Red Mist (Chapters 19-27)

Now that the momentum of the story has picked up speed, it maintains a pretty good pace.  Dead bodies are turning up and this becomes a “homicide-by-poisoning” mystery, and a pretty good one.  The body count is up to three, and in a classic twist, the person our protagonists considers the number one suspect turns up as one of the victims.  All the while, we’re served up some really intriguing forensics technique, complete with some nice gruesome details.  This is, apparently, a trademark of Cornwell’s and it is done with real style and professionalism. 

One very surreal moment I liked a lot: upon looking through the first victim’s effects, Scarpetta discovers a somewhat incriminating letter to the victim from … Scarpetta herself!  Here, Cornwell’s tight, almost stodgy prose style poses an almost jarring contrast with the event, and the result is very effective.  The story veers into a new direction with Scarpetta now weighing every new development against what appears to be a plot to incriminate her.  When Jaime suffers the same fate as the other victims, Scarpetta is placed in the rather bizarre position of investigating deaths that may eventually be pinned on her.  She’s very aware of the legal considerations of her situation, and plays her hand accordingly, but it’s a real tightrope she’s walking in terms of legality. 

The detective work, apart from the forensics, is nicely presented as well, with some clues that only professionals would spot that haven’t been explained yet.  The contents of the prisoner’s stomach don’t match at all what the investigators have been told about what the prisoner had to eat that morning.  There is a small burn mark on her foot that, according to the prison’s head honcho, couldn’t possibly be there.   There is a mysterious orange, cheesy substance (I keep thinking of Cheetos, but that would be too funny in this context, “smacking” of the product placement phenomenon in movies!) which appears smeared on the victim’s pants and under one fingernail.  All these little details will eventually help solve the crime, of course, so it’s fun to try and imagine how. 

Amusing, too, is how the dialog occasionally slips into a rather pedantic mode when the investigators begin to discuss interesting scientific and investigative topics.  “Clostridium botulinum, the anaerobic organism that produces the poison or nerve toxin, is ubiquitous.”  This is Kay speaking to a colleague. “The bacterium is in the soil and the sediments of lakes and ponds.  Virtually any food or liquid could be at risk for contamination.”  You can almost hear the deep baritone of a science film narrator intoning these factoids.  “Food-borne botulism is commonly associated with improper canning and poor hygienic procedures or oils infused with garlic or herbs and then not refrigerated.  Poorly washed raw vegetables, potatoes cooked in aluminum foil and allowed to cool before they’re served.”  This sounds like it could have been lifted from a government pamphlet on food safety!  But then Sammy Chang makes it real, “…well, that just ruined a lot of foods for me.”

 

All signs point to a very satisfying ending, both in terms of the science involved and in terms of the conclusion to a well-written mystery story.  If the final quarter of the book plays out as well as the second and third quarters, I will have considered the time reading the book well spent, and certainly consider reading another one of Cornwell’s novels soon; though perhaps one that is not part of a series this time!




Next week: Conclusion.

October’s book of the month: “Frankenstein,” by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.  “Frankenstein”; or, “The Modern Prometheus” is the original 1818 'Uncensored' Edition of Frankenstein as first published anonymously in 1818. This original version is much more true to the spirit of the author's original intentions than the heavily revised 1831 edition, edited by Shelley, in part, because of pressure to make the story more conservative. Many scholars prefer the 1818 text to the more common 1831 edition.  Shelley started writing the story when she was nineteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823.
Shelley had travelled in the region of Geneva, where much of the story takes place, and the topics of galvanism and other similar occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her future husband, Percy Shelley. The storyline emerged from a dream. Mary, Percy, Lord Byron, and John Polidori decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for weeks about what her possible storyline could be, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made. She then wrote Frankenstein.