Livid

LoveReading Says

I first met Kay Scarpetta in the '90s when I  picked up Patricia Cornwell's debut  Postmortem, and I was hooked. Scarpetta was the first woman chief medical examiner in Virginia and Cornwell sold the book whilst she was working at the office of the chief medical examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, the Creasey, the Anthony and the Macavity Awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure - the first book ever to claim all distinctions in a single year. More than thirty years and 26 Scarpetta books later, Cornwell is still knocking it out of the park.

Hailed as the first bona fide forensic thriller, Postmortem paved the way for an explosion of entertainment featuring all things forensic. CSI? You'll read it here first.

The Scarpetta series of novels centre primarily on medical examiner Scarpetta along with her tech-savvy niece Lucy and fellow investigator the trusty Pete Marino. I have adored following this series which feels like the comfort of an old friend, I sink into it and fly through the pages although the content is hardly cosy! 

If you love a series, dive in and follow their crime-fighting adventures.

Saying that, if you love a fast-paced thriller, and don't want to commit to such a huge series, Livid can be read as a standalone, and I promise you'll be gutted as the pages start disappearing and you move towards the book's close.

Scarpetta is a reluctant star witness in a sensational murder trial when she is flung into the depths of a series of murders. The Judge's sister is found dead and Scarpetta and Marino have to fight the other forces to gain control of the investigations as a forensic pathologist and  her fiercely protective sidekick Marino, a former homicide detective turned forensic operations specialist. Supported by Lucy and husband Benton, the top threat analyser and criminal profiler who both work for the US Secret Service, they are a crack team of influential crime fighters.

As they navigate the misinformation, battle against forces out of their control, they are taken back to their past to solve these heinous crimes using state-of-the-art tech and ground-breaking forensic knowledge. And I for one, was delighted to be by their side every step of the way.

Deborah Maclaren

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