Customer Reviews

Postmortem / Body of Evidence / All That Remains (Kay Scarpetta)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this book not having read any of Patricia Cornwell's books and it was a great introduction. I went on to read everything else she has written. All the three novels were great and I was sorry to have them end so quickly.

I have read hundreds of mysteries and none could hold a candleto any book by Patricia Cornwell. Her understanding of PoliceProcedures and Forensic Science not only intrigued me and kept me up many nights reading, but inspired me to go back to school and get my degree in Forensic Science. (I plan to be a Forensic Pathologist!) Every one of her books are not some fifty page, light reading "who-done-it," but a believable, sink-your-teeth-into mystery with a great story line. Go out and get one of her books today. You won't be dissapointed.

I'd have to admit I'm one of those people who buys each new Patricia Cornwell as soon as it comes out, and here are three of the best. If you've read any crime novel featuring a female detective written in the last ten years, you've read a novel that's been influenced by the fabulous Scarpetta. Kay Scarpetta is a forensic pathologist with a genius for solving crime, and Patricia Cornwell is a writer with a genius for bringing the morgue to life. Cornwell's writing is superb when it comes to gory and technical forensic details, and her enviable skill with suspense will leave you checking that you've locked your doors and seriously considering purchasing some kind of semi-automatic weapon.

Scarpetta purists may hold that Postmortem is the best of the bunch, but there's plenty in each of these novels to keep crime fans happy for some time to come. I don't know anyone who's read a Scarpetta novel and hasn't been converted. Postmortem features a seriously scary serial killer and rapist, who's tracked down by a mixture of forensic work, medical knowledge and psychology; in Body of Evidence, Scarpetta is forced to retrace the final days of a murdered writer in the hope of uncovering the truth about her death; and in All That Remains Scarpetta has to deal with political pressure as she attempts to discover the identity of a serial killer who stalks and murders courting couples.

Scarpetta is certainly flawed - difficult, demanding and with an unfortunate proclivity for men who treat her badly, or die horribly, or sometimes both - but this is precisely why she is so endearing. If you're after a great thriller with plenty of forensic detail, go no further than Patricia Cornwell.

Over the past thirteen years, Patricia Cornwell has established herself as the world's leading crime writer. With this collection, we are introduced to Kay Scarpetta, crime fiction's most fascinating protaganist. Three of Cornwell's grittiest and most terrifying novels are rolled into one superior anthology.

Her debut novel, Postmortem, deals with an elusive serial killer who is holding the city of Richmond, Virginia hostage with his nightly endeavors -- breaking into young women's bedrooms, sexually assaulting them, and then strangling them.

Cornwell's follow-up, Body Of Evidence, has a lot to live up to, but doesn't disappoint. A young woman, a struggling writer, is being stalked. One rainy evening, she seemingly invites her killer inside her home. It is up to Scarpetta to put the pieces together as she follows a trail of bread crumbs from the Richmond crime scene to the young author's secret hideaway in Key West. However, it soon becomes glaringly apparent that said killer has set Scarpetta herself in his scopes...

All That Remains, the final volume in this collection, details Scarpetta's frustrating pursuit of a viscious serial killer dubbed "The Couple Killer" by the press because his modus operandi is to slay young couples in isolated, woodland areas. When the most recent victim turns out to be the daughter of a powerful political drug activist, things get personal as Kay discovers that the CIA may be witholding evidence...

Whether you've never read a Scarpetta novel or are a longtime fan interested in adding to your Cornwell collection, this set of enthralling novels is a definite must!

Patricia Cornwell really tells a good story in these books. She uses her character Kay Scarpetta in a way that makes you really understand her feeling and thoughts. The character has many problems and crossroads during the three books in this collection and you begin to almost become Dr. Scarpetta and feel what she is feeling. The background is that she is a coroner for the state of Virginia and the FBI and is a specialist with odd cases and serial killers. There is alot of technical vocabulary used, but only in a way pertinant to the story and it is always in a way any layman could understand. A complex web is spun and you are in for a wonderful ride to the end of the story that will have you on the edge of your seat and begging for more.This is definately a must read for fans of suspence and a good story.

I don't know why everyone says that body of evidence & all that remains aren't as good as postmortem. They're different books, approached with a different manner with the only similarities being the characters. All three books are wonderful, and I couldn't stop till i went through the whole book!

to Cornwell and Scarpetta by the end, unfortunately, neither is able to keep up with the expectations set by the first novel. The addict is bound to be disapointed as the series continues. Kaye becomes a remorseless, anti-social, adultress; Cornwell a mockery of the promise she demonstrated in her early work, suggesting that perhaps she should go back to working for the state and get some new, interesting and plausible material before she again subjects the world to her literary garbage. The disappointment becomes so great by the close of book 6 that it is almost better not to indulge in the first place.

That said, Postmortem may well be the most exciting, suspenseful novel ever written. It is just that good.

Body of Evidence and All That Remains are enjoyable and suspenseful reads, at least as good as most suspense available on the market.

If you do take up the habit, at the very least, spare yourself the agony of reading Cause of Death and Unnatural Exposure. Inflicting that much drivel upon yourself really could be the unnatural cause of your demise.

I am a long-time reader of P. Cornwell, and have found each of her books in this series to be an exciting,, fast-paced read. Though she does not give in-depth characterizations(?), she does, in her quick-sketch-artist style, give you a working knowledge of her characters. You are not going to read of day-to-day occurrences, but you jump from murder, to autopsy, to clue, to the 'gotcha'. The only critisim I can make of her books is that very facileness. She does seem to make the story just tumble out, without much elegance. In all fairness, that may be thought simply because she writes so easily, fluidly, with none of the filler necessary to support a story. She can tell a story, a damn good story without bothering to giving us a background, and she makes us concerned about all her characters. You want the bad guy caught, and Kay Scarpetta to solve the murder(s).

Blow Fly follows on from where we last left Scarpetta, visibly breaking up as she, Lucy and Marino struggled to come to terms with the brutal death of Benton Wesley, FBI profiler. Now however,it turns out that all was not as it seemed to be in Last Precinct, that things are happening behind the scenes of which Scarpetta has no knowledge and more importantly, no control over. The notorious Chandonne cartel is still seemingly omnipresent, with the fact that he is on death row not standing in the way of the Wolfman, Jean Baptiste, in the slightest. The book, written in the third person narrative is, at times, slow, as though Cornwell needs to remind the readers of the plot after such a long time away from them, but generally it is a necessary tool which keeps things moving along coherently, and ties together everything at the end, so the story is conluded as far as possible. An absolute gem of a read.

Patricia Cornwell writes a fast paced novel with great detail to medical correctness. The main character, Kay Scarpetta, is a very strong female figure who you get to know very well throughout the books.