Book Review of Two Completely Different Types of Crime Fiction

• Eleven on Top – Janet Evanovich
• Scarpetta – Patricia Cornwell

Both these books are installments in top-rated crime series, and I have been following both series from the very first novel. However, those are the only similarities between these two authors and their books.

Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books are relentlessly funny. She puts her heroine in a series of ridiculous, over-the-top situations to get laughs out of her readers. Her heroine is a bounty hunter who has just about completed her school education and is definitely not one of the brighter bulbs in crime fiction.

On the other hand, Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series is relentlessly dark and serious. The heroine is Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a Medical Examiner with a string of degrees under her name. She is committed and devoted to her work, although it heavily affects her and those around her. These books are also heavy on blood and gore and might not always appeal to the reader who likes crime fiction to be less detailed.

So, you get it—two very different books with very different styles of writing. One thing in common is that I love both the heroines. Although both the book series are running out of steam, I still pretty much turn to them when I want some chills and spills.

And without much ado, I go into reviewing them both.

Eleven on top

Stephanie Plum, the bounty hunter, has been having a tough time of it lately. And she has decided to hang up her boots and try out alternate professions – these are as diverse as working in a button factory, dry cleaners, and a fast-food joint, all leading to hilarious results. In the meantime, there is a mysterious stalker who is threatening her. There is also the usual romantic dilemma where Steph is torn between the two men in her life – Joe Morelli, her boyfriend, and Ranger, a sexy bounty hunter who works with her.

My thoughts on the book

Enjoyable and easy to read. However, the plot is extremely light-weight, almost a series of jokes and one-liners strung together to make a book. Also, the story is extremely predictable. However, still enjoyable and provides a couple of laughs.

Another thing I really appreciate about the series is how easy it is for the reader to understand where the book stands in a series. I need to read the title to know that this is the eleventh book in the series. So reader-friendly, not all series books have this information so clearly spelled out.

Scarpetta

Dr. Kay Scarpetta has been called on to attend Oscar Bane, who has voluntarily committed himself to Bellevue (a mental hospital); he is suspected of brutally murdering his girlfriend. He refuses to speak to anyone except the high-profile Scarpetta, with whom he obsesses. Meanwhile, someone masquerading as Scarpetta is lurking in cyberspace and supplying an online gossip site with dirty secrets about her. For help on the murder case, Scarpetta turns to her computer whiz niece Lucy, her husband Benton, and former colleague Marino.

My review

The book starts with gore. Here is the opening sentence of the book:

Ouch! I almost gagged while reading that. Thankfully, things get a little better from there. However, the book does not ever rise beyond the gory details into the thrilling arena. There is so much personal information and intense over-analysis of everyone’s motives that the plot is pushed to the sidelines.

Here is an example of over-analysis:

Benton’s above sentence is actually mouthed when he talks about a situation where Marino attempts to rape Kay, who is his (Benton’s) wife! Can you ever imagine any man talking like this? However intellectual may they be?

I was also able to guess the killer within the first few opening chapters, soo the rest of the book failed to really build any suspense. I hoped that Cornwell would at least come up with an imaginative reason for the murders, but nope! all she does is bring out the tired old serial killer motif. I am beyond tired of serial killers. They provide an excuse for lazy plotting. I mean,n even serial killers need some backstory, some reason, as to why they became killers in the first place. It is stupid and lazy to say someone is a killer because they are a psychopath.

There are also disturbing sequences where puppies are killed, and an elderly widow is murdered. All in all, not a very pleasant read, although I must say it ends on a much lighter note than the previous book in this series Book of the Dead, which was a downright depressing read.

I find that Kay Scarpetta novels have now descended into a level that they are palatable only for hard-core Kay Scarpetta fans (and I must say I am one of them). The first few books in the series, starting from Postmortem right up to Black Notice, were truly high-class and one of the best in the genre. Unfortunately, that is no longer quite the case.