Red Mist

Manipulation is the major force in Cornwell's 19th Kay Scarpetta mystery, as the chief medical examiner is lured down to the Georgia Prison for Women. The first third of the story consists primarily of Cornwell's painstaking reprisal of the circumstances of the death of Deputy Chief Jack Fielding and the attack on Scarpetta by his daughter, Dawn Kincaid, covered in the last book (Port Mortuary), barely developing this sequel. The interest level perks up a bit with the reappearance of former New York prosecutor Jamie Berger, but that only causes more whining from this supposedly intelligent, strong woman. The usual sidekicks are thinly drawn shadows of their former selves; Scarpetta's Georgia Forensic colleague Colin Denton is the sole character with any flash of personality. At the end, Scarpetta kicks herself around, and the book blurb's promise of "a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism" resolves quickly and flatly.