Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Cornwell, Patricia - Dinitia Smith (review date 11 September 1994)

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Dinitia Smith (review date 11 September 1994)

SOURCE: Smith, Dinitia. “Death and Its Details.” Washington Post Book World 24, no. 37 (11 September 1994): 8.

[In the following mixed review, Smith praises Cornwell's use of scientific detail in The Body Farm, but criticizes the novel's lack of character development and grim tone.]

Child abuse. Serial killers. Death by autoerotic asphyxiation. Structure Query language for computers. A crime scene covered entirely in Super Glue. The Body Farm, Patricia Cornwell's fifth novel featuring the brilliant, feminist Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Kay Scarpetta, has them all.

After getting off to a jump start with an opening scene startlingly reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs—Kay jogging through the mud at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va.—The Body Farm sets a smooth and mostly satisfying course.

In Black Mountain, N.C., an...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Charles Champlin (review date 11 February 1990)
   2. Joan Hamerman Robbins (review date 7 July 1991)
   3. Charles Champlin (review date 20 September 1992)
   4. Eva Schegulla (review date summer 1993)
   5. Bettina Berch (review date fall 1993)
   6. Charles Champlin (review date 4 September 1994)
   7. Dinitia Smith (review date 11 September 1994)
   8. Maureen Corrigan (review date 20 August 1995)
   9. Jonathan Coe (review date 1 October 1995)
   10. Mary Scott (review date 13 October 1995)
   11. Mary Cantwell (essay date 14 July 1996)
   12. David Sexton (review date 1 March 1997)
   13. Kirkus Reviews (review date 1 July 1997)
   14. Paul Skenazy (review date 20 July 1997)
   15. Peter Messent (essay date fall–winter 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright