KCR: Post-Mortem, a Kay Scarpetta novel (crime, forensic, detective)

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Patricia Cornwell

Post-Mortem is the first Kay Scarpetta novel by Patricia Cornwell, and the author was a former crime reporter that have worked closely with police and medical examiner's office. The case was also based on a real-life case in Richmond Virginia, and the result is a thriller that has you peeling back the layers with plenty of red herrings to keep you distracted and surprised, then a forehead-slap "Why didn't I think of that?"

Premise is simple: Kay Scarpetta, a new Chief Medical Examiner, is trying to catch a serial killer, while manuevering through city politics, personal life, life with her niece, crime reporter, staff, and stay sane amidst death and other things. The serial killer has a signature: he hogties his victims, and adds a rope around the victim's neck, then sodomizes her and tortures her and eventually strangles her. Yet he had left behind very little physical evidence, and the victims have almost nothing in common, except they all live alone. Amidst false leads, barking up the wrong trees (and there were lots of them), the ending is a surprise, even to me.

All the characters are multi-dimensional, and all are flawed in more ways than one. Marino the detective is hard-broiled street-smart, but is a bit too cynical. Kay Scarpetta herself have a bit too much self-doubt and have personal relationship issues, esp. when her sister (her niece's mother) is a total flake, leaving Kay with the kid. The kid's way too smart beyond her years. The reporter, the politicians, and more are all imperfect, and all have proper motivations to do what they did. The premise is solid enough to have this warrant a great read.

The book came out in 1995 and hold up even today as a murder mystery. Some of the SQL server command descriptions are a bit too dry and too simplified, but that's almost tolerable. If you like crime fic, you should read this novel.

Rating: Read it!

KCR: Scarpetta (novel, mystery)

I found this book to be virtually unreadable. The book spent way too much time on background and descriptions, with minimal action. When there was any sort of action, or just interaction, it keeps referring back to old events (i.e. other books) and really makes me cranky because each novel should stand alone. Scarpetta is obviously not quite normal, dealing with the dead most of the time, that she clearly can't have a normal relationship with the two men in her life. Apparently the one she liked practically raped her, while the one she does not like was married to her, and the book somehow went through page after page of her mind, his mind, that other his mind, and so on. It's like sheesh, get to the point!

Then there's setup, which is exceedingly clever... a dwarf (i.e. little people) checked himself into Bellvue, claiming he was framed in the death of his girlfriend, and he will only be examined by Dr. Scarpetta, who will exonerate him. It's a good hook, as you don't know whether this guy is crazy or not. However, the execution is botched. You can't identify with the guy who's acting crazy, but not quite THAT crazy. The ton of red herrings did not help either. The ending was not really a surprise either. 

I am usually not a fan of mystery. I got this book as a gift, apparently from the bargain bin. If you like the genre, skip this book and start from the very beginning. This one is formulaic, the setup TOO clever, and ended up a complete mess.