All That Remains, by Patricia Cornwell

This was the first Patricia Cornwell book I've read, and it will probably be the last.  It was hard to be motivated to finish it.  Here's how I broke it down:

Plot:  It was a standard murder mystery with a few sub-plots thrown in.  However, it was all just about solving the mystery and there wasn't any back-and-forth between the hero and the killer.  Another problem was that the hero was an outsider to the investigation which gave her little impact.  Finally, the key break-through happened by coincidence which is never very satisfying.

Characterization:  The hero had a back-story, inner dialogue and internal conflicts, but none of it made the character come alive for me.  Perhaps it was because these things weren't integrated well with the plot.


Style:  The style was fairly pedestrian.  The few attempts to be more literary, for instance with descriptions at the beginnings of chapters, stood out as awkward because they were inconsistent with the rest.

Theme:  There wasn't really a theme, but I don't think the author was really trying for one either.