Synopses & Reviews
Here, in one volume, are three thrilling Kay Scarpetta mysteries: "Postmortem", "Body Of Evidence" and "All That Remains". Patricia Cornwell's experience as a prize-winning crime reporter and in the Virginia chief medical examiner's office inform these brilliantly plotted and vividly told stories. Praised by the critics and readers alike, Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta mysteries are a must for every reading list. The new Kay Scarpetta mystery Unnatural Exposure will be released June 30. The paperback edition of Cause of Death is due out July 15.
Review
"Cornwell's first mystery is based on the 1987 Southside strangler murders in Richmond. That in itself has disturbed many readers—creating artificial chills out of real life horror seems too much like a ghoulish disregard for the victims. But there is another aspect of this all-too-gripping novel that is both ironic and bothersome. Most mysteries present a puzzle to the reader, as escape from reality, and a confirmation that right will eventually triumph as the criminal gets his or her due. In the process the victim is a cipher, merely a point of departure for the story and almost never depicted with the same range and depth of the other characters. The story is not about the crime, but about bringing the criminal to justice. But in Postmortem, the hero is Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the chief medical examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Because she is an expert in forensic medicine, the victims—and the extremely gruesome manner in which they died—hold center stage. However, in the process of detection, which admittedly is fascinating, Cornwell breaks all the rules. The author cheats
us out of a motivated killer. Her descriptions of Scarpetta's professional life leave little to the imagination. And finally the reader's victory in stumbling on the killer is empty. The scale of the story is so out-of-kilter, the killer so evil, the crimes so real, that the criminal's apprehension and punishment cannot bring our world back into balance. We do not read crime fiction in order to have our worst fears about life magnified, but to believe that there is justice in the world. In Postmortem, justice is served after a fashion, but there is precious little comfort in that." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Table of Contents
Postmortem -- Body of evidence -- All that remains.