Postmortem (Cornwell)

Postmortem: (Kay Scarpetta Mysteries #1)
Patricia Cornwell, 1990
Simon & Schuster
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781439148129

Summary
Winner, 1991 Edgar Award and Macavity Award for Best First Mystery

Under cover of night in Richmond, Virginia, a human monster strikes, leaving a gruesome trail of stranglings that has paralyzed the city. Four women with nothing in common, united only in death.  Four brutalized victims of a brilliant monster—a "Mr. Nobody", moving undetected through a paralyzed city, leaving behind a gruesome trail of carnage...but few clues.

Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta suspects the worst: a deliberate campaign by a brilliant serial killer whose signature offers precious few clues. With With skilled hands and an unerring eye, she calls on the latest advances in forensic research to unmask the madman. But this investigation will test Kay like no other, because it's being sabotaged from within and someone wants her dead. (From the publisher.);

---

Author Bio
• Birth—June 9, 1956
• Where—Miami, Florida, USA
• Education—B.A., Davidson Colege; King College
• Awards—Edgar Award; Gold Dagger
• Currently—lives in Boston, Massachusetts, & New York City

Patricia Cornwell writes crime fiction from an unusually informed point of view. While many writers are, as she says, conjuring up "fantasy" assumptions regarding what really goes into tracking criminals and examining crime scenes, Cornwell really does walk the walk, which is why her novels ring so true.

Before becoming one of the most widely recognized, respected, and read writers in contemporary crime fiction, she worked as a police reporter for the Charlotte Observer and as a computer analyst in the chief medical examiner's office in Virginia. During this period of her life, Cornwell observed literally hundreds of autopsies. While the vast majority of people would surely regard such work unsavory beyond belief, Cornwell was acquiring valuable information that would not only help her write the groundbreaking 2002 study Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed but would also enrich her fiction with uncommon authenticity.

"Most of these crime scene shows...are what I call ‘Harry Potter' policing," she said in a candid, heated interview. "They're absolutely fantasy. And the problem is the general public watches these, 60 million people a week or whatever, and they think what they're seeing is true." If Cornwell comes off as a bit vehement in her criticism of television shows meant to simply entertain, that's just because she takes her work so seriously.

Not that Cornwell's novels are ever anything short of entertaining, even if their grisly details may require extra-strong stomachs of her readers. She has created a tremendously well-defined and complex character in her favorite fictional crime solver Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Cornwell introduced medical examiner Scarpetta in her first novel, Postmortem in 1990. Today, Scarpetta is still cracking cases and cracking open cadavers. (She has even inspired a cook book called Food to Die For: Secrets from Kay Scarpetta's Kitchen.) In addition, Cornwell writes more lighthearted cop capers in her "Andy Brazil & Judy Hammer" series.

Extras
• Cornwell knows what its like to shatter records. Her debut, Postmortem, was the only novel by a first-time author to ever win five major mystery awards in a single year.

• Cornwell may be a former crime solver, but she shudders to think that her books could actually contribute to crime. In fact, she says she has received "thank you" notes from prisoners who claim they have gleaned information from her books that might help them cover their tracks while committing future crimes.

• If parody is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then Cornwell has a fan in Chris Elliott. The professional wisenheimer published a hilarious takeoff on her true crime book Portrait of a Killer called The Shroud of the Thwacker. (From Barnes & Noble.)

---

Book Reviews
Postmortem is a cunning, powerful, emotional and clever debut from a woman who is now the most successful (not to mention wealthy!) female crime writer in the world. With this book Cornwell pretty much created an entire new genre, and blew out the gates for a new generation of writers to follow her through. None of them are quite as good, though.... The plotting here is slick and easy, the personal contexts and conflicts nudge the quality even higher, and the writing has autumnal grace in it. She can also find the stark bleak poetry of a dead body.
Mystery Ink Online (website)

Cornwell, a former reporter who has worked in a medical examiner's office, sets her first mystery in Richmond, Virginia. Chief medical officer for the commonwealth of Virginia, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the narrator, dwells on her efforts to identify "Mr. Nobody,'' the strangler of young women. The doctor devotes days and nights to gathering computer data and forensic clues to the killer, although she's hampered by male officials anxious to prove themselves superior to a woman. Predictably, Scarpetta's toil pays off, but not before the strangler attacks her; a reformed male chauvinist, conveniently nearby, saves her. Although readers may be naturally disposed to admire Scarpetta and find the novel's scientific aspect interesting, they are likely to be put off by her self-aggrandizement and interminable complaints, annoying flaws in an otherwise promising debut.
Publishers Weekly

---

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Postmortem:

1. The most talked about features of the Scarpetta series are the gruesomely morbid descriptions of Kay's work in the medical examiner's lab—slicing and dicing corpses. Do you feel the graphic details add to or detract from her story telling?

2. Kay Scarpetta is skilled in the examiner's lab, as well as in her home kitchen and garden—a perfectionist, though not perfect. Discuss Kay as a character. Is she likable, admirable, capable of friendship and intimacy? Does Cornwell sacrifice character development for plot?

3. Talk about Lucy and her relationships with both her mother and her aunt. Does Lucy intrigue you or irritate you? Discuss her role in the plot.

4. Was the ending satisfying—does the story lead up to it organically, or was it completely unexpected? Did you suspect someone else along the way?

5. Cornwell says she received criticism from women who felt it was wrong for Kay to be rescued by a male. What do you think?

6. This could also be a good book to kick off a discussion on the progress of women. When Cornwell first wrote Postmortem in the late 1980's, publishers objected to Kay's role as a medical examiner, an unusual—and inappropriate—role for a woman. Nearly 20 years, 14 books, and 5 tv serials later, female medical examiners are no longer unusual. How did we get here—and what was gained...or lost along the way?

7. Critics have also raised questions about the possibility of Cornwall's books, particularly this one about a serial killer, spawning copycat crimes. Cornwall defends her books, point-ing out that, historically, copy cats have been spurred more by tv coverage of school shootings than by books. Do you agree or disagree?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

top of page