Wrote: numerous Kay Scarpetta novels, starting with Postmortem, as well as The Body Farm, Potter’s Field, and numerous others, with the latest being 2014’s Flesh and Blood. She has also written a couple other series, but no where to the extent of the Scarpetta series.
Awards: Too many to list them all, but they include the Edgar Award, Sherlock Award, and British Book Awards.
Personal: Patricia married one of her professors shortly after graduation, and divorced 9 years later. She was in a relationship with a married female FBI agent before meeting and marrying Staci Gruber in 2005.
She suffered with Anorexia Nervosa and depression, as well as bipolar disorder.
So I haven’t talked about the graveyard yet. It’s not as bad as it sounds (when did “graveyard” ever sound good?) Or the Admiral for that matter. Both good things in a bad situation. The Admiral runs the graveyard, which is in fact a graveyard for aircraft that are out of commission (these really do exist) but still have salvageable parts, or some can even be sold outright as complete, working aircraft. Most are pieced out and used for repair parts to keep other planes flying.
Anyhow, the Admiral is ex-military, with a history that ties him throughout this story, but this is slowly revealed. So I won’t reveal any of it here. The graveyard is where he sends the runaway Unwinds, to keep them safe, and deliver them for jobs they can do until they turn 18 and are officially safe and no longer qualify to be unwound.
Most are happy with the situation, and cooperate, but of course there always has to be at least one person who has to mess it up for everyone, right? Hey, if there wasn’t, this book would have been over already.
pssstttt…. I’m really glad it isn’t over yet!
So the Admiral finds himself in a bind, with Risa coming to his rescue; Conner confronts the bully of the graveyard, who long has it coming; and Lev manages to make it to the Graveyard, only for them all to end up at one of the many Harvest Camps. Previously known as Unwinding Facilities; but who wants to call them that, it seems like they have no soul to them, and these are good places, right?
Listen up boys and girls, this isn’t your ordinary 5 day summer camp with paddle boats and s’mores. You don’t get to come home from this camp.
Conner seems to buy himself some more time because he is the perceived “Hero” everyone has been talking about; Risa buys herself some more time because she is a concert pianist and they need a piano player for the band that plays music on the roof of the building the Unwinds enter for “harvesting”; Lev is not sure how much time he may have left, and Conner and Risa don’t know he’s back to being a tithe, grouped up with all of the other tithes.
I know I said I would update when I finished, but this story is just too good to keep to myself. I wonder how fast I can get through Book 2, Unwholly, in order to get it wrapped and under the Christmas tree?
Patricia Cornwell
booksandopinions.com 