It's a Risky Business
Amazon agrees!
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Author: Patricia Cornwell
Title: At Risk Genre: mystery All but the most cursory inspection of Patricia Cornwell's latest novel, At Risk, would provide insight into the contents of her weekly "must-TiVo" list. That would be "Cold Case," "CSI: Miami," and "The Apprentice." "Cold Case" because – like almost every other mystery writer to come down the pike lately – her latest novel includes an attempt to solve a decades-old murder. "CSI: Miami" because of the high-tech science, not to mention the gorgeous women scattered through the plot. And "The Apprentice" because of all the back-stabbing and political infighting. Sadly, only one of them even comes close to "must-see TV," and that helps doom At Risk to the "don't-read books" list. Cornwell, whose last three (or is it four?) novels all met with critical scorn, and whose fan base is slimming faster’n Oprah on Atkins; originally fashioned this novella (all 212 pages of it) as a fifteen-part serial for The New York Times Magazine. Leaving her familiar characters Hammer and Scarpetta behind for the occasion, Cornwell ginned up a new crime fighter in the person of Win "Geronimo" Garano, investigator working under Boston ADA Monique "Money" Lamont. Lamont is, in the tradition of all that bikini-clad "CSI: Miami" eye candy, as gorgeous as she is rich and as rich as she is ambitious. Garano is equally gorgeous (in his own hot Mediterranean way) and a snappy dresser to boot, though he gets his last-season Armanis from a consignment shop instead of Filene's. The two would be a match made in heaven -- if only they could stand each other. Summoned home from a class in Tennessee for an urgent meeting with Lamont, Garano learns that he's being ordered to solve a twenty-year-old case… back in Tennessee. The purpose is to publicize a new state program Lamont calls "At Risk," and to showcase cutting-edge DNA technology in the process. But before Garano can head back to the Smokies for some peace and quiet, he accidentally walks in on a crime scene – Lamont’s rape and near-murder. Ergo, he’s reduced to solving the Tennessee case telephonically, getting a classmate (who happens to have a crush on him) to do all the work. Back in Boston, there’s something fishy going on, what with missing files and a sheaf of fresh hundreds in the pocket of Lamont’s now-deceased attacker. Looks as though we’ll soon have the measure of Win Garano, what with two cases to solve (and only forty pages to do it). I don’t understand Cornwell’s slide any better than anyone else: the woman who once cranked out tightly-plotted Scarpetta novels has been reduced to serializing a fairly bad – and definitely hackneyed – novella in a weekly magazine. I suppose that since Dickens and Doyle did it, pulp like this can’t be all bad. But the truth is that Cornwell is being reamed by critics and fans alike for At Risk. Sure, a lot of fans are peeved because they don’t recognize any of the characters. There’s no Marino, no Lucy, no Wesley, or Kay – but if writers listened to that kind of fan they’d be stuck in ruts for the rest of their careers. Still and all, Cornwell’s writing for the past few years (starting with the execrable Isle of Dogs) has pretty much been of the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” variety. At times I wonder if she’s suffered the same fate as Robert Tannenbaum and lost her ghost writer. Literarily speaking, At Risk is sloppy. My Comp 101 professor once said that speeches aren’t meant to be read, they’re meant to be heard – meaning that if you can see the words it becomes easier to pick out inconsistencies and holes. Apparently serialized novels suffer similarly: they’re not meant to be read in one sitting (which is pretty easy with this slim volume). Regardless, it’s sloppy: the plot is threadbare; the characterizations thin; and the influence of too many episodes of “The Apprentice” is clear in the surfeit of politics, double-crosses, and deceit. Lamont is pure caricature of high society dabbling in law before heading to the political feeding trough. Garano is too good to be true, what with being gorgeous and finding all those second-hand antiques and slightly used designer suits. And the way he uses his classmate Sykes in Tennessee? that borders on disgusting. My recommendation? Save your twenty-two bucks. all content copyright © 2014 by scmrak
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