Port Mortuary

I loved reading earlier Scarpetta books all the way back to her first one, and I faithfully read every new one that came out for a long time, right up to \”Blowfly.\” Then I got hold of Kathy Reichs\’s books, \”Fatal Voyage\” being the first, I was hooked, and I began to analyze why I liked Reichs more than Scarpetta. \”Port Mortuary\” is my return to reading Scarpetta after four years and I discovered why I stayed away so long. I am pretty sick of her whining about Marino and Lucy and Benton. It really does get old so get on with the CASES, please! I am a professional content editor, so I hope I project some modicum of credibility. Cornwell\’s scientific and forensic knowledge is excellent, and her ability to build a case is beyond reproach. But all the injections and interruptions of personal angst and sturn und drang is SO annoying, I end up skimming over fifty percent of the book.

Bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers another compelling thriller featuring one of her favorite characters, Dr. Kay Scarpetta who finds herself solving one of the most deadliest cases of her entire career!……..After fulfilling a six-month obligation of hard training by dealing with death on behalf of the US government\’s armed forces, chief medical examiner for the Commerce of Massachusetts Dr. Kay Scarpetta is about to confront one of the most bazaar murder cases of her entire career. As director of (CFC)Cambridge Forensic Center and Port Mortuary, Kay finds herself investigating the crime scene of a young man who\’s murder was captured on a digital recording, and not only was he stabbed by an unknown assailant, but he was speared in the back by a high-tech instrument, and she\’s about to discover that this case was much closer to home than she ever thought possible. When the murders of a football player, and a little boy are discovered, Kay is stunned to learn that her Deputy Chief medical examiner Jack Fielding has disappeared without a trace, and as she digs deeper in all three cases, the evidence leads her with startling results, but not before she is plagued by chilling questions. Were the two murders connected in both deaths? More important, why was her employee missing from the face of the earth? Because he gave false information on the little boy\’s cause of death? What has happened to Jack Fielding? What trouble has he caused? Could the small boy\’s death be related to the dead man lying in the morgue? Was she dealing with some renegade scientist, or even worse, more than one? As Kay delves even deeper when the trace evidence leads her to the unfathomable truth, nothing will prepare her for the unbelievable realization when she is forced to face the shocking truth of disloyalty, mistrust, and betrayal by those she loved most in the world both professionally and personally!……..

This is the last book I read by Ms. Cornwell. I loved the Scarpetta series in the beginning and until the book where Benton Wesley returns alive. After that my enthusiasm continued to wane. It seemed like the promise of those early books disappeared as soon as she resurrected him in that book. A lot of the things that happened after that in various books were not true to the characters she had created. I can remember talking in our office when we heard the rumor that a main character was going to be killed off. We all voted for it to be Benton because we did not particularly like him. He was kind of a fake guy. Pete was necessary to the story and we really could not see her killing off Lucy. Therefore, Benton was our candidate and it was correct. Then, he gets to return and the books take a turn for the trash. This last one for me was so bad I barely finished it. Where in the past I finished it in a few hors this one took a month and it was torture. After this one I have not touched another Cornwell. I have autographed copies of most and I will probably put them on ebay. I will not buy another book by her. I may borrow one from a library, but it is unlikely since I bought this book in 2010 and I am reviewing it now and have not read any other book by this author. Maybe sometimes people have a certain number of books in them??

I was on vacation at the beach recently, and the cabin had this book. I was a huge Cornwell fan in the 90s. This book was OK, but like the other reviews said, Cornwell has these bizarre absolutely narcissistic segments of her work that simply detract from the story. I ended up not finishing the book at the beach, but buying it on Kindle because I had 80 pages to go and the other reviews said this was a can\’t-miss segment of the book. Despite my misgivings, they were right. I used to love Cornwell novels, but lately her work isn\’t as good. This will be the last one I read.

I gave up on this book after the first few chapters. Cornwell has long since fallen in love with her own creation. Scarpetta is seen by those nearest to her as a kind of goddess. Scarpetta\’s human and scientific humility evident in Cornwell\’s brilliant debut, \’Post Mortem\’, seems to have abandoned her. I have had enough of her. I\’ve also had enough of Cornwell\’s irritatingly idiosyncratic use of \’and\’ to join statements quite unconnected.

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