There are some good relationships within the book and the closeness of the characters

does provide an extra element of tension to the story.

This did actually help to make this a three star book as it made me more inclined to keep
the pages turning at a fast rate however at the same time I would not describe this book as
a compulsive read which you cannot put down.
can understand why this book could not be written in the usual engaging first person (too
many characters/situations to be covered) but why write everything in the present tense? I
found it awfully difficult to read and made it feel rushed (someone else has commented
that it reads like a allnighter!).
"ay #carpetta was really $ust a pawn on the sidelines of the various story threads% and
they converged into a &climax& about which she only heard secondhand no real
involvement. I seemed to keep waiting for something that never really happened and then
it was all over and I felt I must have missed something even rereading the end didn't
enlighten me. (here did all the bad guys go at the end? )pparently dead or disappeared
with no real description of what happened. *ou can't $ust dispose of ma$or characters
&offscreen& and cover it with a oneliner!
+eing a fan of the #carpetta series% I was pleased to learn of a new installment of the
troubled life of "ay #carpetta. ,nfortunately% I was fairly disappointed with +low -ly.
The main characters seemed somewhat distant especially "ay herself who had none of
the passion and drive that we have come to expect. "ay seemed to feature very
infre.uently in this novel and lacked any real purpose without being in her familar
surroundings.
The book ended very abruptly and left too many unanswered .uestions. I reread the last
couple of chapters $ust to ensure I hadn't missed the point only to realise that I hadn't.
/aybe 0atricia 1ornwell suddenly realised that she needed to fill out the next book in the
series...
It has been a couple of years since the previous #carpetta novel% The 2ast 0recinct% and I
have read many% many books in this time. +ook of the 3ead relies upon the reader being
fully aware of the situation leading to this story and if you had forgotten the exact
circumstances of how the previous book ended like me it made it very difficult to piece
together what was happening. I would recommend that you reread The 2ast 0recinct first
before tackling this one.
In earlier books 1ornwell's representation of #carpetta was clearly the person she would
like to be4 a strong% intelligent but caring woman who succeeds in a man's world due to
her own talent (and who drives a big /erc). 5ow #carpetta is getting on a bit% and the
author would obviously rather prefer to identify with young gogetting 2ucy than the
washedup middleaged #carpetta. #carpetta herself is consigned to a bit part role in the
book% and all the exciting things get done by 2ucy (even the symbolic driving of the
obligatory large /erc).
0erhaps it is an admission that T6 series 1#I now sets the bar for forensic science fiction4
rather than compete by painstakingly researching novel forensic techni.ues and
describing them in detail and dovetailing them into the story as 1ornwell did with earlier
books% the forensic science has almost disappeared in this book. 7ight near the end
#carpetta investigates one solitary crime scene (perhaps she realised this as she neared
completion of the book and $ust stuck that episode in)% where a couple of gratuitous facts
about the pattern of blood spatter are included for no apparent purpose. This brief
analysis provides them with no information about the killer% and it's never referred to
again in the book.
This book $umped too .uickly from person to person with no chance to get truly involved
in what they were doing and the end was too .uick and simple with very little tension.
I picked this up expecting the piecing together of forensic clues% the painstaking
construction of police and medical answers. (hat I got was nothing like that.
The only real forensic work in the novel came almost as an afterthought at the end% and
had no role in helping to figure out who the criminals were. I found myself wondering if
1ornwell had realised at the last minute that she hadn't actually put any forensics into this
one% and shoehorned this scene in at the last minute.