Breakaway Books

Authored by Patricia Cornwell; Published 1990; Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

I’ve known about Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series for years, but I wasn’t sure about a mystery series featuring a medical examiner–it just seemed a little more morbid than other procedurals. I finally decided to give Postmortem, the first in the series, a shot, and it did not disappoint me. 

In Postmortem, Dr. Kay Scarpetta is the new chief medical examiner of the state of Virginia, and the job is no walk in the park. Faced with bureaucrats who are, to put it mildly, not her biggest fans, and a singularly uncooperative police detective, Dr. Scarpetta remains dedicated to solving a recent string of killings around the city of Richmond. As she winds her way through multiple crime scenes and an ocean of clues, Dr. Scarpetta must walk a delicate tight rope of office politics even as she contends with a good dose of chaos in her home life.

I’m reasonably certain that medical examiners are not quite as involved in solving crimes as this novel depicts Dr. Scarpetta to be. Of course, there is a trove of clues on the victims’ bodies in these cases, which help to draw her in, but it still feels like she is playing detective here in an unrealistic way. But, let’s suspend that disbelief for the time being, because I enjoyed the doctor’s company. She is not an angel of a heroine but instead a chain-smoking, divorced doctor with a slightly off-kilter family. Nor is she surrounded by perfectly likable cops and obviously evil villains, but a diverting mix of flawed human beings. I particularly enjoyed her love-hate relationship with the cop Marino, but that is surely at least in part because he is voiced with a thick New York accent in the audiobook, and New York accents have a special place in my heart. 

The mystery itself is delightful. Plenty of red herrings and misdeeds unrelated to the murder to sort through, including a so-outdated-it’s-almost-cute computer hacking side plot. Okay, yes, many procedural mystery series have at least one installment featuring a serial killer who targets young women like this one, but I think Postmortem is a good version of it, if not groundbreaking and innovative. I surprised even myself by how quickly I powered through this first book, and the balance between the mystery and Kay’s personal life was perfect—certainly enough to make me put book #2 on my TBR list.

Looking for a well-executed mystery to kick off a series? Postmortem is an excellent choice.