The Bone Bed
Patricia Cornwell
Little, Brown
The 20th of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series marks little new in the crime-thriller drama which has drawn in its fair share of readers since the steely medical examiner's first outing in 1990s Postmortem. On the other hand, the premise of The Bone Bed is heavier on character-study than previous books, which should intrigue readers familiar with Cornwell's protagonist.
It's just another day at the office for Dr Kay Scarpetta when a body is discovered entangled in a fishing net in the Boston Bay, not too soon after she receives word of the murder of a respected palaeontologist in the Canadian wilderness. While Scarpetta methodically works through each case with trademark composure, the same can't be said of her personal life.
The Bone Bed succeeds in preserving the dark and brooding tone of previous Scarpetta novels, though most of the detective work is compromised for exploration of her evolving relationships with her family and colleagues. While opinion on this approach is bound to vary, Cornwell crafts an interesting mystery regardless.
