lucy, Lucy and Berger, between Benton and Marino, etc. are not tidily resolved by book's end. Kay continues to have remarkable insight into her own circumstances and the sometimes fragile nature of what constitutes "normalcy" in her anything-but-normal existence. Altogether, this was a very fine read.