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Patricia Cornwell
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Flesh and Blood (Scarpetta) Mass Market Paperback – March 9, 2021

by Patricia Cornwell (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 19,558
Editors' pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
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#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers another enthralling thriller in her high-stakes forensic series starring Kay Scarpetta.

It’s Dr. Kay Scarpetta’s birthday and she’s about to head to Miami for a vacation with her FBI profiler husband Benton Wesley when she notices seven pennies on a wall behind their Cambridge house. Is this a kids’ game? If so, why are all of the coins dated 1981 and so shiny it’s as if they’re newly minted? Then her cellphone rings, and Detective Pete Marino tells her there’s been a homicide five minutes away. A high school music teacher has been shot with shocking precision as he unloaded groceries from his car. No one heard or saw a thing. It’s as if God did it.

In this 22nd Scarpetta novel, the master forensic sleuth finds herself in the middle of a nightmarish pursuit of a serial sniper who seems to leave no evidence except fragments of copper. The shots are so perfect, they cause instant death and seem impossible, and the death scenes aren’t crime scenes because the killer was never within hundreds of yards of the victims. The victims seem to have nothing in common, and there is no pattern that might indicate where the Copperhead will strike next. First New Jersey, then Massachusetts, and then into the murky depths off the coast of South Florida, where Scarpetta dives a shipwreck, looking for answers that only she can discover and analyze. There she must face an unthinkable truth that points in the direction of her techno genius niece, Lucy, Scarpetta’s own flesh and blood.

Previous page
  1. Book 22 of 28
    Kay Scarpetta
  2. Print length
    464 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    William Morrow Paperbacks
  5. Publication date
    March 9, 2021
  6. Dimensions
    4.75 x 1.15 x 7 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0063063565
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0063063563
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Thrilling . . . pits the chief medical examiner against a threat uncomfortably close to home.” — Publishers Weekly

“This is in many ways the best of the recent Scarpetta novels, boasting an involving story and some fine writing. Kay has finally found her voice as a first-person narrator. . . . Readers will give this one an enthusiastic thumbs up.” — Booklist

“Everyone knows Scarpetta; she has the wit, intelligence, and strength that any forensic sleuth should own. This never-stop action plot is yet another gift to readers from Patricia Cornwell-a literary artist that is never going to stop writing some of the best and most memorable thrillers out there.” — Suspense Magazine

“Dr. Kay Scarpetta… [is] an awesome force in the field of forensic science.” — New York Times Book Review

“In her twenty-second Scarpetta novel, Cornwell’s forensic knowhow is still at the cutting edge - even though Scarpetta was the prototype for most of TV’s crack forensic investigators today - and her final scenes are both logical and shocking.” — BBC (UK)

“From its opening pages, Flesh and Blood offers an adrenaline-fueled yet cerebral chase for a serial-killer that opens Scarpetta and her entourage to mortal danger. . . . Another chilling, delicious ride.” — Chapter 16

“Absorbing.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Readers should be both thrilled and jolted…” — CT Post

“Cornwell is still the ace of forensic science mysteries. Dr. Kay Scarpetta and her family and friends just keep growing as characters, and Cornwell’s plots are still taut and tangled. . . . With Flesh and Blood, Cornwell is at the top of her game.” — RT Book Reviews

“What [Cornwell and Scarpetta] continue to have crucially in common . . . is an unslacking commitment to doing their jobs right-getting to the bottom of things, in Scarpetta’s case; providing complexity and depth and suspense and thrills, in Cornwell’s. I should warn you that there’s a cliffhanger ending.” — Sullivan County Democrat

About the Author

Patricia Cornwell is recognized as one of the world’s top bestselling crime authors with novels translated into thirty-six languages in more than 120 countries. Her novels have won numerous prestigious awards including the Edgar, the Creasey, the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Prix du Roman d’Aventure. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Patricia has written a definitive book about Jack the Ripper, a biography, and three more fiction series among others. Cornwell, a licensed helicopter pilot and scuba diver, actively researches the forensic technologies that inform her work. She was born in Miami, grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston. 

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Paperbacks (March 9, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0063063565
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063063563
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.75 x 1.15 x 7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 19,558

About the author

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Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell

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In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure prize—the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. Growing into an international phenomenon, the Scarpetta series won Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development.

Today, Cornwell’s novels and iconic characters are known around the world. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written the definitive nonfiction account of Jack the Ripper’s identity, cookbooks, a children’s book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and two other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano and Andy Brazil. While writing Quantum, Cornwell spent two years researching space, technology, and robotics at Captain Calli Chase’s home base, NASA’s Langley Research Center, and studied cutting-edge law enforcement and security techniques with the Secret Service, the US Air Force, NASA Protective Services, Scotland Yard, and Interpol.

Cornwell was born in Miami. She grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston and Los Angeles.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
19,558 global ratings
As always. Patricia Cornwell writes an interesting ad suspenseful ...
5 Stars
As always. Patricia Cornwell writes an interesting ad suspenseful ...
As always. Patricia Cornwell writes an interesting ad suspenseful story that makes you want to keep on reading. Can't wait for her next book. I've read them all.
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Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Scarpetta is always a good bet.
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2024
Verified Purchase
I've read most of Patricia Cornwell's books. They never disappoint. Always love to dive back in to Kay and Bentons complex marriage and family and see what psychopath or murderer they are pursuing.
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E D K
4.0 out of 5 stars Strong Series But Problems Still Remain
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2014
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As a fan of this series, there have always been things that bugged me. The complete dropping of characters book to book, plot holes, the morphing of Lucy's business from her own personal MI6 to a school to a quasi-official agency... Most of this is forgivable. (The two dropped characters that deserved better were Lucy's ATF boss who she partnered with to start her business and her injured ATF girlfriend Jo who is literally waiting in the driveway for Lucy to nurse her back to health at the end of one book and broken up with and dispatched to her parents at the start of the next.) The weakest point in the series, which began with the all time worst book Blow Fly, featured third person narration, Lucy's absurd James Bond period, and the unreality of Benton's return to the world of the living. (They'd found his skinned off face and it's never explained.) Getting them back to more official investigative work, returning to first person narration, and settling into a more permanent set of locations, characters, and relationships has greatly helped the series. Though not as satisfying as Dust, Flesh and Blood is another entertaining entry. Unfortunately, my biggest pet peeves with the series have yet to be addressed.

#1. Scarpetta continues to doubt, question, and mistrust her niece. There was hardly any action or words spoken by Lucy that wasn't met with a "I wonder what that means..." discussion from Scarpetta. (Her conclusions seem way off much of the time.) This constant suspicion is bad enough coming from others. For all the talk about damage done to Lucy by former girlfriends and her mother, the questioning and doubt from her aunt seems far worse to me.

In one of the early books, Lucy is accused of a crime. (Not uncommon. Lucy is frequently in the suspect pool, this book included. It's getting old.) Instead of taking the opportunity to say, "You're my niece, I know you didn't do it, we'll find out who did," Scarpetta accepts it as a possibility until it's proved otherwise. She's improved somewhat since, but all of Lucy's actions are still met with questions. ("Why the new car? Why'd she park here? What does this mean?" She borders on paranoia. She's a hypocrite too since she gets angry when info is kept from her but she hides things from Lucy she doesn't think she can handle.) Scarpetta clearly believes her niece has limitless potential and is capable of anything, but she continually fears what that might be. Lucy's tortured herself over whether or not she's a good person and Scarpetta has made it worse not better. Lucy is often secretive, but so is Benton and she rarely questions his motivations. I'm sick of Lucy constantly being a suspect and even the main characters doubting her. The reader never believes her capable of it, even if her family does.

#2. Janet needs to play a bigger role. Since her reappearance in these books, she has been "onscreen" for five or six pages per book if that. Involvement in the plot would be nice since it would allow for some character development. A pretty momentous event for Janet happens in this book, yet she only appears in the last chapter and has no dialogue. Granted these books focus on the cases and even Benton frequently finds himself on the periphery. Still, there should be a way to get her more involved so we can actually learn something about her as a person. She's Lucy's partner, she's pretty, she's good at the job we don't see her do, and Scarpetta thinks she's the only thing keeping Lucy in line (more doubting her niece.) Add to that the smattering of family detail we learn in this one and it's still not much to hang your hat on.

Cornwell could kill two birds with one stone by involving Janet more and getting her and Scarpetta to spend time together. Ideally, Janet would be someone who unconditionally trusts and believes in Lucy. Seeing that in her, Scarpetta could face the doubt she harbors and address it directly. We have tension between Scarpetta and Lucy, Scarpetta and Marino, Scarpetta and her staff... Enough already. They face more than enough outside pressures. They're a family and I'm hoping, in future, a more trusting and functional one.

#3. Scarpetta has terrible taste in associates. I can't remember how many of her employees, co-workers, and law enforcement friends have turned out to be criminals, involved with criminals, dishonest, or incompetent. How long does this have to go on? She has Benton, Marino, and Lucy. Everyone else going back to the beginning has failed her. Plus she doesn't particularly trust Lucy and Marino tried to assault her. For being at the top of her field for as long as she has, Scarpetta sure has a horrible record of working with others. The first time we meet the woman who replaced Marino we're treated to a whiny complaint about how she made a horrible mistake but now they're stuck with her. Later, problems arise because of other unreliable PD and lab people. Is this because Cornwell wants everything to be done only by the main characters and making everyone else they work with incompetent, annoying, or a bad guy ensures that that will happen? By this point she should have a good group she can believe in. The only person she seems to completely trust is Benton and that's just not good enough. In the book she says she doesn't forgive carelessness or incompetence. Since she's been surrounded by that and worse her entire career, I'm not sure I believe her.

Those are my big annoyances and this book not only didn't fix them, it emphasized them. Scarpetta's constant questioning of Lucy and wondering at her thoughts and motivations really annoyed me. And she shouldn't always be a suspect, we know Lucy didn't do it. Janet undergoes a big impactful event in this book that will greatly affect them going forward, yet she's barely seen. Even when it's important, she hardly shows up. If she's here to stay, she needs to play a bigger role at least occasionally. Lastly, Scarpetta's continued run of poorly chosen associates reminded me again of the long string of horrible people who have worked with her. For such a smart group of people, they frequently have terrible judgment. (Scarpetta, Marino, and Lucy have all slept with murderers, and virtually all of the series' villains were people they once trusted. That's some pretty bad judgment.)

In the future, I hope she addresses the problem areas. I can't imagine having invisible Janet, Lucy eternally viewed as an unstable sociopath, and every single associate causing them problems for another 20 books.
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Marie M Chapman
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply thrilling!
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2024
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Once you start, it's hard to put this book down. I'll recommend this to all those who enjoy reading a well written suspense.
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Angela H.
3.0 out of 5 stars OK, Kay and the gang, I am cutting you some slack ............
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2014
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Scarpetta and crew are overdue for some redemption. I found my review for Dust, installment #21 in the lives of Kay Scarpetta and her crew, and I gave it a TWO. I've read them all and have just about given up on them a few times along the way. To be truthful, I was apprehensive to begin reading Flesh and Blood. After such a history with these characters, I just want to be gripped again by the stories these people can tell. My answer to "Well? How was it?": It was okay. Am I sorry I read it? No. That alone makes me somewhat happy, when you have loved a series as I have loved this one. I can tell you I WAS that disappointed after Dust. However, I thought the balance was better between storyline/action and the character's obsessions regarding their personal lives. I thought the ballistics study was interesting and reminded me of earlier books in which I enjoyed learning forensic and crime scene info. Personally, I am happier when the concentration is placed more on a mystery and the story as compared to personal drama. There seemed to be more focus on the plot; although I still would say it is a very long book for so little plot progression. I FELT the evil they battled this time and it has been quite awhile since I have gotten that involved in Scarpetta's world, to be honest. I liked elements of the past resurfacing and I LIKED the ending. So, all in all, I say, "Thanks, Patricia, for moving toward the Scarpetta of old and I enjoyed it enough to pick up the next installment." While we aren't exactly there yet, this was a good effort!
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C Lynn P
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it, can't wait for the next installment
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2015
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Let's face it, your either love Kay Scarpetta and the stories Patricia writes about her, or you don't. If you do, then this book is wonderful and a super follow-up to the last book. It's so well written, I can't understand the people who have panned it. I have read everything Patricia has published over the past 20 years, and some books just don't cut it. But this one is a great story, interesting plot, lots of details and a few nice surprises. I am thinking that the people who gave this really poor reviews just don't like the character Kay and the stories associated with her and her family/friends. If you do like this group of people, then reading this book is like visiting old friends and getting involved in their lives for a short time. Cornwell stays true to the lifestyle and deeds of her characters, she doesn't try to change the way they react, she just lets them do what you would expect them to do if you know them from past books. They are like real people, flaws and all. I was very entertained by this book, I finished it in 2 evenings and can't wait for the next one.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Kathi Zarfas
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in Canada on April 20, 2018
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Well written very interesting book the storyline was good. The ending was quite unusual not ending as expected. Enjoyed the read
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Dolagobinda Dash
3.0 out of 5 stars Something good
Reviewed in India on January 4, 2020
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Low paper quality but good book
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lielena
5.0 out of 5 stars perfetto
Reviewed in Italy on April 23, 2018
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Il libro è perfetto quasi senza segni di usura ed è arrivato presto, Ottimo per mantenere in allenamento il proprio inglese.
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Cecilia
4.0 out of 5 stars Otimo
Reviewed in Brazil on April 19, 2016
Verified Purchase
Mto bom, a narrativa prende a atençao, ficando dificil soltar o livro. Como os outros livros, a Dra Scarpetta está brilhante!
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arosawhite
5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime comme toujours
Reviewed in France on March 16, 2016
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Histoire superbe.Le lecteur continue à lire tout le temps pour arriver au dénouement. L'héroïne Kay Scarpetta nous laisse voir son univers d'une façon très réelle. On croit être avec elle en train de faire nos analyses de médecin légiste.
A recommander ! !
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