Postmortem

The first novel in the Kay Scarpetta series, the book begins with another victim in a series of unsolved murders.

The heroine, Dr Kay Scarpetta, is the Chief Medical Examiner for Virginia, and she is brought to the scene by an early hours phone call from a police detective.

Scant forensic evidence has meant difficulties for both the police department, and the Medical Examiners office and, with its setting in the early 1990s, the novel includes early references to DNA, and its usefulness in identifying perpetrators.

Kay also has trouble with her personal life, being nominal guardian to her ten year old niece Lucy, and being involved with a local prosecutor.

Her job is put in peril after a series of leaks to the media are traced back to the Medical Examiners office, and she discovers that her computer has been hacked.

Kay and her colleagues, along with an investigative reporter, who's sister was one of the victims, attempt to use  the media to flush the killer out.  a lead also raises the possibility that the killer is connected to the emergency call centre.

The plan works in an unintended way, with the killer breaking into Kay's home.  The police Detective, Marino, has realised this might happen and shows up in the nick of time, shooting the killer and saving Kay.

In the aftermath of the shooting, it is revealed that the killer did indeed work as a 911 dispatcher, and used his position to find and target his victims.

Publishing Details

• Paperback: 293 pages
• Publisher: Warner; New edition edition (April 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0751504947
• ISBN-13: 978-0751504941
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches 

Search Tags

100    1_ |a Cornwell, Patricia Daniels.
245    10 |a Postmortem / |c Patricia Daniels Cornwell.
260    __ |a New York : |b Scribner, |c c1990.
300    __ |a 293 p. ; |c 22 cm.
500    __ |a Subtitle on jacket: A mystery introducing Dr. Kay Scarpetta.
520    __ |a Dr Kay Scarpetta uses forensic medicine to try to catch the killer of five young women.
650    _0 |a Scarpetta, Kay (Fictitious character) |v Fiction.
650    _0 |a Medical examiners (Law) |v Fiction.
650    _0 |a Forensic pathologists |v Fiction.
650    _0 |a Women physicians |v Fiction.
651    _0 |a Richmond (Va.) |v Fiction.
655    _7 |a Mystery fiction. |2 gsafd
655    _7 |a Medical novels. |2 gsafd

 Links

 Wikipedia - Postmortem