THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508180590
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY PEGGY DEANS EARLE
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
FROM POTTER'S FIELD
PATRICIA CORNWELL
Scribner. 412 pp. $24.
There's a new worm in the Big Apple and it is bad.
Its name is Temple Gault who, as Patricia Cornwell fans will remember, is a vicious serial killer. Gault, the one who got away in Cornwell's Cruel and Unusual, was bound to turn up again. Now, he's doing his dastardly deeds on the wintry grounds of Central Park and down in the inferno-like tunnels of New York's subway system.
From Potter's Field, the sixth (annual) installment in Cornwell's popular Kay Scarpetta mystery series, is, like its predecessors, a good summer read. This year's recipient of the Virginia Press Association's ``Virginian of the Year'' award, Richmond's Cornwell again relies on her successful formula as she revisits the tough, good-looking, blond Virginia medical examiner and her core gang of cohorts.
Remember Pete Marino? He's the former Richmond detective, promoted now to precinct commander. Marino's still a gruff, hard-drinking, chain-smoking, lovable bear of a bigot who would ``rather go to the proctologist than another cultural diversity class.'' You'll know Marino by his lousy grammar. (Even though he occasionally lapses into proper usage.)
There's Benton Wesley of the FBI, Kay's lover: dashing, sophisticated and married. He and Kay continue their tortured, guilt-ridden affair whenever they get the chance.
And there's Lucy, Kay's beautiful, troubled, gay, computer-whiz, genius-college-student niece. Lucy's taking a break from her studies at U.Va. to intern with the FBI. So far, she's designed and launched CAIN (standing for Crime Artificial Intelligence Network) - a computer system that links local police departments around the country with the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. Hence, the heroes are summoned to New York, continuing their pursuit of the evil Gault who has already butchered at least five people.
Gault apparently has access to CAIN, too. He also has murdered a young female street-person, who is found mutilated and posed in what has become the killer's M.O. The victim's body is destined for New York's Potter's Field, with no other appellation than ``Jane Doe'' - which drives Kay to distraction. ``I think she has something yet to say to us,'' insists Kay. ``She has a right to be buried with a name.''
Kay vows both to uncover the woman's identity and to bring her slayer to justice.
Along the way, you encounter more of Cornwell's signature strong women: Cmdr. Frances Penn of the New York Transit Police who, during a heart-to-heart over dinner, discovers a kinship with Kay. ``Your story is my story. There are many women like us,'' says Penn. She goes on to describe Kay as being, like herself, an overachiever who can't accept failure: ``Personal relationships are your nemesis because you can't have a good one by overachieving.'' Heavy.
Then, as if she needed one anymore, you have Kay's psychiatrist, Dr. Anna Zenner. But the Doc doesn't just psychoanalyze Kay; she hones right in on the killer's twisted psyche and his fatal attraction to her patient. After which she generously offers Kay a rest at her fabulous summer home in Hilton Head.
As in previous books (like her first, Postmortem, drawn from the Richmond South Side Strangler case), Cornwell both fascinates with descriptions of forensic science in action and delights with occasional gems of realistic conversation. These manage to compensate for just as many instances of absurdly contrived situations and stilted, unbelievable dialogue.
Add to that a large helping of gruesome violence, tense chase scenes and those everpresent foolhardy life-threatening risks in which supposedly intelligent protagonists can't resist placing themselves.
If you're looking for consistency, logic or literature, look elsewhere. But for an entertaining way to pass the dog days, you'll get what you want in From Potter's Field. MEMO: Peggy Deans Earle is a staff librarian. by CNB