Book Review: Predator #21

Author: Patricia Cornwell
Title: Predator
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: Sept 26, 2006
Buy: Amazon
"Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing with the National Forensic Academy in Florida, digs into a case more bizarre than any she has ever faced, one that has produced not only unusual physical evidence, but also tantalizing clues about the inner workings of an extremely cunning and criminal mind." "She and her team - Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and her niece Lucy -...more"Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing with the National Forensic Academy in Florida, digs into a case more bizarre than any she has ever faced, one that has produced not only unusual physical evidence, but also tantalizing clues about the inner workings of an extremely cunning and criminal mind." "She and her team - Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and her niece Lucy - track the odd connections between several horrific crimes and the people who are the likely suspects. In Florida, Scarpetta is investigating the puzzling disappearance of four people who have been abducted from their quiet home, leaving their car parked haphazardly in the driveway and a stove burner on low. Then Marino finds something in a nearby house that stops him cold: a woman who has complained of harassment from a citrus canker inspector has been viciously murdered in her bed." As one psychopath, safely behind bars and the subject of a classified scientific study at a Harvard-affiliated psychiatric hospital, teases Scarpetta with tips that could be fact - or fantasy - the number of killers on the loose seems to multiply. Are these events related or merely random? And what can the study of one man's brain tell them about the methods of a psychopath still lurking in the shadows?
 
Review:  This was the first Scarpetta novel that I've read, and I have to say, I wasn't really impressed by it. I realize that I picked up one of the later books in this series, but I had heard a lot of good things about this author, so I thought I'd give this book a try.
 
It was a fast easy read, much like James Patterson's books, but unlike Alex Cross, Kay Scarpetta, is pretty unlikable, and though she's the heroine of the book, she isn't the focal point, which makes the story a bit all over the place.  There is simply too much going on in this book.
 
It doesn't help matters that part of the mystery is easily deduced about 100 pages in. Waiting for the characters to figure it out becomes tedious, especially when it is so hard to like them.
 
Predator is told from varying points of view and for someone just meeting these characters, it makes the story a whole lot less cohesive. Actually I think it would feel the same way for anyone that has read all the previous books. What this did for me, was make it difficult to like any of the characters.  Each seemed to be more depressing and miserable than the other.  No one seemed to care about anyone, or rather none of the relationships between the characters were good ones, so the story felt strained.
 
The ending was the worst part. It felt like Cornwell just decided that the book should be over now. There was some high drama, at the end of the next to the last chapter and when the final chapter begins, there's no resolution. We have no idea what happened.
 
The only good thing about this book is that it is a quick read. I didn't feel I wasted my life on it.  Will I read another Scarpetta book? Probably not.
 
Rating: 2 flowers