Postmortem (novel)
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| Postmortem | |
| Author | Patricia Cornwell |
|---|---|
| Country | United States of America |
| Language | English |
| Series | Kay Scarpetta |
| Genre(s) | Crime fiction |
| Publisher | Scribner |
| Publication date | 1990 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback) |
| Pages | 352 |
| ISBN | ISBN: 9780743477154 |
| Followed by | Body of Evidence |
Postmortem is a crime fiction novel by author Patricia Cornwell. The first book of the Dr. Kay Scarpetta series, it received the 1991 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Four women with apparently nothing in common have been brutally murdered. The serial killer is a "Mr. Nobody", moving undetected through a paralyzed city and leaving behind a gruesome trail of carnage but few clues. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Virginia, must discover the physical evidence to unmask the killer, overcoming sabotage from within the investigation—and a threat to her own life.
[edit] Characters in "Postmortem"
- Kay Scarpetta - Chief Medical Examiner for Virginia.
- Benton Wesley - FBI Profiler. "He was FBI right down to his Florsheim shoes, a sharp featured man with prematurely silver hair suggesting a mellow disposition that wasn't there. He was lean and hard and looked like a trial lawyer in his precisely tailored khaki suit and blue silk paisley-printed tie. I couldn't recall ever seeing him in a shirt that wasn't white and lightly starched. He had a master's degree in psychology and had been a high school principal in Dallas before enlisting in the Bureau, where he worked first as a field agent, then undercover in fingering members of the Mafia, before ending up where he'd started, in a sense" (Postmortem, p.73).
- Dorothy Farinelli - Kay's sister and mother of Lucy. Her current boyfriend is Ralph. Kay says of her that, "my sister should never have been a mother. My sister should never have been Italian" (Postmortem, p. 123).
- Lucy Farinelli - Kay's ten-year-old niece. Described as being, "a genius, an impossible little holy terror of enigmatic Latin descent whose father died when she was small. She had no one but my only sister, Dorothy, who was too caught up in writing children's books to worry much about her flesh-and-blood daughter" (Postmortem, p.32).
- Pete Marino - Detective Sergeant in the Richmond Police Department. Described as "pushing fifty, with a face life had chewed on, and long wisps of greying hair parted low on one side and combed over his balding pate. At least six feet tall, he was bay-windowed from decades of bourbon or beer" (Postmortem, p.9)..
[edit] Major themes
- The hunt for a skillful and mysterious "Mr Nobody" serial killer.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
Postmortem, Patricia Cornwell's first novel, was published in 1990 following advice from editors at Mysterious Press to dump the then male central character and to expand the character of Kay Scarpetta.[1] The novel was an evident success; with it Cornwell became the first author to receive the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony and Macavity Awards and the French Prix du Roman d'Adventure in a single year.[1][2]
[edit] Awards and nominations
Patricia Cornwell received the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony and Macavity Awards and the French Prix du Roman d'Adventure for Postmortem.[1][2]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Biography of Patricia Cornwell
- ^ a b Dauncey, S. University of Warwick. "Patricia Cornwell." The Literary Encyclopedia. 18 Nov. 2005. The Literary Dictionary Company. 22 April 2007.
