Point of Origin – Patricia Cornwell

Another purchase from Hereford’s second hand/charity shop – as was All That Remains – and another random dip into the world of Dr Kay Scarpetta. This time I found myself somewhere in between All That Remains and Black Notice – the last two Patricia Cornwell novels that I’ve read. Come the end of the book, I realised that Black Notice picks up where Point of Origin finishes.

In fact, Point of Origin provides the detail on Benton’s death at the hands of escaped psychopath Carrie Gethin, Lucy’s manipulative former lover who Kay, Marino and Benton had (almost) put behind bars. It comes in the context of Lucy’s having left the FBI and having joined a speciliast team of fire investigators (she’s also learned how to fly helicopters), which comes in handy when Kay et al find themsleves investigating a series of gruesome murders that are not *quite* covered up by arson. Deliberately so, as it turns out.

Despite the many references to Carrie and Lucy’s affair in the Kay Scarpetta novels I’ve read, I’ve not so far managed to find the one in which it takes place, and similiarly having seen Benton’s role leap from professional rival to murdered live in lover in recent reads I seem to have managed to miss out on the part where he and Kay get it together, at his wife’s expense. All of which means that I’m going to make the effort to read the series from the start.

Amazon.co.uk link: Point of Origin – Patricia Cornwell

Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)