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At Risk by Patricia Cornwell

September 1st 2006 03:54

At Risk by Patricia Cornwell

For me a good test for distinguishing a good Patricia Cornwell novel from a bad Patricia Cornwell novel is whether I have finished reading it in one night or not. I have not been able to finish At Risk in one night. That is not to say it is a bad novel. It is just not in the league of Cornwell's other novels.At Risk is also her first thriller that doesn't feature her detective Kay Scarpetta. I never enjoyed Scarpetta as a heroine (she is too much of a cold fish), but I miss those vivid scenes in the cold autopsy room when Scarpetta opens up a body and teases out a mountain of evidence.

Winston Garano is pulled from the middle of his course at the forensic academy by his boss and put on the trail of twenty year old case. His boss, Monique Lamont a district attorney and an Elliot Spitzer clone, wants to run for the governor and hatches a crazy plan wherein she starts a widely-publicised program called At Risk whose motto is "Any Crime, Any Time". Solving any crime anywhere should mak her look good, right? Except that as soon as they start on the case, Winston is burgled and Monique raped and that's just the beginning.

Cornwell's thrillers always had two parts: the forensic investigation itself and the power struggle that happens in the background. At Risk does not feature the former in abundance. It is all power struggle and when we are talking about power struggle here, we are not talking your usual hungry sharks but plain piranhas who won't leave even the bones alone. Cornwell's characters, even the good guys, are always borderline psychopathic but unlike the other connoisseurs of hard-boiled fiction who revel in their character's psychosis and make it enjoyable, Cornwell passes her characters through an ultra-moralistic x-ray scan and the result is an often indigestible mix.

Patricia Cornwell started the art of the forensic thriller. If it weren't for her we wouldn't have all those CSI clones jamming our idiot boxes. Overwhelmed by all those TV shows, she is probably trying to move to new ground, closer to the conventional hard-boiled action thriller. If At Risk is any evidence, that's not working perfectly. Hope she comes back to the autopsy table and cuts open more grisly corpses.

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Posted By: nagster - Category: Thrillers

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Comments

6 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by anonymous

September 1st 2006 14:02

Nice review man, you would almost make me want to pick up an old Cornwell novel if i was into that kind of thing, didn't do much for this book though. Maybe its good for you, you might be able to get an early night.

Comment by nagster

September 1st 2006 14:08

Cenacle

Thanks for the comment, anonymous!

You should check out Cornwell novels too. Even this one is good, though it's not as good as the other ones. Old or new, I would thoroughly recommend Cornwell to you. She is an excellent thriller writer. Just give her a try, she might surprise you too.

And yes, I have other books to read; so not getting much sleep anyway.

Comment by anonymous

September 1st 2006 14:27

Yeah i'm sure they are but that topic doesn't really thrill me, i'd rather watch it on the idiot box although i find that a bit dry also. It's always easier to read something you actually enjoy.