Patricia Cornwell’s #has always been one of my favorite thriller authors! And the Scarpetta series has not disappointed to keep that same view for me! This series is one that will keep you waiting for the next book in the series so you can continue to read more!

I used to love, love, love Patricia Cornwell books. I took a break from them because the main character became too self-centered and whiny, but this book looked interesting and I decided to see how things were going.
Scarpetta and Marino go to a crime scene with Lucy that is pretty much an inaccessible wilderness location. For about 100 pages, that is the entire story. They go to the scene, and it's really bad, and there they are at the scene, and oh boy it's terrible. So so much repetition and needless detail.
We finally get to leave the scene, and it seems the whole thing with how terrible it was was just an exaggeration because I've read worse in Cornwell's own books. The story had a hard time getting going, and there were annoying side stories with the same boring politics that follow Scarpetta. There is also the recurrence of an old nemesis -- can't she just come up with a new bad guy instead of bringing people back from the dead again?? I remember when her husband came back from the dead, several books ago, and I rolled my eyes.
The characters have all been through terrible circumstances and yet ignore sign after sign after sign that something is seriously wrong. I don't know how they've lived this long.
Then there is an abrupt ending.
One weird thing is that there were some grammatical errors at the end, when the lack of grammatical errors was the one thing the book had going for it before.
Surely Scarpetta has enough vested that she can retire.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me preview this.

Marino is back! Better yet, with the storyline in the latest Scarpetta novel, 'Unnatural Death', it feels as if Patricia Cornwell has returned to what made this series so engaging. Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for allowing me to read the Arc in return for a review.

Always a fan of Patricia Cornwell and the Scarpetta series. Unnatural Death is, unfortunately an exception. Slow progression with elementary style writing and character development, coupled with a somewhat far-fetched, storyline, this not the Cornwell we all know and love.
I'll read the next one though!

Good book! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, Action packed, intrigue, mystery, murder, revenge, a great who done it, great plot twist, and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle!! I definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Unnatural Death by Patricia Cornwell continues the saga of chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta and family. This time we are drawn to the wilderness to recover some horribly mauled bodies and to determine causes/persons responsible. Lucy assists her aunt Kay in a multiple different ways but also has kept her in the dark. Marino manages to find a potential Sasquatch footprint. This book is slower paced in the first half and quickly picks up in the second, so much so that the ending came faster than I expected and it seemed hastily tied up in a bow. This book could be read as a stand alone novel but you would probably miss out on the true depth of all the action if you don't have some of the background.
I would like to thank #NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advanced reader copy of the book in exchange for my personal review.

An interesting take on a medical examiner and family. I haven't been reading this series so some of the stuff relating to other events had me a little lost but overall it was an interesting read.

I love how Patricia Cornwell has evolved Kay's storyline and her surroundings to current events. The plot never becomes dated or boring. Once again you are left wanting more.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the latest Kay Scarpetta book by Patricia Cornwell. I started to read this book, and just could not put it down. I woke in the middle of the night thinking about it and had to read just "one more chapter"! Famous last words. If you enjoy Cornwell, this newest Scarpetta novel will not disappoint!

I did not finish this book. I’m not sure if it was some of the lingo but it was very hard to follow and didn’t establish any connection to the characters. I just couldn’t get into it

In this new installment of Patricia Cornwell’s #1 bestselling Scarpetta series, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself in a Northern Virginia wilderness examining the remains of two campers wanted by federal law enforcement. The victims have been savaged beyond recognition, and other evidence is terrifying and baffling, including a larger-than-life footprint. After one of the most frightening body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.

I have followed this series from the very first and am amazed as how she can come up with new plots, but she does. Kay and her staff take on new dimensions with each book, and their characters are fleshed out with each new installment. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting my request.

Not gonna lie. This was almost a DNF in the first 20%. I mean, I was just NOT invested and it moved very slowly.

However, I like the author and the series and decided to plod through it. At 40%, I was finally in!

Eventually, the story starts to come together in a very interesting and suspenseful way - and the reason behind everything is much bigger than expected!

While not my favorite in the series, it ended up being pretty good.

Thank you @GrandCentralPub for my gifted copy. My thoughts are my own.

This is book 27 in the wonderful Kay Scarpetta medical thiller series. If you love thrillers, then you definitely need to check this series out. Though each book can be read as a stand-alone, I recommend you start with book 1 (POSTMORTEM) and work your way through this chilling series.

In UNNATURAL DEATH, all of the regular Scarpetta characters return, including Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Benton Wesley, Pete Marino and Lucy Farinelli . Each character is well-developed and the characters have a long and intricate history. The storyline is intriguing. The action moves quickly, and ultimately reaches a satisfying conclusion.

The case is strange. Dr. Scarpetta is whisked off on a top-secret mission with the FBI. Two bodies have been discovered mauled in an out of reach location. Pete Marino is already on the scene and he is excited about discovering a huge footprint that he is convinced belongs to Bigfoot! Kay must deal with uncooperative media, jealous co-workers, strange deaths and more.

Read this if you enjoy:
Books in a series

Well-Developed Characters with a History
Intricate & Interesting Cases

Gory Detail (at times)

432 pages

Here goes Kay and Chief Medical Examiner having problems with her staff while still having to do an onsite body removal. This evolves into having all the usual characters involved to help solve the case. Again another great book!

Thank you NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

I have always enjoyed following the Kay Scarpetta series that Patricia Cornwell writes. I look forward to the arrival of each new book. I like Kay and her FBI profiler husband. The relationship Kay has with her assistant Marino and her computer, techno savvy niece Lucy make for interesting reading.
All work together to solve each crime.

This book was a bit slow at the beginning. It was very procedural for almost 3/4 of the book.
The action really takes place in the last 25%. A criminal character from earlier novels becomes a part of this story. Once they are re-introduced, it is easy to see where the next book in the series will be going.

3.5 stars

In this 27th book in the 'Kay Scarpetta' series, the medical examiner's latest case involves two victims suspected of cybercrimes. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.

*****

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is once again the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia, but the situation isn't ideal. Scarpetta's morgue facilities need an upgrade and she'd like to get better security guards. In addition, the governor of Virginia recently created the 'redundant and ridiculous' Department of Emergency Prevention (DEP), with offices in the morgue building. Worse yet, the woman in charge of DEP operations, Maggie Cutbush, badmouths Kay every chance she gets.

As the story opens, two homicide victims have been found in Buckingham Run, a Virginia wilderness area near an abandoned gold mine. The deceased are thought to be a married couple named Huck and Brittany Manson, who were being investigated by the government for cybercrimes in conjunction with Russia and China. The Mansons, who live near Buckingham Run, have been camping in the wilderness area for months, presumably to evade surveillance by the authorities.

Scarpetta needs to get to Buckingham Run ASAP, to examine and retrieve the bodies. Buckingham Run is completely overgrown, however, so Scarpetta gets a ride on the Doomsday Bird helicopter flown by Kay's niece Lucy - a secret service agent. The Doomsday Bird chopper landing on morgue grounds draws a crowd, and DEP manager Maggie Cutbush loudly comments about privilege and nepotism and the like, to try to inflame the public against Kay.

After some harrowing maneuvers in a cave and on a lake, the Mansons' bodies are recovered. Looking at the evidence, Scarpetta and her forensics officer, Pete Marino, determine that the attack on the couple was almost inexplicable. The Mansons had security cameras along the path to their campsite, and were heavily armed themselves. Nevertheless - though the attacker made a lot of noise - the security cameras DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING, and the Mansons were mowed down in an EXTREMELY vicious manner.

To add to the enigma, Marino discovers a huge footprint in a cave at the crime scene, which he interprets as the print of a Sasquatch. Marino, who attends Bigfoot conventions and the like, is very serious about the possibility of a Sasquatch living in the region.

Scarpetta does autopsies on both Huck and Brittany Manson, and makes discoveries that interest the Secret Service and other government agencies. Kay's husband, Benton Wesley, an FBI profiler, weighs in as well, and helps the authorities investigate the murders.

In the course of the story, Kay and Marino also learn that an old enemy is active once more.....and this is a VERY DANGEROUS FOE.

The story is heavy with technical details, such as the extensive preflight checklist for the Doomsday Bird helicopter, the flight to Buckingham Run, securing the chopper after landing, and so on. There are also comprehensive descriptions of the Mansons' autopsies, including preparation of the autopsy trailer (used for special cases), as well as discussions of X-rays, cutting, sawing, stomach contents, injuries, etc. This kind of business takes up about a quarter of the book.

Various interesting characters make an appearance in the story, including: Kay's morgue assistant Fabian - a stylish young man with big ambitions; Kay's sister Dorothy - a flamboyant woman who always tries to snoop into Kay's business; police investigator Blaise Fruge - a capable detective who's worked with Kay before; anthropologist Cate Kingston - a Sasquatch expert; forensic examiner Faye Hanaday - who likes to bake elaborate cakes in her spare time; and more.

By the end of the book, the investigators figure out exactly what happened, and their conclusions have frightening implications.

An aspect of the book I like is the chitchat about food and wine; Kay - who has Italian ancestry - loves ethnic dishes, and the novel has scenes with delicious antipasto and homemade pizza.

I'm a fan of the Kay Scarpetta series, but I felt that it was going downhill for a long while. Recently, however, the books have gotten better, and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

Thanks to Netgalley, Patricia Cornwell, and Grand Central Publishing for a copy of the book.

Unnatural Death is the twenty-seventh installment in the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell, and it’s as good as they get. My thanks go to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the review copy. You can get it now.

For those not conversant with the series, Scarpetta is a medical examiner for the state of Virginia. She’s moved around over the course of the series, decamped to Boston, and come back. So now she’s in her old stomping grounds, but all is not well. The obnoxious, obstructive secretary she was saddled with in the last book, a miserable woman that blamed her for the ouster of the corrupt man that came before, has been—finally—fired, but somehow, she is back in a different government position in the same building, along with the corrupt guy she likes working with, so it’s tense.

Our other permanent characters are Pete Marino, who’s worked with Kay forever and is now married to her sister, Dorothy, who’s a hot mess; Benton Wesley, Kay’s enigmatic husband, a forensic psychologist that works in extremely high level situations that he can’t tell Kay about, even when they have a bearing on her life; and Lucy, her adult niece whom she has raised as her own, and who is the daughter of Dorothy. Lucy is a wunderkind, a tech wizard employed by the FBI, sometimes on loan to the CIA.

I won’t go into the premise for this installment because you can get that in the promotional blurb, but I will tell you that by the ten percent mark I was riveted, and before the halfway point my notes say, “I hate being away from this thing.” A shocking development occurs that is much more impactful to those of us that have followed the series from the start. I have heard other reviewers say that they used to read the series, then lost the habit, so I will say this: if you have read most of the series but missed a book here or there, you can still get the full measure of this thriller. If you just missed the most recent one, that’s okay. But if you go into this book cold, your very first time reading a Scarpetta book, some of the magic will be missing. Perhaps you will read it and be impressed enough to go back and binge read the whole series. It’s not a bad idea!

Any author that writes a long running, successful series like this has to flesh out the main characters to keep readers’ attention. For the first few books, pure plot-based adrenaline rushes are possible, but at some point, there’s going to be a credibility issue continuing that way. I would have difficulty believing that a forensic coroner had been kidnapped by bad guys and hurled into the back of a vehicle, bound and gagged, even once, but when it happens over and over, I’m done and I’m done. Cornwell does the smart thing instead, developing crises that are sometimes more about others in Kay’s family, but that nevertheless spill over onto her in a big way. In doing this, she forces us to examine questions that have no easy answers. For example, if an extremely dangerous development comes up that could affect you or your family, but it is also a matter of national security, and one family member knows, should they break the vows of their office in order to let you or other family members know? Or should they keep it ambiguous, along the lines of, “Maybe you should stay home today?” What if two know, and you don’t?

One way or the other, this story is a wild ride. The tension is occasionally broken up by Marino’s fixation on Bigfoot. He’s obsessed, and it cracks me up when we’re worried about killer drones and enemies unseen, and then Marino pipes up about the big ole footprint he found in the woods.

For quite awhile I have wondered why Cornwell hasn’t been made a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Hopefully, this outstanding novel will serve as a clarion call. Highly recommended.

Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series has consistently been one of my preferred choices for crime fiction reading. Her skillful integration of captivating mysteries, empathetic characters, and forensic science has kept the series relevant for decades. Although Cornwell took a brief hiatus from Scarpetta, she reintroduced the character with a soft reboot in 2021. Now, she returns with the 27th Scarpetta novel, Unnatural Death. As a devoted fan of the series, I eagerly embraced the opportunity to receive a copy of the novel from Cornwell's publisher. True to its predecessors, this latest installment retains all the familiar elements fans adore while introducing new twists bound to captivate even the most seasoned mystery enthusiasts.

Kay Scarpetta faces an ongoing battle to maintain order in her role as Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Virginia. Unanticipated challenges arise from the loyalists to her predecessor, who are determined to complicate her life. The situation is exacerbated by severe budget cuts, making the procurement of basic supplies nearly impossible and pushing Kay to the edge. The story unfolds as she boards a helicopter with her CIA niece, Lucy, bound for a remote location where two deaths have occurred, unleashing a myriad of questions and confusion.

Upon arriving at the scene, two bodies are discovered—one male and one female. The gruesome sight is not for the faint of heart, with the man's body appearing to have been torn apart before being discarded in an abandoned mine shaft. At the same time, the woman's remains float in a nearby lake, becoming prey for the creatures inhabiting it. The question looms: is this the work of a deranged killer, or have the creatures of the wilderness reclaimed their territory? As Kay grapples with this horrific scene, her longtime investigative partner, Marino, presents an even more perplexing discovery—a cast of a human-like footprint, seemingly too large for a man. Convinced it proves the existence of the legendary sasquatch, Marino faces skepticism from everyone else at the scene. Despite her doubts, Kay must utilize all her skills to unravel the mysteries of this unsettling sight.

The 27th book in the series introduces readers to another perplexing mystery. The narrative takes a while to gain momentum, with Cornwell dedicating the initial third of the novel to catching readers up on Kay's professional and personal life. While longtime series fans may appreciate these updates, first-time readers might find the opening a bit slow. However, the beginning's political intrigue and personal challenges soon lead to a mystery that taps into current events and paranoia that thoroughly hooked me. In addition to the detailed exploration of the victims' causes of death, Cornwell introduces lingering uncertainties about the possible existence of a mythical creature at the crime scene. Kay and Marino become entangled in a conspiracy that forces them and the readers to question everything they encounter. This creates a suspenseful narrative that held my interest throughout. Unnatural Death delivers all the elements I expect from Cornwell's series and lays the groundwork for even more compelling adventures in future books.

so first i would like to thank Netgalley so much for my copy of this book. this is my first book by this author and i really enjoyed this book,the twist the turns keep you intrested kay scarpetta is a wonderful character. very chilling storyline highly recommend

I have not liked the most recent Kay Scarpetta novels, and this one continues the trend. The book is overlong and takes multiple pages to describe things that would take at most one page. And I do not see myself ever in the need to know exactly how to fly a helicopter. Her niece Lucy’s role in the book is superfluous. And now she is a Secret Service agent? Will she be part of NASA next? Scarpetta’s husband makes a short appearance in the book, mostly to include him. Marino’s character in the book is just lifted from the previous books. There is too much technology and futuristic technology involved in the plot to keep Scarpetta away from doing her real job as a medical examiner. I was more concerned about the cat, frankly.