Customer Reviews

Port Mortuary (Kay Scarpetta, No. 18)

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(54)
2 star:		(135)
1 star:		(229)

 

 

After discovering and devouring Patricia Cornwell's "Postmortem" (now 20 years ago), my family and I have been huge fans of the Kay Scarpetta novels. Over the years, we eagerly awaited the release of Ms. Cornwell's next novel, always confident that it would surpass her last. Until something changed and Ms. Cornwell forgot how to tell an interesting story. Instead of flying effortlessly through her books, I now find myself slogging through them, falling asleep over them, yawning through endless pages of dreary detail and introspective angst. I keep hoping that the books will get better, but they don't. I gave up halfway through "The Scarpetta Factor" (2009), but actually read all of "Port Mortuary" (2010). Like "The Scarpetta Factor," Ms. Cornwell's latest offering is a self-indulgent bore. This book features mysteries within mysteries that are not revealed until the bitter end. By then, I didn't care. There's no suspense, no thrill, no passion. The characters that formerly had been drawn with such precision and care are now lackluster at best. Throughout the book, Kay can't figure out how to ask a direct question nor get a direct answer from anyone, including but not limited to Benton (her husband) and Lucy (her niece). That Kay seemingly has so little self-esteem that she would accept everyone's lack of forthright responses is completely contrary to her former strong, confident and capable self. After finally (FINALLY!) reaching the end of "Port Mortuary," I was disconcerted by the complete change of voice in the last few pages of the book. It's almost as though Ms. Cornwell's editor compelled her to tack on a page or two to make it appear that Kay has a soul after all. Ms. Cornwell, please bring back the Kay Scarpetta we used to know and love!

I am a long time fan of Patricia Cornwell and I wait each year for my book to be delivered so that I can delve back into the world of Scarpetta, Benton and Lucy. That being said, I was disappointed with this book. Disappointed in a way that I cannot quite find words for, which disturbs me greatly. I found it heavy, not in a good way, pedantic, bogged down by pointless material that was at many times inconsequential to the story line and the ending was in no way a resolution to the stress between Benton and Scarpetta.

I do like the fact that the perspective switched back to a first person point of view through Scarpetta's eyes because I think everything should be viewed through her eyes the way they once were. I also thought it was good to shine a measure of light on topics that rarely get talked about in fiction. All of this said, I was still depressed by this book because I know how much better the Scarpetta books can be and I just had a hard time with this book as a whole. And as a final note, I know that hardcore Scarpetta fans will not be deterred just as I wouldn't have been because I just had to know myself, but that said, I found the humanity, the relationships and the basic foundation that makes the series so good to me lacking in this novel.

I've been a Scarpetta fan for several years, but the last few books have been a real stretch of the imagination. The science is brilliant, the writing is superb, but I can no longer find any sympathy for the characters. There is no passion between Scarpetta and Benton. Scarpetta does not seem to be stable and I fear that the next book will have her tip over the edge and truly become the antagonist. In Port Mortuary, she's changed jobs and locales yet again and a hidden chapter of her past is revealed. This is too far-fetched for my imagination, primarily because if this had been such a scarring experience for Scarpetta it seems that is should have been at least alluded to in one of the earlier books.

This will be the last Scarpetta book that I read. Sadly, the Kay Scarpetta I loved no longer exists.

I have read nearly all of Ms. Cornwell's novels and Port Mortuary will be the last of her novels that I will attempt to read. Over the last few years I have become disenchanted with Ms. Cornwell's works; each got progressively darker in nature and Dr. Scarpetta became more paranoid and her management skills diminished to nonexistent. I read the first 50 or so pages of Port Mortuary and considered stopping; but I wanted to give the book another chance so I read about 100 pages more before finally calling it quits. If one has not purchased this book, even though the price has been reduced to nearly 50%, I suggest that one would be well served to read a copy from your local library.

Far from the educating & interesting pages she used to write, Patricia Cornwell seems to actually dislike her readers, so much that she is trying to bore us to death. If you've not read her last 2-3 books, here is an example of her writing. "Scarpetta had to choose which socks to wear. She had two colors to choose from, black or white. She likes white, but only with long pants. The black ones look better with shorts. But wait, she's not wearing shorts. So she really could wear either pair. But which to choose? Black or white? She chose the black socks. And in choosing the black socks, she remembered one time she was wearing black socks. It was long ago and a very important memory that radically changed her life. But she's never, never in 20-some years EVER thought of it before. It was life-altering, but not important enough for her to ever think of it before. She picks up the left sock and rolls it up in her fingers. She sits on the bed and lifts her right foot. Wait, this sock is for her left foot! She raises her left foot and puts her toes into the sock. She pulls the sock up to her ankle and smooths it out over her foot, then puts her foot back on the floor. She rolls the right sock in her fingers and lifts her right foot up onto her other knee. She puts her toes into the sock and pulls it up over her foot. It goes on twisted. She straightens it out and puts her foot back on the floor."
And in the case of this book, Cornwell would waste 11 pages describing the weave, age, texture of the sock and contemplating whether the sock actually wants to be worn.

That is how riveting her last few books have been. Stuffed with the most uninteresting and boring, repetitive drivel I've ever read by a so-called bestselling author. It really is like Cornwell pulls high numbers out of a hat and is required to write that many pages, no matter if there's enough of a decent storyline or not. And she may as well have put "Sponsored by Apple and Bell Helicopters " under this book's title.

The other problem that I've had with many of her books, is that Kay Scarpetta is obviously so, so, so fascinating and a stalker-magnet. Really, that woman can't draw breath without someone envying her so much, they want to kill her and take over her mesmerizing life. Scarpetta's so very, very important, that everyone who's ever met her simply has to betray her/stab her in the back. She's constantly on everyone's mind. There's a continuous stream of people waiting in line to plot against her, she's so recognizable. She's the most famous person EVER!
Every woman MUST be jealous of her and every man is eaten up with misogynist hate! Kay Scarpetta, the most superior woman.

Really? Her flaky, clinically-depressed personality and neurotic rants lately are the least enviable traits I can think of. And her constant moving in and out of states and changing of jobs, would, in the real world, indicate to employers that she's not at all dependable and very capable of up and leaving her position whenever it suits her. Or when Cornwell thinks a change of address would inject life into this dead on arrival series. But Cornwell would write, "A COA would IL into this DOA series."

Cornwell's books used to be very entertaining and informative murder mysteries. Now they're baffling and egotistical wastes of paper.

I was a diehard fan of Cornwell and Scarpetta until something changed profoundly, either Cornwell hired a ghostwriter or she decided she was too busy doing something other than putting time and effort into this great character creation of hers (if I had to guess. I'd say recovering from plastic surgery, judging by the cover). I have read every book of hers, hoping that she'd bring back the smart and witty Scarpetta, but no luck. The characters are unsympathetic and frankly boring (Kay); Lucy has been made into a superhuman freak. so selfish and soulless that one is tempted to skip over the pages she's on, and Marino, this colorful and fun character has been reduced to some kind of a shrink case study.

I hoped for a return to the old Scarpetta, but this is a repeat of what Cornwell has produced in the last few years (with the notable exception of her Jack the Ripper study) - a page after page of blah. And by the way, the Kindle price is outrageous.

While reading most of the book I found myself nervous and not being able to breathe. I am not sure how the author does this. It's the words or short sentences or something ... as it was definitely not the story. The story was pretty bad. Most of it was from the perspective of Scarpetta learning what had been going on in her absence from the morgue where she is chief. There was little involvement of Scarpetta in the actual story until the very end. I was quite disappointed and since the last couple of books weren't great either, I think this is the end of my reading Patricia Cornwell. The actual writing was redundant and I wanted to pull my hair out from all the repetitious phrases. The story was dull and uninteresting. Perhaps Cornwell needs to create a new character so that she feels some excitement in writing again. This book is definitely not worth the cost, particularly the electronic cost.

This was painful to read and I did not finish it. There is way too much scientific "stuff" and the story did not flow at all for me. I would never recommend this book and am sorry I wasted my money on it.

I'm an avid Patricia Cornwell fan but was sooooo disappointed in this book ... to the point that I feel like I should get my money back. My complaints about the book are pretty much the same as others ... bad plot, Scarpetta's neverending angst throughout the book, etc. There was a minimal presence of Lucy & Marino. The book's timeline is crammed into a 2-3 day period. And enough of the over the top high tech stuff already ... also enough with Lucy's over-the-top helicopter, watch, car, etc., etc.... It felt like Scarpetta spent most of the book explaining everything to the reader in a very condescending manner ... way too much info that completely disrupted the flow of the story (albiet an uninteresting, disjointed story). It took me forever to finish the book because I kept putting it down out of boredom and frustration. Then when I reached the end of the book, there was no ending ... it just was abruptly over. I even checked to see if my Kindle edition was missing a chapter or so. Nope, the book just stopped leaving me extremely dissatisfied. It seems Ms. Cornwell turned out a new book just for a payday. I may forgo her next book completely ... and I have read every book, over the years, she has written. Please bring back the old, self-confident Kay, who solves an intriguing case while sharing her great culinary sessions and personal interaction with Marino, Lucy & Benton.

I am a long time Patricia Cornwell reader, I have and have read all of her books. I am so disappointed in this latest one. Usually I fly through her books however, I found myself putting this one down at times instead of can't put it down. It is a sleepy bore of a novel, seems like Kay Scarpetta fell asleep with me. I'l continue to be a fan Of Ms Cornwell, but this latest novel is not indicative of her talent and I would not recommend this to anyone.