All conversations are monologues of people talking apart from each other, which sadly does not seem to be an intentianal post-p-p-modern statement since Cornwell has never managed dialogue, though if she enhances her incompetences to make them work for her, I guess one has to give her cudos, just don't think the target audience (see above) even recognises that. After earning her degree in English from Davidson College in 1979, she began working at the Charlotte Observer.

Kay Scarpetta has not handled Benton Wesley’s death well. She has worked herself into the ground. She has distanced herself from her friends and employees. She has even started smoking again. She is mired in guilt and regret over every unkind word she ever spoke to Benton. No, Kay Scarpetta is not handling her grief well at all. I was in a program called, Safe Quarters, being protected from my youngest sister and brother and I bought the audio version of Last Precinct.” I had a brand new car and I sat outside the facility in the heat of summer, runnng my car air conditioning, and read your box on my car radio. Guys, most homeless would come by the car to visit me, some getting in and listening for awhile, all wondering what I was doing in a place like that! In the four and one half months I was there I read six of your books on audio and spent a whole lot of money on gas! But I developed a love for you YOU and Kay!

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The book starts off with Kay grieving the loss of Benton which I can't decide if I like or not. At least it shows a new sign of Kay when she really goes down hill but on the other hand it's also something that veers away from the murders and such.

Elegant, trumpet-like lilies, she thought. But there was something off. Something not right. It was the colour. It was strange, sort of pale and flesh-coloured…Cornwell received widespread attention and praise for her series of articles on prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte. From the Charlotte Observer, Cornwell moved to a job with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia – a post she would later bestow upon the fictional Kay Scarpetta.