A Book A Week

This is the time of year when every day seems busier than the last. It can be a miracle to cook dinner in the evening, let alone sit down to read a book. With a family wedding later this week, it seems like this trend will continue for a while. While I may not be as quick to spend time reading physical books, I almost always have an audiobook going. Last night, as I frantically rushed to meal prep for the week, I managed to finish listening to Patricia Cornwell's latest Kay Scarpetta novel. After a kind of soft reboot of the long-running series with last year's release Autopsy, Cornwell's twenty-sixth installment in the series, Livid, proves there are still plenty of fresh cases for Scarpetta to solve. 

When we first reconnect with Kay Scarpetta, the chief medical examiner is on the stand as an expert witness in a murder trial. The book's title comes into play in two ways. First, it describes the state of the victim's body, colored with the bluish-gray twinge that results from spending time floating in the water. Concurrently, livid is an apt description for the mob of protestors outside of the courtroom. You see, Kay's findings have led her to believe that the death of this victim was merely an unfortunate accident, not the violent attack of a spurned man. The prosecuting attorney is diligently working to discredit Kay, her science, and her already contentious reputation. 

Later on, Kay is called to the scene of an unusual death. The deceased just so happens to be the sister of the judge who is hearing the controversial trial that Kay was just testifying in. Even odder, though, is the sheer amount of death in the area. Not only is there a dead woman, but it seems that every living thing in the radius of the scene has suddenly died too. Kay is surrounded by dead birds and insects as if someone switched a button and eliminated all of the life around them. This is no ordinary murder. The means by which this crime was committed has huge ramifications that reach much further than this single case. As her life and livelihood simultaneously come under fire, Kay will have to pull all of her resources to solve this case and prevent a national security crisis. 

I've read the Scarpetta series off and on for the better part of 15 years. The books are at their best when they combine cutting-edge science with chilling mysteries, and Livid further proves that point. Rather than shy away from the timely, if a bit silly, political debates around the validity of science, Cornwell dives right into the thick of it. I found her imagined throng of protestors to be eerily reminiscent of the group that overtook the US capitol last year. The anger of those misinformed souls, both in real life and in this fiction, gives the entire story an underlying tension. Cornwell captures the uncertainty of these times with a precision that sees her characters racked with pressure. She balances this paranoia with a mystery that is rooted in a doomsday scenario ripped straight from the headlines. All in all, Livid is another solid entry in the Scarpetta series. 

For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2022, 57)