SOURCE: Corrigan, Maureen. “Mysteries.” Washington Post Book World 25 (20 August 1995): 11.

In the following mixed review, Corrigan discusses From Potter's Field and the weariness Cornwell's characters seem to be developing as the Scarpetta series progresses.

The trouble with fictional serial killers is that, after a few appearances, they start to become known quantities, sort of like noxious relatives threatening another visit rather than the inscrutable, and therefore terrifying, phantasms of evil they should be. Even Hannibal Lecter, surely one of the most insidious embodiments of evil ever to appear in fiction or film, gets a laugh from his audience when, at the end of Silence of the Lambs, he announces: “I'm having a friend for dinner.” We've been with him for so long that even though he appalls us by his grazing habits, he's also begun to beguile us with his wit and charm.

Temple Brooks Gault has been dogging...