The Body Farm

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Little Emily Steiner is dead. She left a North Carolina church meeting late one October afternoon and strolled along a lakeside path toward her house two miles away. Who met her on the path? Who followed her home, kidnapped her from her bedroom, and left her body by the lake days later?It's a puzzling and terrifying crime, reminiscent of the work of serial killer Temple Gault, who has long eluded Dr. Kay Scarpetta and the FBI's Investigative Support Unit in Quantico, Virginia, where Scarpetta consults as a forensic pathologist. At the request of the North Carolina authorities, Scarpetta and her colleagues, Benton Wesley and Pete Marino, fly to the mountains near Asheville to assist. They find a mother in mourning and an investigation in disarray.It's particularly frustrating to work a homicide after the fact. An inexperienced pathologist missed or misinterpreted some of the evidence, leaving Scarpetta with inconclusive medical and laboratory reports, and photographs that only raise questions. What, for instance, is the strange mark on the child's body that causes Scarpetta to plead with a reluctant judge for an exhumation? What is the meaning of trace evidence from a plant not indigenous to the Carolinas? And where did the killer obtain the unique blaze-orange duct tape, with which he bound Emily and her mother?Most puzzling of all is the question of when Emily died. She disappeared the night of October 1. Her nude body was found a week later. Scarpetta's obsession with time leads her to The Body Farm, a little-known research facility in Tennessee where, with the help of some grisly experiments, she might discover the answer. It is Scarpetta alone who can interpret the forensic hieroglyphics that eventually reveal a solution to the case as staggering as it is horrifying.Scarpetta not only must search for a killer, she must endeavor to help her niece Lucy, who is accused of espionage while interning at the FBI's highly classified Engineering and Research Facility in Quantico. And she must reach out to Marino, who retreats deeply into a strange relationship that may wreck his career and ruin his life. Scarpetta, too, is vulnerable, as she opens herself to the first physical and emotional bond she has felt in far too long a time.This is Scarpetta even more realized and poignant than we've seen her before, tenacious and brilliant, tender and gentle. The Body Farm is a stunning achievement from a bestselling author at the peak of her powers.

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ISBN
9781470330750
9781451628906

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Also in this Series

  • Postmortem (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 1) Cover
  • Body of evidence (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 2) Cover
  • All That Remains (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 3) Cover
  • Cruel and Unusual (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 4) Cover
  • The Body Farm (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 5) Cover
  • From Potter's field (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 6) Cover
  • Cause of Death (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 7) Cover
  • Unnatural exposure (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 8) Cover
  • Point of Origin (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 9) Cover
  • Black notice (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 10) Cover
  • The Last Precinct (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 11) Cover
  • Blow fly (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 12) Cover
  • Trace (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 13) Cover
  • Predator (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 14) Cover
  • Book of the dead (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 15) Cover
  • Scarpetta (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 16) Cover
  • The Scarpetta factor (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 17) Cover
  • Port mortuary (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 18) Cover
  • Red mist: a Scarpetta novel (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 19) Cover
  • The bone bed (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 20) Cover
  • Dust (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 21) Cover
  • Flesh and blood: a Scarpetta novel (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 22) Cover
  • Depraved heart (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 23) Cover
  • Chaos: a Scarpetta novel (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 24) Cover
  • Autopsy: a Scarpetta novel (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 25) Cover
  • Livid (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 26) Cover
  • Unnatural death (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 27) Cover
  • Identity unknown (Kay Scarpetta mysteries Volume 28) Cover
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Similar Series From Novelist

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for series you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist, and Kay Scarpetta, forensic pathologist, have much in common, as they retrieve clues from the corpses they examine and relate these clues to the living in order to identify the killers. -- Katherine Johnson
Jefferson Bass' Bill Brockton is a forensic anthropologist whose work often closely resembles that of Patricia Cornwell's medical examiner, Kay Scarpetta. Both series involve a lot of science mixed in with the thrills and risks of the chase. -- Maureen O'Connor
The deceased are the focus of these intricately plotted psychological suspense tales. Both disturbing series star troubled pathologists -- Dr. Quirke in Dublin, Ireland and Kay Scarpetta in Richmond, Virginia -- who invariably discover that death is never what it seems. -- Mike Nilsson
These intricately plotted and suspenseful mysteries feature coroners/medical examiners as lead investigators. Both feature intriguing and courageous leads in compelling plots with a few psychological twists and enough disturbing scenarios to thrill crime aficionados. -- Andrienne Cruz
Though Kay Scarpetta is a medical examiner, and Teigan Craft is a forensic psychologist, both complex protagonists piece together details of terrifying crimes in these atmospheric and suspenseful mystery series. -- Stephen Ashley
The Alexandra Cooper thrillers, set in New York City, and the Kay Scarpetta books, set in Richmond, Virginia, both feature a strong sense of place, violent crimes set in suspenseful tales, a tough attorney-investigator and a cast of interesting characters. -- Katherine Johnson
These suspenseful psychological suspense (Kay Scarpetta) and thriller series (Dr. Wren) feature forensic pathologists roped into disturbing murders. Both are imbued with an air of authenticity by authors who worked in medical forensics. -- Andrienne Cruz
Well-drawn investigators use science (Kay Scarpetta is a medical examiner, and Detective Galileo is a physicist) to uncover the truth around disturbing cases in both of these psychologically suspenseful mystery series. -- Stephen Ashley
These gripping thriller series star female investigators involved in the serial crimes unit (Inspector Anjelica) and office of the medical examiner (Kay Scarpetta) based in the U.K. and in the U.S. respectively, who hunt down clues in gruesome murder cases. -- Andrienne Cruz

Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
NoveList recommends "Teigan Craft forensic novels" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Clay Edison novels" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Dr. Wren" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Quirke mysteries" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
Carved in bone: a Body Farm mystery - Bass, Jefferson
Jefferson Bass' forensic anthropologist created an outdoor laboratory called "The Body Farm," which Patricia Cornwell uses for this Kay Scarpetta novel; both novels involve a lot of science combined with the thrills and risks of the chase. -- Maureen O'Connor
These books have the appeal factors disturbing, intensifying, and first person narratives, and they have the genre "psychological suspense"; and the subject "serial murders."
NoveList recommends "Temperance Brennan mysteries" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Alexandra Cooper novels" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Inspector Anjelica Henley thrillers" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Detective Galileo mysteries" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles series" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.
NoveList recommends "Karen Pirie novels" for fans of "Kay Scarpetta mysteries". Check out the first book in the series.

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
Patricia Cornwell's Judy Hammer mysteries feature a strong professional female lead and have a lighter tone -- readers of these mysteries may find Carl Hiassen a good match, and vice versa. -- Katherine Johnson
Lynda La Plante and Patricia Cornwell both write mysteries featuring strong but damaged heroines, gritty crimes, vivid behind-the-scenes details of police work, and storylines that build suspense. -- Jessica Zellers
Both Elly Griffiths and Patricia Cornwell write suspenseful, contemporary mysteries with strong female sleuths whose backgrounds -- archaeologist (Griffiths) and forensic anthropologist (Cornwell) -- play a large role in the books, as do the complex relationships among the characters. Their writing is atmospheric and disturbing, intricately plotted and compelling. -- Melissa Gray
Both authors appeal to forensic mystery fans. They provide a similarly strong sense of place for their investigations, with similar levels of detail; suspense; a strong cast of supporting characters, including the male-dominated police who fail to respect Temperance Brennan's and Kay Scarpetta's abilities. Plots often focus on serial murderers. -- Krista Biggs
Readers of Patricia Cornwell who appreciate hard-boiled investigative -- although not necessarily medical -- detail and no-nonsense women making their way in a man's world can also try Edna Buchanan, and vice versa. Featuring strong characterizations, Miami's mean streets, and grim murderers, Buchanan's investigative journalist prevails through gritty adventures. -- Katherine Johnson
Beverly Connor and Patricia Cornwell both incorporate fascinating forensics details into their action-packed mysteries. Their books feature intelligent women protagonists and suspenseful storylines. -- Jessica Zellers
Suzanne Chazin provides realistic details in the investigations of Fire Marshall Georgia Skeehan, whose suspenseful cases lead beyond the scope of a single fire. The New York City backgrounds, as well as graft, greed, corruption, and politics, play important roles that will interest fans of Patricia Cornwell. -- Katherine Johnson
Linda Fairstein's Alexandra Cooper thrillers are set in New York, where she heads up the sex-crimes unit of the District Attorney's office. A strong sense of place, violent crimes set in suspenseful tales, a tough attorney/investigator, and a cast of interesting characters make these strong possibilities for Patricia Cornwell's fans. -- Katherine Johnson
Patricia Cornwell and Sarah Lovett's novels feature similar investigators, and their stories highlight extensive details of the criminal psyche. Both authors' characters are drawn into their cases and placed in personal danger, and both feature high-tech crime-fighting; fascinating forensic details; escalating suspense; and twisted plots and criminals. -- Katherine Johnson

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

/*STARRED REVIEW*/ Cornwell's name on the cover of a book virtually guarantees both instant best-seller status and enthusiastic raves from reviewers and readers alike. Her latest story is no exception, as popular heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta is called in to help investigate the brutal slaying of an 11-year-old girl. Scarpetta believes the child may have been the victim of Temple Gault, a macabre, demented serial killer who remains at large despite Scarpetta's determined efforts to track him down. It turns out that Scarpetta is at least partly right about Gault, but the child's death is more complicated and horrifying than even the I can't be surprised anymore Scarpetta can imagine. Cornwell's plot is visceral, graphic, and frightening in a way that's vaguely reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs. Her writing is masterful, and she provides evocative backgrounds, provocative characters, and enough ghoulish specifics about autopsies and dead bodies to induce weeks of nightmares. Scarpetta, as usual, is a tenacious, principled investigator who's the one voice of reason in a story fraught with bizarre unreason. This deserves a place in every mystery collection. (Reviewed July 1994)0684195976Emily Melton

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

Cornwell ( Body of Evidence ; All That Remains ) casts a wider, surer narrative net in the latest case set for her increasingly complex heroine, Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia. As an FBI consultant, Scarpetta investigates the North Carolina murder of 11-year-old Emily Steiner, whose mutilation suggests the M.O. of an escaped killer met previously in Cruel and Unusual. Forensic clues from the body's second autopsy prompt Scarpetta to request that certain experiments be made at the University of Tennessee's Decay Research Facility, known as the Body Farm. Meanwhile, she, Pete Marino of the Richmond, Va., police, and her new love interest, FBI Unit Chief Benton Wesley investigate the apparent suicide (from autoerotic asphyxiation) of the local FBI agent in charge of the case. Then, Scarpetta's computer-whiz niece Lucy, working at FBI headquarters at Quantico, is charged with violating security. During her travels between North Carolina and Virginia, Scarpetta worries about both the less-than-forthcoming Lucy and Marino, who becomes emotionally entangled with Emily's beautiful stricken mother. Results at the Body Farm lead her to a convincing, if abrupt, resolution. Deeper characterization and a more intricate plot mark this fifth in a consistently compelling series. 500,000 first printing; paperback rights to Berkley; audio rights to Simon & Schus ter; Literary Guild selection. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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Library Journal Review

Fresh from several New York Times best sellers, forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta must solve the riddle of a child's death by conducting a few unpleasant experiments at the ``body farm.'' (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

Virginia Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta (Cruel and Unusual, 1993, etc.) has given up smoking and strayed far enough from her high-pressure office to act as a consulting profiler for the FBI, but her nerves are just as frayed at Quantico, especially since her rebellious niece Lucy is a computer-whiz trainee for the Engineering Research Facility down the hall. Scarpetta's latest case is ugly even by her standards: the North Carolina sex murder of Emily Steiner, 11, whose forensics are so contradictory that Scarpetta wants to exhume her for a second autopsy. Before she can do so, North Carolina Bureau investigator Max Ferguson, returning home from Quantico, dies, apparently of autoerotic asphyxia, and his local contact winds up in the hospital with a heart attack. Scarpetta scurries to work out how and why Temple Gault, an apparent serial killer who's the leading suspect in Emily's murder, might have killed Ferguson--and what to make of her gruesome discovery in Ferguson's freezer. No sooner has she finished the grisly re-examination of Emily, than word comes from Quantico that Lucy's sneaked into an unauthorized area after hours and is getting washed out of the program. Scarpetta's two nightmares come together with a crash--a car crash that sends Lucy to the hospital and Scarpetta out to the field to run forensics on her own automobile. As always, tension is ratcheted up, rather unconvincingly, by plots whose interconnection is never quite clear and by the constant friction between Scarpetta and her niece; her sister; her FBI lover, Benton Wesley; her boorish buddy, Capt. Pete Marino; and Emily's mother, with whom Marino is having an affair. But beneath the welter of quarrels and coincidences is as insidious a study of evil as Cornwell has turned in. (Literary Guild main selection)

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Library Journal Reviews

Fresh from several New York Times best sellers, forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta must solve the riddle of a child's death by conducting a few unpleasant experiments at the ``body farm.'' Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information.

Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information.
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Library Journal Reviews

Following the disappointing Cruel and Unusual (Scribner, 1993), one wondered whether Cornwell was getting bored with her popular Kay Scarpetta series. After all, that novel featured a tired, confused plot and cardboard characters. But, happily, Cornwell is back at the top of her form here. Sure, there are still the red herrings and the plot contrivances, but what makes The Body Farm stand out is the deeper characterizations, especially in the depiction of Scarpetta's relationship with her troubled niece, Lucy. "It seems this is all about people loving people who don't love them back," says Scarpetta, referring to the murder of an 11-year-old girl, which she is investigating as an FBI consultant. But this is also the novel's haunting theme: homicide detective Pete Morino, jealous of Scarpetta's affair with FBI Unit Chief Benton Wesley, becomes involved with the dead girl's mother; Lucy, in love with a calculating fellow FBI student, is accused of violating agency security. Emotionally satisfying reading. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/94.]-Wilda Williams, "Library Journal" Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information.

Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

Cornwell ( Body of Evidence ; All That Remains ) casts a wider, surer narrative net in the latest case set for her increasingly complex heroine, Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia. As an FBI consultant, Scarpetta investigates the North Carolina murder of 11-year-old Emily Steiner, whose mutilation suggests the M.O. of an escaped killer met previously in Cruel and Unusual. Forensic clues from the body's second autopsy prompt Scarpetta to request that certain experiments be made at the University of Tennessee's Decay Research Facility, known as the Body Farm. Meanwhile, she, Pete Marino of the Richmond, Va., police, and her new love interest, FBI Unit Chief Benton Wesley investigate the apparent suicide (from autoerotic asphyxiation) of the local FBI agent in charge of the case. Then, Scarpetta's computer-whiz niece Lucy, working at FBI headquarters at Quantico, is charged with violating security. During her travels between North Carolina and Virginia, Scarpetta worries about both the less-than-forthcoming Lucy and Marino, who becomes emotionally entangled with Emily's beautiful stricken mother. Results at the Body Farm lead her to a convincing, if abrupt, resolution. Deeper characterization and a more intricate plot mark this fifth in a consistently compelling series. 500,000 first printing; paperback rights to Berkley; audio rights to Simon & Schus ter; Literary Guild selection. (Oct.) Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information.

Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information.
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