Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell

"It's almost impossible for her to believe what's happened, that she's living both a nightmare and a dream."

Forensic pathologist, Dr. Kay Scarpetta has just moved her practice to Charleston, South Carolina when she gets called to help with the investigation into the grisly murder of a young tennis star. 

October, for me, is all about spine-tingling literature, and I knew I had a book in my TBR-bag that was covered in blood spatter. Which brought me to the Book of the Dead. In some respects, I wasn't disappointed. First it wasn't short on violent imagery, at times being a little too graphic... I'm not really a slasher fan so some of that was tough to get through. But the violence is what fueled the dark suspense of this mystery. It's part of what made the murders so chilling.

I read this as a standalone novel and it was fine to read a such, but it's actually Book 15 in a series.

The characters are solid for a serial mystery, once you accept that book 15 in a series doesn't owe you any fancy character intros. But honestly, I couldn't tell you how complex they are, because I am starting at book 15 and who, besides me, would just pick up a random book from a series? My pet peeve came with the characters Benton and Marino who are behaving like jealous cavemen. Toxic-he-man is a legitimate character trait and it's perfectly plausible that two characters would both be jealous types, but outside of fiction I can't stand it, so inside of a book really chaffs my... Well, you know.

The ending was a little odd. Too easy, maybe? Things needed to be wrapped up quick and tidy. Their search for the killer concludes in the blink of an eye. I found it unusual, too convenient. Why not write an extra 50 pages to give us a conclusion with more meat on the bones?

Overall, this was a good book. It presents a frightening crime with dark suspense. If you watched the tv show Bones, you'll like this book because it was sort of like that.  

I hope I've not made too many grammatical errors today; I wrote this one in a hurry.