SIGH.

We are back with the twenty sixth installment of the Kay Scarpetta series. This book released to some pretty great reviews, especially from some other best selling authors. I am not quite certain they have been reading the same series that I have. By the time I got halfway through, I was really prepared to come here and write an absolutely scathing review. I was irritated before I made it to the end of chapter one. We are dealing with some of the same (insert derogatory words) characters from the previous book, namely that horrible secretary and her cohort. I cannot stand those two, and to be a book series about murder, none of the people that SHOULD die ever do. We also have the same infuriating characters from the rest of the series, namely Dorothy and Lucy. Lucy used to be one of my absolute favorite characters, but halfway through the series...ick. She wasn't as intolerable in this particular book, thank goodness, because there were enough intolerable characters to go around in it. I have about had enough of her and her AI partner. That is unreasonable. We also have a few recurring themes that are particularly irritating when they are in every single book, but I won't mention what they were so that I do not spoil this for those who have yet to read it....but if you are a committed reader to the series, you can probably guess what I mean when I say TYPICAL KAY SHENANIGANS.

As far as the premise of the story, Scarpetta is still sifting through the mess left from previous medical examiners in the office. She is on the witness stand testifying about a case that she did not personally handle, when she gets word that another body was found...and it happens to be the sister of the judge presiding over the case she is handling. I will say that the author always does her research, and you can tell over the course of the series how much forensic science has evolved since the first book came out. I love the descriptions of the investigation, which is one reason I got into this series a long time ago. I saw a couple of other reviews that said they felt like the author was boasting about her research, and I do not feel like that is the case at all. I will say that some of the technology that she talks about, typically revolving around Lucy, is always so dramatic and seemingly far fetched that is is grating after a while. I also have to note that I appreciate that she is keeping up with the times, mentioning the pandemic and lockdown, but GOSH I am so sick of hearing about people screaming "fake news". (There are few things that I hate more than red lipstick, and fake news, snowflake, and libtard are three of those things. That crap gets screamed around by anyone trying to rub two brain cells together for warmth and it is SO TIRESOME seeing it all the time on social media and in the news that I do not really care to read it in my books.) There is clearly a leak in her office, and clearly corruption going on, and that is something that I am also reading and hearing daily in the news. People generally turn to fiction books to get away from this type of negativity and idiocy, but here we are. Still reading about the same nonsense that people are getting up to right out our front door. At any rate, the research was well done and the investigative process in the book as far as handling the dead bodies and figuring out all the pieces to the puzzle was interesting and entertaining. The continuity of the characters and the timeline is always spot on between the books, which I appreciate.

I found a lot of this book to be infuriating, though the parts that were good prompted me to not be as negative as I initially thought I was going to and to leave it a three star review instead of the generous two star that I had planned to leave when I was about halfway through the book. All material is subjective to the reader, and I suppose there are plenty of people who felt that this deserved a five star rating. Good for them, but I am not one. I do have to admit that the past few books have certainly been better than some of the ones that came before them, and I am slowly starting to not be as disappointed by this series as I have been. I have read all twenty six books up to current, and since I have spent the time and energy doing so, I will continue to read them and hope they continue to get back to where they were in the first half of the series.