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Trace

by Patricia Cornwell

Trace is the latest in the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell, and most assuredly, one of her best. Another page-turner, another edge-of-the-seat novel of suspense and less-than-pleasant deaths, the title refers to the only evidence that finally leads Scarpetta to the killer. Patricia Cornwell is justly famous for her creation of the forensic pathologist, Kay Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, her boyfriend Benton, and all the other characters with whom we've become so familiar. Ms. Cornwell is also the recipient of many writing awards, and as far as we're concerned, whatever she receives will never be enough.

Scarpetta currently lives in Florida, having been replaced five years previously as Chief Medical Examiner in her home base of Richmond, Virginia, by a Dr. Joel Marcus. Dr. Marcus now calls her to request that Kay come help him with the case of a fourteen-year-old dead girl, Gilly Paulson. The teenager had been in bed with a case of the flu, but her death is suspicious because there seems to be no reason she should have died. In addition, investigation into the cause of her death and the requisition of an outside expert have been requested by a high government official.

Scarpetta arrives in Richmond with her extremely capable (and extremely blunt) investigator, Pete Marino – who is decidedly not welcomed by Dr. Marcus, expecting only Scarpetta herself. Scarpetta finds her old building being torn down – not the new one she designed and inhabited before being fired from her job, but the old one with the constricted space and crowded quarters. It's nonetheless a site she's been attached to.

Benton Wesley is in Aspen, Colorado – taking on a case brought to him by Lucy, Scarpetta's niece. The girl she brought to him is named Henri (for Henrietta) – an individual Lucy had recruited from the Los Angeles police force – but Henri had been an actor for the better part of her life before that. Henri was attacked, and only her police training had saved her. However, Lucy had panicked, and even though Benton tells her Henri faked the apparent unconsciousness when she was first discovered, Lucy remains adamant that Benton treat her. In addition to being Lucy's current lover, Henri is selfish, arrogant, coquettish, spoiled, and takes refuge in lies and fantasy whenever the truth becomes too uncomfortable. Benton is, among other things, a psychiatrist. He had also planned to have his own other half (Kay Scarpetta) visit for two weeks – something planned for months ahead – but having Henri in the house, with the request that Henri's presence and his treatment remain entirely secret, preclude the visit.

The reader is made aware of the killer's identity early in the novel, although the actual circumstances about him and those surrounding his victims are only gradually revealed.
Meanwhile, Scarpetta remains the sole individual, along with Marino, to hunt down the scant traces of evidence left behind by the murderer – without the help of her niece or her boyfriend, who seems to be involved in the case of a stalker.

The unfortunate fact is that the killer has money and is able to travel freely – so that all the mysterious deaths and attacks finally come together in the end, when Scarpetta is at last able to understand the trace evidence she's discovered in two widely separate and supposedly unrelated crimes.

Patricia Cornwell has given us still another excellent murder mystery. Ms. Cornwell was instrumental in the establishment of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, the first and finest organization of its kind, where she serves as its Chairman of the Board. Her background and experience with autopsies and brutal death are undoubtedly a major basis for her written work, although actual experience is only a small part of the writer's expertise. Writing about what you love is just as important to success in the
competitive publishing field, and Patricia Cornwell obviously utilizes both!

Alan Paul Curtis

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