Special Review from December 2008: Southern Cross

In Patricia Cornwell's Southern Cross, the first book in the Andy Brazil series, she told us another dark tale that took place down south in Virginia. For Judy Hammer, she took on the challenge as the new police chief in Charlotte, Virginia, and brought her deputy chief and a rookie police officer to help her deal with the tangled mess she landed in. For the trio, they dealt with police corruption, scandals and swiftly handled a murder on their doorstep with a big-city police department. It was no easy task for them to clean up the police force. While Judy dealt with loss and the brunt of anguish from the local government, a computer virus froze their screens with a blue fish and later with a southern cross, the symbol from a gang. In this fast-paced police procedural thriller, we watch how Judy and her team took care of the mayhem and put them into an organized law and order system.

This was a gripping mystery. I loved the location of Charlotte, North Carolina, and how a small town business became ugly. I did feel a hardship for Judy, who came under fire and such criticism. I liked how Andy and Virginia helped her out with this harrowing ordeal. There were some ugly stuff going on here that dealt with corruption and terrorism. But I loved how it didn't let it faze them and became stronger for that. Lots of drama and hard-core suspense in this series to keep you reading to the end.

Why not give this a go today? 

Postmortem

In Postmortem, Patricia Cornwell introduced us to Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner for Richmond. Other than a guardian to her genius niece, she was on the scene on a most complex crime scene and became on the path of a killer. Between a break-in and a leak, she was under pressure by her boss. Her love life wasn't so spectacular, either. While she tried to balance it out, she learned more and new insight into the brilliant forensic science and scoping out his DNA evidence. The closer the truth she'd had gotten to luring him out in the open, the more she placed her life and her niece into danger. This is a wonderful debut to the series.

I loved Kay Scarpetta and her niece too. I felt bad that her mother wasn't a good mother figure for her. At least, we know Kay was a caring person. I loved the backdrop of Richmond, Virginia, and the surroundings to make it more surreal. I loved the concept of having a ME for a female lead. I did feel bad for Kay for having trouble with the opposite sex.  Forensic science had always been an interesting features in crime novels and TV series, along with movies, for a long time. Plenty of non-stop action and drama with fantastic intrigue to keep you up all night.

Ready for a good read? Give this one a try!