[Review] Patricia Cornwell: 'Chaos'

I've read a few bad books in my life, some were even pretty bad, but 'Chaos' by Patricia Cornwell must certainly rank as the worst thriller I've read in a decade. Yes, Patricia Cornwell can write words that constitute a sentence and she produces many sentences. Far too many in fact and I wonder how she bribed here editor, because there could easily have been cut 100 pages filled with dribble from 'Chaos'.

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Patricia Cornwell clearly seems to enjoy the wealth she has accumulated, but she does so as a nouveau riche, a person who has recently become rich and needs to show the world just how knowledgeable she is about expensive food, wines and cars. And the book drags on and on about that (Kay Scarpetta wonders if husband Bryce may arrive in his Porsche Cayenne Turbo S or his Audi RS 7).

I wondered if Patricia Cornwell just started writing this thriller without any clue of a plot. Then, halfway in, she ran into difficulties. I will not refrain from warning the reader about *SPOILERS* and just mention that she uses a drone to kill people. A drone using electric wires that whizz down to the victim to electrocute him (or her). Then, surprised that the electric current cannot possibly be so powerful that the intended victim will die (Ohm's law), she 'invents' that panguite, a rare mineral found only in minute traces in meteorites, can supply that power. She even mentions that the mineral involves nano-technology. It doesn't: the amounts of Panguite in some meteorites are so small that you have to measure it in nanometers (nm), which means that you need tons of meteorites to get just a bit of panguite. Sloppy writing at its best, an uneducated woman at its worst.

What we have then is a drone targeting people who seem not to have noticed the sound of a strange apparatus above their heads and they seem not to have noticed that the wires came down. You would have thought that the intended victims would take evasive action, but no, they didn't. So, we have victims that seem electrocuted by lightning without any thunder.

Like I said: 'Chaos' is easily one of the worst books I have ever read. Do not – I repeat NOT – buy this book. To be honest, it's the first time I ever reviewed a book with this sad result.