Review: Vivien Horler
Identity Unknown – A Scarpetta novel, by Patricia Cornwell (Sphere)
In the mini-biography inside this Kay Scarpetta thriller, prolific writer Patricia Cornwell’s interests are described.
“Cornwell continues exploring the latest space-age technologies and threats relevant to contemporary life. Her interests range from the morgue to artificial intelligence and include visits to Interpol, the Pentagon, the US Secret Service and NASA.”
Many of these themes turn up in Identity Unknown. Cornwell has written just shy of 30 Kay Scarpetta novels, and many other books besides, including a non-fiction account of who Jack the Ripper really was.
But somehow I’m not sure I’ve ever read a Scarpetta novel until this one. The forensic anthropology novels I’m more familiar with are those by Kathy Reichs, whose TV series The Bones was enormously popular.
This story has twin but linked threads: the death of a seven-year-old girl, Luna Briley, whose hugely wealthy and powerful parents are suspected of being abusive and killing her.
And then there’s the bizarre discovery of the body of a Nobel laureate astrophysicist called Sal Giordano, a man with whom Scarpetta spent a glorious youthful summer in Rome, and one to whom she’s remained close ever since, despite her marrying Benton, a forensic psychologist and the Secret Service’s top threat analyst.
Sal’s broken body has been found in an abandoned theme park called Oz on the Virginia/ West Virginia border, owned by Ryder Briley, father of the dead child.
Scarpetta gets the news about Giordano from her niece, Lucy, who used to love being taken to Oz as a child, but is now a US Secret Service agent and helicopter pilot.
Sal’s naked body is strangely red, possibly from a type of radiation, and he is surrounded by a circle of apple blossom petals. Lucy, who is not a fanciful woman, tells her aunt he appears to have been dropped out of the sky by an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon, otherwise known as a UFO.
Lucy says early that morning a UAP was detected on radar flying low near the old Oz park.
When an incredulous Scarpetta asks: “A UAP as in a spaceship from another planet?”, Lucy replies: “What I know is that Sal Giordano was jettisoned from some type of flying object identity unknown. It was unrecognisable to radar. And to electro-optical, telemetric and other sensors…”
Giordano’s truck is found plunged off a mountain road into a ravine, entirely empty of any personal belongings, doors locked, and seatbelts fastened.
Meanwhile Ryder Briley is harassing Scarpetta to release his daughter’s body “so we can put my baby to rest”. But Scarpetta is deeply suspicious of the claims that little Luna had shot herself in the head, and refuses.
A day or so after that celebrity TV reporter Dana Diletti suggests Luna’s death might not have been a self-inflicted accident – casting aspersions on the Brileys.
Hours later Diletti takes a helicopter ride from what turns out to be Briley’s private section of standard airport. The pilot drogs Diletti and her crew off, then flies off to refuel. The helicopter crashes into Chesapeake Bay. The pilot is killed.
Scarpetta believes the this is all linked, and with her powerful connections, is determined to find out.
It’s a great read, full of suspense, electronic wizardry and high-level links. As a new Scarpetta fan, I recommend it.