Wednesday, June 23, 2010

At Risk By Patricia Cornwell

From the author's website: A Massachusetts state investigator is called home from Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is completing a course at the National Forensic Academy. His boss, the district attorney, attractive but hard-charging, is planning to run for governor, and as a showcase she's planning to use a new crime initiative called At Risk-its motto: "Any crime, any time." In particular, she's been looking for a way to employ cutting-edge DNA technology, and she thinks she's found the perfect subject in an unsolved twenty-year-old murder-in Tennessee. If her office solves the case, it ought to make them all look pretty good, right?

Her investigator is not so sure-not sure about anything to do with this woman, really-but before he can open his mouth, a shocking piece of violence intervenes, an act that shakes up not only both their lives but the lives of everyone around them. It's not a random event. Is it personal? Is it professional? Whatever it is, the implications are very, very bad indeed . . . and they're about to get much worse.


This was my first experience with Patricia Cornwell, a prolific and popular mystery writer. I liked the main character, Win Garano, the Massachusetts investigator. There was an interesting bit of the supernatural with Win's grandmother who seemed to have some psychic gifts. The story was short as the audiobook was only 4 CD's long. The plot was easy to follow; I was able to figure things out as it went along. I kept anticipating a few plot twists but they never occurred so my "waiting for the other shoe to drop" feeling was never sated.

I wasn't impressed enough with Patricia Cornwell that I was planning to run out and buy more. But I didn't actively dislike her either. Ambivalent. Then I clicked over to Amazon to get the product description and I saw that even her most ardent fans were underwhelmed with this one. So I will give this author a second chance if I come across one of her other books.


If you like audiobooks, I am giving away some that I liked, here.


I'm linking this up for Audiobook Week hosted by Jen of Devourer of Books for a chance to win a prize!



This book counts toward the 2010 Audiobook Challenge hosted by the bloggers over at Royal Reviews. Click on the button to see my progress.

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

You definitely need to try one of the old Kay Scarpetta books. I haven't read them, but I've heard the last 2 are good as well.

Jen - Devourer of Books said...

Ambivalent is what I always suspected I would be about Patricia Cornwell, so I think I'll stick to your opinion.