I’ve read several of Patricia Cornwell’s mystery/crime thrillers involving the coroner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Last weekend, with lots of travel time to fill, I picked up The Last Precinct off the bargain rack in the Tampa airport. Hardcover, so not perfect for travelling, but at least I was sure that it I hadn’t read it. It was, mostly, the usual page-turner. It took a few dozen pages to get going, and I was amused to realize that I had read the previous novel in the ‘series.’ So, despite my spotty history with the twelve Scarpetta novels, I understood several of the references to earlier events. With the rise of the TV show CSI, I’ll bet these novels got an even bigger boost… although I’ll bet the popularity of these novels helped get CSI on the air. Death is many things, but rarely boring.