to the dogs

[scarfman]

I'm reading Patricia Cornwell's Port Mortuary and I don't think I've ever seen a serial protagonist more badly served by a serial installment. I don't mean that it's badly done, I mean it's an ill-conceived plan well executed. Scarpetta doesn't do anything except piece together what the people she trusts have been keeping from her ostensibly for her own protection. And it's all talking heads. Maybe Anita Blake can't focus on a mystery any more and has her head (and portions of several other people's anatomy) up her butt, but at least she's happy.

When I returned it to the library this evening, I had planned on searching out the installment before this one, which I seem to have missed. I couldn't bring myself to do it because I just didn't want to deal with these people again so soon. This one does end though with Scarpetta acquiring a murder victim's abandoned greyhound with whom she seems to establish an instant rapport. Perhaps things will get better.