Port Mortuary
Book - 2010
The new Kay Scarpetta novel from the world's #1 bestselling crime writer.
"When it comes to the forensic sciences, nobody can touch Cornwell."
- The New York Times Book Review
Port Mortuary , the title of Patricia Cornwell's eighteenth Scarpetta novel, is literally a port for the dead. In this fast-paced story, a treacherous path from Scarpetta's past merges with the high- tech highway she now finds herself on. We travel back to the beginning of her professional career, when she accepted a scholarship from the Air Force to pay off her medical school debt. Now, more than twenty years and many career successes later, her secret military ties have drawn her to Dover Air Force Base, where she has been immersed in a training fellowship.
As the chief of the new Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts, a joint venture of the state and federal governments, MIT and Harvard, Scarpetta is confronted with a case that could shut down her new facility and ruin her personally and professionally.
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Add a CommentSlogged through it; this is what happens when an author has lost creativity; introspection, redevelopment of already over-developed characters. The characters are no longer interesting.
I continue to marvel at her forensic, scientific knowledge. But I grew weary of her self-flagellation. Ok, everyone is out to get her; her husband is distant, her niece Lucy doesn't trust her; Marino disrespects her. Oh poor, poor Kay. But per her formula I knew her life would be in danger at the very end and she would survive. I wasn't disappointed.
I tried as hard as I could but I gave up around the 150th page. The book didn't grab my interest at all
did not enjoy this one. quit half way she kept going on in tangents totally obsessed with her own thoughts. No plot.
I gave up after chapter 2. It had been a while since I'd read one of her books - couldn't finish the last one either. Thought that she - through her protagonist - was rather self-absorbed. Didn't know if it was me misinterpreting the author, so I waited some time (a couple of years) before picking up Port Mortuary. Judging by some of the comments of her books here, it doesn't appear I was wrong. "Narcissistic" seems to be the best word to describe the main character. A reflection of the author's character?
Sigh...i really miss the early books. I find the last few books to be really depressing. Everyone is unhappy and angry and there seems to be no end in sight!
Oh my what a laborious book this was.
In this novel, the author takes pages and pages to get to the point. The conversations between characters are long and drawn out and one feels the need to skip some pages just to get to what is really happening in the story.
I have read all of the Kay Scarpetta novels. This one I just found a real bore.
In this novel, there seem to be so many suppositions on the part of the characters as to what is happening, what is the truth, what is a lie and Dr. Scarpetta seems to be constantly at odds with everyone, including herself. She seems very unhappy with life, and generally in this book at least, a really miserable individual.
She is constantly worrying about being betrayed, lied to and kept in the dark about things by Marino, Benton and Lucy and just about anyyone else who she has any dealings with. This just gets frustrating after a while and doesn't really make the reader warm to the character.
Not sure whether I will bother to read another Kay Scarpetta novel.
Far too detailed and complicated for me.
I don't know how many Scarpetta stories there are (I have read them all), but I never tire of them, which is a rarity and a definite plus. Always clever and entertaining.
A great Scarpetta book; perhaps the best one. I love surprises, and this book had several.