Patricia Cornwall books

I used to read her earlier books, which had interesting stuff about procedure and anatomy, but stopped when they became rehashes of the same plots. She seemed to focus more and more on the one hand on the personal life of the leading character (down to recipes for just about every meal she ate), and on the other on the horrific details of the injuries of the murder victims. I think she was a victim of her own success, ran out of ideas and just had to fill the pages with the same old same old, getting more specific about the violence in each book. They probably go down well with sadistic foodies.

I found the same thing. I liked her earlier books so much that I used to buy them in hardback when they first came out.
I went off Val McDermid’s books for similar reasons, but I like to reread some of her earlier ones.

I'm the same. I used to love her books, but I feel they've become very formulaic of late. I actually did enjoy the 'gory' bits, but that's just me. I think I'd actually have quite enjoyed being in that line of work.

What a shame, I loved her early books

One book by Patricia Cornwell : Portrait of a Killer - in which she solves the Jack the Ripper case is my favourite novel .
Otherwise , I'm not a fan of her writing .
My all time favourite crime writer was Ruth Rendell .
Unfortunately , none of her books translated that well for TV .

I'm fond of Patricia Cornwell. Her work can be formulaic and, to my mind, her first novel 'Postmortem' was her absolute best. She kindly sent me some goodies through twitter highlighting one of her more recent books and replied very nicely to my message thanking her. I know it won't have been her personally sending the goodies, but still.

I read her earlier books and enjoyed them, until she went acronym crazy.

Esmay I'm with you, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine was my all time favourite crime writer. I've never found another who writes quite like she did.

Patricia Cornwell's book is the only book I've thrown in the bin. Can't remember which one it was but, having read, and been gripped by the whole book, the last chapter was so unbelievably far fetched and implausible, I threw it out in disgust. Never read another of hers.

Ruth Rendell for me

Agree with all the above comments. One trick pony I suppose, sadly.

I think it was all the techie stuff her niece Lucy was involved in, went right over my head, yeah complete goobdlygook, no idea what she was on about.

It's a shame, the later works of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs now read like textbooks. Quite boring for most of us who just want a good well written story.

Not a fan.
I used to love PD James though.

MissInterpreted

I'm the same. I used to love her books, but I feel they've become very formulaic of late. I actually did enjoy the 'gory' bits, but that's just me. I think I'd actually have quite enjoyed being in that line of work.

Her earlier books were fine. The "gory bits" were quite refreshing after the many authors who treated violence and murder as just theoretical plot devices. Later on she seemed to think she had to be more and more explicit and to add violence and unpleasantness gratuitously. Perhaps her fans demanded this, but it put me off - and I didn't want to be told exactly what she put in her salad dressing.

I’m another ±who stopped reading Patricia Cornwall. Nthings went downhill after she had Marino rape Scarpetta. She later regretted this plot device. I could never imagine the two of them coming back from that.
I found the way she developed the characters tedious. Kate Atkinson, Ellie Griffiths, Stuart McBride, Michael Connolly, Ian Rankin and PDJames

Karin Slaughter writes a gripping book. And Barbara Nadel's series of Inspector Ikmen, set in Istanbul are excellent too.

Working my way thru Lynda La Plante thanks to borrowbooks audio available from library service.

I gave up reading Patricia Cornwall books I felt I needed an medical exaclopedia to understand some of the things she was explaining. I have about 9 books, off to the book bank.

Same here. I loved all her earlier books but as many of you say but then she just seemed to get far too technical for my poor brain to comprehend and they just became boring. I m also a fan of Karin Slaughter and Kathy Reichs. Also enjoy Karen Rose and all the interactions between the different areas.

Grunty

Karin Slaughter writes a gripping book. And Barbara Nadel's series of Inspector Ikmen, set in Istanbul are excellent too.

I love both those authors. Also Stuart McBride, Val McDermid, Kathy Reichs, JD Oswald...I could go on and on. Ninety per cent of my Kindle books must be crime related!

I enjoyed her earlier books, was disappointed with her latest offering. I found it uninspiring and dull, unfortunately.

Unfortunately, some authors after a couple books tend to use the same 'formula', and yes they aren't nearly as interesting.

If you'd like to try a Canadian mystery series, check out Louise Penny.

I used to like Patricia Cornwell books years ago and bought one a few months back, can't remember the title now as it went to the charity shop but was about 2 people found dead in the woods - it was completely boring.

For me, no one can beat PD James for characterisation and plot, written really well.