This action on Bray’s part is actually illegal according to Virginia state law and makes any evidence obtained from the body now inadmissible in court. When Kay informs Bray that the State Prosecutor’s Office will take a very dim view of her illegal actions, the gauntlet is thrown and we know that only one of the two will survive – professionally, personally or both. Thankfully nothing really bad happened, but it was enough to shake her to the core. When her brother appeared on his bicycle, the guy was trying to take Patricia to his car, which would have most likely ended up in her death. Elegant, trumpet-like lilies, she thought. But there was something off. Something not right. It was the colour. It was strange, sort of pale and flesh-coloured… I didn't like the abrupt ending of this book, and I didn't buy Kay's feelings for Tally. Two business meetings, a one-night stand, and a lovers' spat, and suddenly she can't get him off her mind and is desperate to find him. Yet nothing ever comes of it. It was disappointing. Shifts in narrative, from first person to third person, from book to book, didn’t work and were jarring. She stretched plotlines and subplot lines over books and then wrapped them up in the most head scratching perfunctory way.

Characters - 3/5 : No new one, just turning good to bad and bad to worse, and if that is called a twist, I do not accept.

Heroine - 2/5 : Kay Scarpetta. She thinks she can do anything and cryout. Just wanted to say that it does not work all the time. I remember in the middle of the series, I really felt for her. Now she has really turned into some stranger to me. There is more oh-godding and yay-death-penalty, but again, just an escalation of her norm. Added up, I think she must do some political free lancing since she doesn't do regular work otherwise yet harps on and on about success-less people undermining the great. All conversations are monologues of people talking apart from each other, which sadly does not seem to be an intentianal post-p-p-modern statement since Cornwell has never managed dialogue, though if she enhances her incompetences to make them work for her, I guess one has to give her cudos, just don't think the target audience (see above) even recognises that.

The autopsy performed by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta initially reveals neither a cause of death nor an identification. But the victim's personal effects and an odd tattoo take Scarpetta on a hunt for information that leads to INTERPOL's headquarters in Lyon, France, where she receives critical instructions: go to the Paris morgue to receive forbidden, secret evidence and then return to Virginia to carry out a mission. It is a mission that could ruin her career. For the third book in a row, Cornwell intimates that Benton’s death would be more accurately described with quotation marks around the word, that something is seriously amiss despite the autopsy report. While the behavioral symptoms expressed by Kay are primarily those of grief, the behaviors exhibited by Marino and Lucy are more exactly attributed to guilt, to the keeping of secrets. And those secrets are eating them alive.Not many people know, but the author of the popular dr. Kay Scarpetta novels has also written a couple of non-fiction books, among them also being two foodie books as well – and they’re great too! This book was exactly what I needed. Mystery.. excitement..suspense. I was sitting on the edge of my seat speculating most of the time. I didn't want to put it down. It was not boring in the least! After reading book one, Post mortem, starring Kay Scarpetta & Pete Marino I was absolutely hooked and If you ever want a prime example of a book series that has taken a sharp nosedive in quality, this is the one. I was in a program called, Safe Quarters, being protected from my youngest sister and brother and I bought the audio version of Last Precinct.” I had a brand new car and I sat outside the facility in the heat of summer, runnng my car air conditioning, and read your box on my car radio. Guys, most homeless would come by the car to visit me, some getting in and listening for awhile, all wondering what I was doing in a place like that! In the four and one half months I was there I read six of your books on audio and spent a whole lot of money on gas! But I developed a love for you YOU and Kay!

Very unlikable new characters in the precinct and they're also a whole lotta shady. It's also a prelude to Scarpetta moving on to other things and Marino keeps being demoted and promoted so there's lots going on in terms of their careers. Also, Lucy and Kay have a fight after a long time getting along so there's a lot of tumultuous relationships in this one. There's this French serial killer on the loose and he runs off to Virginia. Interpol gets involved because Scarpetta involves them and she and Marino get to visit France. Scarpetta gets a new beau and the case solved. There's a killer on the loose that no one seems to understand his motives. He's vicious and very destructive to his victims body. He started his murders in Paris and has now transferred his evil doings into the United States, particularly the state of Virginia. However, there's something strange about this killer. He has a rare disease called hypertrichosis; his body being fully covered with hair. At each of the crime scenes this hair has been found on the victims. One victim was able to escape his torture but can't describe his features. The things that he does to his victims leaves them unidentifiable. Everyone is out to harrass and hurt dear Kay, as usual, until in the end she calls in a few favours of her thousands of powerful friends that come out of nowhere, just like the many luxury items she buys in some limbo time. I've tried hard to stop rereading paragraphs to make sense of mistakes, not just in missing sentences or information, but also in contradicting descriptions of place, all the more annoying because detailing every move always made up most of Cornwell's novels. She still phones up a French restaurant owner at home instead of googling a word, so it's no surprise she skips over to Europe for a bit again. Definitely one of the better Scarpetta novels. A rich mix of forensic science, gruesome murders and drama drama drama. I was reminded how much I hate waiting to meet the killer until the end of the book.Postmortem, published in 1990, is, I think, also her most popular book as well. It is really the book that started a new trend with CSI-style novels – forensic anthropology mystery books involved in solving brutal murders, and serial killer cases, all that would take the fiction genre by storm. Her first novel, Postmortem, was written during this time, and while initially it was not successfully received, it was eventually published, and it became the first book in her popular crime series. This basically launched her writing career.The author is living in Boston where she is working on her next book. Lucy has turned gun happy & willing to kill every bad man she thinks she sees. Marino is balled up in knots in regards to Benton. Pete Marino – Captain in the Richmond Police Department. He was transferred from being a homicide detective to a shift commander by Diane Bray. She then runs out of the house, but falls and fractures her elbow, making her unable to fire her gun. At this time, Lucy and Jo return, and Lucy runs over and points a gun at the assailant's head, with the intention of killing him, but Marino and Kay convince her not to do it.