Reviewed by: The Blind Monkey
Saturday, August 7, 1999

Well, it’s happened again. In a space of 24 hours, I have torn through Patricia Cornwell’s latest creation — and now it’s over. *SIGH*

It wouldn’t be so tormenting if she didn’t have such a unique talent for pulling you in. You race through her novels like a dying man gulping his first drink out of the desert, and then the canteen runs dry and you’re immediately thirsty again.

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Black Notice is no different. A sadistic mesh of old faces and startling new personalities, the tenth Scarpetta novel introduces a bleak political climate and puzzling string of grisly murders. Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino, and neice Lucy are unsuccessfully struggling to cope with Benton Wesley’s untimely death. Scarpetta faces the destruction of her career, Lucy is a ticking time bomb of rage and angst, and Marino is back in uniform. Introduced into this grim setting, Benton visits from the grave through a personal letter written before his death with instructions to be delivered to Kay exactly one year post-mortem.

But enough of that!!! What you want to hear about is death! HAHAHA!!! (ooohh – BM’s evil laugh!)

Well I’m happy to say (is that wrong?) that Black Notice has some of the darkest clues and grim forensic discoveries to date. The first body (there’s always a first) is discovered at the Richmond international port locked in a container where it’s been steadily decomposing for weeks. The sorry state of the body leads to the most graphic detecting yet… you know, the kind of stuff where Quincy always cut to a commercial! A clue written in blood near the body in odd blocky letters, “Le Loup-garou,” leads Dr. Scarpetta and Captain Marino on a whirlwind journey to Interpol where Kay actually breaks the law to subvert a corrupted system.

It’s facinating stuff, and will make you wonder what’s wrong with you that you’re so enthralled by the gore.

There’s no denying that this is Cornwell’s best work. And I admit, I do feel guilty that I reveled in the ugly underbelly (and the fact that I was just dying to use that phase in a sentence) of the police department and the macabre tone… especially when one of the most prominent themes deals with grief and the message that the dead have to tell.

Just another reason this book was riveting. Yes, RIVETING. Big word. Totally true. Just read it yourself and then tell us what you think!

Hardcover – 368 pages (August 02, 1999) Putnam Pub Group; ISBN: 0399145087 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.56 x 9.57 x 6.55