Hornet's Nest cover art

Hornet's Nest

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Hornet's Nest

By: Patricia Cornwell
Narrated by: Lorelei King
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £25.99

Buy Now for £25.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Deputy Chief Virginia West likes her boss. But when a number of visiting businessmen are murdered in her city by a maniac with a penchant for painting his victims bright orange, she objects to his edict that a rookie reporter accompany her on patrol.

©1997 Patricia Cornwell (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd. Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime

Listeners also enjoyed...

 King City cover art
Above Suspicion cover art
The Snow Killer cover art
The Turning of Our Bones cover art
The Black Echo: Special Edition cover art
Hidden cover art
A Is for Alibi cover art
The Girl in the Ice cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Nothing like her other books. In this the crime is way less important than the characters. If you’re looking for a good crime yarn to make you think forget it. Anyway we are told all the way through what each character is thinking. Some thoughts repeat themselves. It fills up the pages. I draw the line at the endless thoughts of the cat. Editing: long pauses between chapters, turning the page of the script should have been edited out and indeed made me feel sorry for the narrator reading this, especially the cat’s thoughts. Definitely not Patricia Cornwell at her best.

Poor plot, odd editing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Another 'binge listen' book which was covered over meal times and bed times.
With a good plot and multiple sub-plots it kept my wife and I listening. Her descriptive writing gave plenty for the imagination to conjure with. Excellent.

Cornwell at her best

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I've always enjoyed the Scarpetta books by this author, and I'm pleaded to be finding another series. There is a lot going on, and I enjoyed getting to know these new, very believable characters. Brilliantly narrated by the inimitable Lorelei Kings voice.

The best of writing by Patricia Cornwell

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was a little disappointed with this book after checking out some of the reviews on goodreads. If I’d have checked out reviews on audible first I might not have bothered with it. I’m not saying it was bad, but it was very drawn out to say the least, especially through the middle third of the book which jumped about from one character to another and was mostly irrelevant to the main storyline. In fact the main storyline sort of took a back seat throughout the book and there could have been so much more development of the black widow character rather than wasting time in over developing the protagonists, a lot of which had no relevance to the story. I usually like fast paced, edge of seat, suspenseful thrillers. This is none of the above! I might give Patricia Cornwall another go due to the review that says this is nothing like her other books but if I hadn’t seen that I definitely wouldn’t go back in a hurry!

Slow paced, drawn out and a bit boring

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As already noted this is nothing like the Scarpetta novels. A slow burn, it is character driven and gives a picture of the day to day trials and tribulations of policing. The plot is incidental but gives us insight into the characters. It's sad and funny in equal measure.
If you want something a bit different which is both realistic and eccentric give it a go. I enjoyed it.

Quirky

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews