Blow Fly (novel)
 | |
| Author | Patricia Cornwell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Kay Scarpetta Mysteries |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | G. P. Putnam's Sons |
Publication date | 2003 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-3991-5089-0 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Preceded by | The Last Precinct |
| Followed by | Trace |
Blow Fly is a crime fiction novel by Patricia Cornwell.
Plot introduction
Blow Fly is the twelfth book of the Dr. Kay Scarpetta series by author Patricia Cornwell.
Plot summary
After her resignation as Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner and the horrifying events which threatened her life in The Last Precinct, Kay Scarpetta has abandoned her elegant home in Richmond, Virginia and is quietly living in Florida, beginning to get some balance back in her life and slowly establishing herself as a private forensic consultant. (Her first class involves the blow fly, which sometimes lays eggs on corpses.) But her past won't let her rest, and her grief for Benton Wesley continues to grow, not diminish, as does the rage within Lucy, her niece. Then the architect of her changed fortunes contacts her from his cell on death row: deformed, blinded by Scarpetta's own actions, incarcerated in Texas' strongest prison, Jean-Baptiste Chardonne still has the ability to terrify. But, unknown to Scarpetta, there are other forces behind the wolfman's apparent actions, invisibly shepherding her and those closest to her towards eliminating those who threaten them all. And it is all orchestrated by the one man in her life who knows every nuance of her soul. A bizarre incident: in Szczecin, Poland, Lucy and a colleague apparently commit a premeditated murder, using blow-fly larvae to dispose of the evidence.
Characters in "Blow Fly"
- Kay Scarpetta—Former Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia
- Jaime Berger—New York Assistant District Attorney
- Lucy Farinelli—Kay's niece, a software wizard/entrepreneur and criminal investigator
- Pete Marino—Detective
- Rocco Caggiano—Marino's estranged son and Chandone's lawyer
- Jean-Baptist Chandonne—Killer
- Jay Talley—Killer and Chandonne's twin brother, 1st on Most Wanted list
- Bev Kiffin—Talley's accomplice, 2nd on Most Wanted list
- Nic Robillard—Zachary, LA, police detective, NFA trainee
Major themes
- The hunt for a killer
Literary significance & criticism
Some reviewers considered this to be a " highly suspenseful read in which surprises explode and the characters move to another level of believability."[1] One that "while not for the squeamish... is a tremendous read."[2] Others, however, as also noted in reviews for later books in the series such as Trace, considered it to be disappointing. Gail Pennington of the St Louis Post Dispatch states that "even the most ardent Cornwell fans may reluctantly realize that enthusiasm for the Scarpetta series is mainly a relic of books past."[3]
In Blow Fly we see a change in narrative style from the first-person narration of Kay herself to a third-person, omniscient, narrator. This device not only allows for more characters and their perspectives to come to the fore, but also marks a significant transformation in the way that the novels represent the criminal. Where previously the criminal’s mind was never made available to the reader – thus intensifying their “otherness” – the later novels allow space to explore their point of view and uncover their motivations.[4]
This approach does, however, come in for criticism. One reviewer notes that "Blow Fly is written in 124 chapters, some as short as a few paragraphs, with close to a dozen shifting points of view. Everyone, it seems, has something to describe, and every bit of description gets equal weight, from a new outfit bought at Saks to a highly technical selection of handguns to the leisurely, sexually charged torture of a young woman. (Every female character in "Blow Fly" is either miserable or doomed, adding weight to the frequent argument that Cornwell is not just anti-feminist, but anti-woman altogether.)"[3]
Patricia Cornwell has also been criticised for bad research concerning the Szczecin chapter[5]. The book states that Poland has no market economy and that the polish currency, the zloty, is almost worthless. Besides, the city of Szczecin is described as a somewhat poor town under the rule of the Russian mafia, which hardly reflects the actual reality. (However, in the book, Szczecin has at least one business-class hotel.)
She also makes a glaring historical error: on page 1 (1st Ed.), the year of the action is set as 2003 (the year the book was published). On page 20, Lucy Farinelli boards a Concorde—three years after the Concorde's last passenger flight.
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
- Mostly set in Richmond, Virginia, and Miami, Florida. Short scenes set in Knoxville, Tennessee, a bayou near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a Texas prison,
and Szczecin, Poland.
References
- ^ Gershenbaum, B.L. 2003. Review of Blow Fly. Book Reporter.
- ^ Fraser, A. 2003. Review of Blow Fly. The Telegraph.
- ^ a b Pennington, G. 2003. Review of Blow Fly. St Louis Post Dispatch.
- ^ Dauncey, S. University of Warwick. "Patricia Cornwell." The Literary Encyclopedia. 18 Nov. 2005. The Literary Dictionary Company. 22 April 2007.
- ^ Blow Fly: Current Amazon U.K. One-Edition Data