(no subject)

[bites-the-sun.livejournal.com]

Any (ex)fans of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series here?

I ask because it just struck me that the Scarpetta books have declined in quality in a very similiar manner to AB:VH - each series featuring a decent character who rapidly disintegrated into blatant Mary Sue-ishness and with angst replacing plot after the series had achieved some measure of success.

Thoughts?

Comments

[wickedmommy.livejournal.com]

oh geez. That makes me sad to hear that. I have read about 7 of those books and enjoyed them greatly. I haven't read her in a while though.

[laney-1974.livejournal.com]

I've read all Scarpetta books except the most recent because I can't seem to get past her switch from first person to third person. So I'm assuming that the Mary-Sue-ishmness occurs after then? I didn't really pick it up in any of the books I've read (I think Black Notice was the last one I read).

[bleedtoblue.livejournal.com]

It frequently happens, not always of course, that as an author matures and changes so do their characters. I suspect we can all name series that shifted and changed, often times not for the better! I agree with you about Patricia Cornwall, I stopped reading because of it.

[windiain.livejournal.com]

*waves hand* Me. Fucking perspective switch and excessive angst.

[dominanefret.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I CAN'T STAND the perspective switch. It drives me fucking crazy. And it turned the whole thing to angst central.

And what the fuck did she do to Marino and Lucy.....??

And instead of trying to solve real, interesting crimes... everything is now happening to her, everyone is trying to kill her.

And Predator just kind of ended... without an ending. SO anticlimactic.

[dracoliciousss.livejournal.com]

Wow, I totally agree with you there. When I first read Postmortem, I was completely blown away...thought it was fantastic. I kept on reading, and up til about Black Notice they were still ok, but losing me quickly. Then came blowfly, trace, and predator (might be leaving some out) and i was like wtf did she do to my characters?!?! Cornwell has the same LKH thing of her photo on the back of the book looking exactly like the main character, then claiming its a coincidence. And don't even get me started on what she did to Marino, lol

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

I liked Cornwell till I re-read some of her books and thought, "Wow, this is insanely repetitive, and way more politically conservative than I realised".
Breaking point was when I thought more carefully about a line basically saying, "Those damn blacks couldn't handle the fact that I published the truth about them always killing each other, stupid black people", and I haven't looked back since.
I think it helped that I then discovered Kathy Reichs, but now I'm even going off that. I think our society is going through forensic-mystery overload. It can't last.

[random-fat-bird.livejournal.com]

I used to read the Scarpetta books, until the whole Benton debacle. It got dull, so I abandoned the series in the hope that I could still enjoy the earlier books. Now why the hell didn't I do that with Hamilton's trash?

[tooimpurenangel.livejournal.com]

I loved those books. Now, I just don't care. Except I want to bitch-slap Lucy=/

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a shame, but explains why I loved some of the older books, and couldn't even seem to finish a more recent one. Hmm...I'll have to go back and take a look.

-Dira-