Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell (1993)

 

About the author: Patricia Cornwell (born 1956) is an American crime writer. She is known for her best-selling novels featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, of which the first was inspired by a series of sensational murders in Richmond, Virginia, where most of the stories are set. The plots are notable for their emphasis on forensic science, which has influenced later TV treatments of police work. (wikipedia)

Locale: Virginia

Synopsis: Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner, Kay Scarpetta, is anxiously awaiting a scheduled execution of Ronnie Joe Waddell, convicted for the murder of TV anchor Robyn Naismith. If the execution occurs as scheduled, she will have to go into the office to perform the autopsy. If the execution is delayed at the last minute by Governor Norring, she gets the night off. As it happens, the governor does not intervene, Waddell is executed, and so she has to go in to work. There were some irregularities in the execution - causing what could be odd injuries to Waddell - and so Kay is questioned harshly by attorney Nicholas Grueman.

All is routine until several weeks later when a 13-year old boy, Eddie Heath, is murdered. There are similarities to the Naismith murder.

Later, Jennifer Deighton, who reads horoscopes for others from her home, is found dead as an apparent suicide. It is quickly determined, however, that it was a murder. Then the shocker: fingerprints at the scene match those of executed Ronnie Joe Waddell. It appears Waddell is alive - and therefore, someone else was executed in his place.

Review: I generally don't read too many modern mysteries, being turned off by gory descriptions and high body counts, but I tried this one for several reasons. It received good reviews from others in the Medical Examiner's Reading Challenge which I host, it features a Medical Examiner (so I could hopefully pick up some pointers for the challenge), and I found a copy in my used book store.

Good: The characters are interesting and develop well. Police Lt. Pete Marino seems a copy (and that's not bad!) of Lt. Cramer of the Nero Wolfe series. The character I enjoyed the most was lawyer Nicholas Grueman. He appears as an annoying pain-in-the-ass antagonist to Kay, and unexpectedly develops into an ally. It is interesting to see their relationship, marred by past differences, heal as they work together.

Not so good: First, a fair play complaint. The surprise killer is not introduced by name until a few pages before the end(!); so the reader has no chance of solving this by fingering the killer on their own.

This 1993 novel has a lot of dated computer references, with a space devoted to explanations of UNIX coding, networking protocols, and deleting old files to free up drive space (remember doing that?). They are not germane to the plot, and the reader may wish to skim over these parts.

This is #4 in the series. Had I But Known (HIBK) I would have started with #1, as it appears several of the characters and events have previously been introduced in earlier books. Overall, I enjoyed the read - the requisite morgue scenes were well done, matter of fact, stated quickly, and not upsetting. The high body count (9) could have been trimmed a bit, but most of them are essential to the plot.

All in all, a solid 3 on a scale of 1-5. I will grab other titles as I see them available.

Also please see this review by Gayle Noble (OutsmartYourShelf)