2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Cause of Death, the seventh book in the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell.

Pages: 356 pages

Length: 1 month (May)

Participants: Beth, Susan, Lisa Marie

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

I started listening to this book today.

Finished listening to this book this morning. I actually liked this book better than the last, but it still bugs me how abruptly the ending comes. I'm ready to read the next Scarpetta book.

Finished this morning. Susan, I had to smile when I saw your post; I think this is one of the weakest books of the series. I HATED Kay's interaction with Lucy about Lucy's sexuality (Kay telling Lucy that as a lesbian, Lucy didn't understand what discrimination was about... Kay had had it so much harder as a woman in a man's profession). I think that's due to this book being 30 years old when LGBTQIA+ issues were given less credibility than today, but it's really challenging with a modern perspective. And generally, I thought Kay was overall much more annoying than usual. I used an audiobook for most of this, and I think the narratation added to that perspective.

All that said, I'm ready for book 8 next month!