Patricia Cornwell Cruel and Unusual

Cruel and Unusual

Patricia Cornwell

Pocket, Nov 2005, $9.95

ISBN: 1416505407

Henrico County, Virginia Detective Joe Trent calls the state Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta because of a situation involving thirteen year old Eddie Heath, who was shot in the head with potential sexual components involved. At the same time the Commonwealth executes Ronnie Joe Waddell, convicted of the murder of anchorwoman Robyn Naismith ten years earlier on evidence founded by Scarpetta.

Scarpetta's autopsy of Heath uncovers the fingerprint of Waddell on the corpse. As anti capital punishment lawyer Grueman turns up the heat with the media claiming Scarpetta is incompetent, files are stolen from her office. More murders that apparently were committed by a dead Waddell lead Grueman orchestrating the press even further that perhaps the smoking gun of capital punishment has occurred, an innocent person executed. Other evidence against Scarpetta leads to a grand jury investigation into the possible criminal activities of the medical examiner.

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL is a solid Scarpetta police procedural in which the beleaguered heroine is struggling to understand how a dead man could be murdering people, and what happened to her once thriving career. The storyline is filled with twists and turns that makes sense afterward, but will surprise the reader, while the grand jury inquiry is insightful and a bit shocking, for instance the "defense" cannot bring in witnesses. Patricia Cornwell provides a strong Scarpetta thriller with the star in jeopardy of more than just her livelihood going down the tubes.