| Plot Summary of Blow Fly |
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Putnam, Oct 2003, 26.95, 480 pp.
ISBN: 0399150897
Six years ago Benton Wesley was tortured and murdered. Since then life has become exceedingly difficult for Kay Scarpetta. Serial Killer Jean Baptiste Chardonne, the unwanted son of a crime cartel family, tried to make Kay one of his victims. When he was caught, he tried to turn the situation around and Kay was forced to go before a grand jury to defend her reputation and honor. Her one time lover Jay Talley, Jean-Baptist's fraternal twin, used her to find out if Benton told her anything about the Chardonne crime cartel.
Unable to live in her precious Virginia home, Kay moved to Del Rey Beach, Florida working as a free lance consultant. Talley and his lover are fugitives living in the bayou near Baton Rouge where ten women in fourteen months have disappeared. Jean-Baptiste is days away from state execution and wants to see Scarpetta. Marino's son is a lawyer for the Chardonne family and is a threat to all of Kay's friends. All those people are being played by one of the world's most intelligent puppet masters.
BLOW FLY brings the various players from the last three books together allowing the audience to see what is happening to each of them. Patricia Cornwell has written a brilliant crime thriller starring a vulnerable Scarpetta, a person who has endured heartache, legal troubles, a violent attack and near death by a violent sociopath. She is nowhere near healed and when she discovers the secret those closest to her have been keeping, she will feel betrayed and anger. Ms. Cornwell is at the top of her game with her latest novel. It keeps readers on the edge of their seats absorbing one shock after another.
Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
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"At a Forensic seminar, Kay Scarpetta meets Nic Robilliard, a small-town Louisiana cop haunted by the unsolved murder of her mother years before. Scarpetta, no longer working as Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia but as a private consultant operating out of Florida, agrees to help Nic. Once in Baton Rouge, Scarpetta is dragged into a serial murder investigation that may be related to the murder of Nic's mother years earlier. Meanwhile, Scarpetta's niece Lucy, who now heads a private investigation team known as the Last Precinct, is dispatched on a crucial mission to Eastern Europe. All the while, the "Wolfman" Jean-Baptiste Chandonne awaits his execution on Death Row, but insists that Scarpetta speak with him... and be the one to insert the needle at his execution. All of this is being elaborately controlled by a man on the outside, a man who will soon reveal his face to Scarpetta. "
LaPierre, Resident Scholar
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"Scarpetta is having problems restarting her new life and adjusting to the loss of her lover/friend Benton and has relocated to Florida, working as a consultant, where she meets Nic, an insecure admiring student/police woman from the Bayou. Meanwhile friends, family, and Scarpetta start receiving mailed messages from Chandonne, a convicted murderer/torturer who is supposed to be on death row in prison, but the letters are sent from areas outside the prison making it seem as though he has escaped.
Lucy (Scarpetta's niece) who has opened her own secret business (The Last Precinct), her partner Rudy, friend Marino, and Nic travel to the swamps of the Bayou (not knowing that Scarpetta herself is also about to travel there for other similar reasons) to find Chandonne's brother Jay whose girlfriend Bev is stalking and kidnapping new victims for Jay to torture, rape, and kill.
Chandonne wants Scarpetta to visit him in prison and although she hates him for what he's done, she determines to see him even though he sickens her with his wolfman-like appearance, but wants to reassure herself that he is, in fact, still in prison."
Burgundy, Resident Scholar
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"Kay Scarpetta has become a private forensic consultant after leaving her job of many years as the Chief Medical Examiner for Virginia. Kay meets Nic Robillard, an investigator from Louisiana, while teaching a class at the National Forensic Academy. A coroner from Nic's hometown needs Scarpetta's forensic services to help solve a murder that may be connected to the disappearances of many young woman in the area. Nic is somehow involved but Kay is not certain of her connection. Then, Kay receives a letter from death row inmate, Jean-Baptiste Chandonne. He wants to see her and reveal his secrets to her. His secrets could put many important people behind bars and on death row. But Kay struggles with her emotions. She will be facing the monster Wolfman that tried to kill her in her own home with an iron pickaxe. Her colleague Pete Marino and her neice Lucy work with her to bring the Louisiana serial killer to justice and offer her support as she faces the Wolfman. "
Tracey Ray, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Blow Fly |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 17.5%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 12.5%
Tone of story
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
How difficult to spot villain?
- Story partially from villain's perspective
Time/era of story:
- present (2000-2010)
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 70%
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- solving long-past murder
- Big focus on forensic evidence
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
The crook is....
- on the run from the law
Crime Thriller
Yes
Crime plotlets:
- escape/deal with prison
Mostly a criminal POV story
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
General Crime (including known murderer)
Yes
Who's the criminal enemy here?
- catching thief
If story PRIMARILY about main chr. being hunted...
- hunted by killer/stalker
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- doctor
Age:
- 40's-50's
How much violence does he/she use?
- none
Ethnicity/Race
- White/American
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- killer
Eccentric:
Yes
- obsessed
- emotionally unstable
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
The antagonists are:
- foreign organized crime
Monster of some sort?
Yes
Kind of monster:
- the Wolfman
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Deep South
Misc setting
- prison
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 3rd
How many deaths?
- 8 or more
Sex
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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