Port Mortuary

By Patricia Cornwell

Deal Ends: Wed 27th May

Scarpetta, an all-new Original Series, is out now on Prime Video!Enter the chilling and captivating world of Dr. Kay Scarpetta before Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis bring the mystery to life onscreen.“The new audience will be compelled by the characters, crimes, and mysteries that are the trifecta of Patricia’s masterful storytelling… and a warning……there WILL be BLOOD.” – Jamie Lee Curtis#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than twenty years into her career, Kay Scarpetta is confronted with a case that could ruin her professionally—and personally . . .Kay Scarpetta’s secret military ties have drawn her to Dover Air Force Base and Port Mortuary, where she’s performing autopsies on fallen soldiers. But her new headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts—the Cambridge Forensic Center—is the first civilian facility in the U.S. to do virtual autopsies, and it is there that she encounters a devastating event.A young man has died, apparently from a cardiac arrhythmia, eerily close to Scarpetta’s new Cambridge home. But when his body is examined the next morning, there are stunning indications that he may have been alive when he was zipped inside a pouch and locked inside the Center’s cooler. Various 3-D radiology scans reveal more shocking details about internal injuries unlike any Scarpetta has ever seen—details that suggest the possibility of a conspiracy to cause mass casualties. With Benton, Marino, and Lucy at her side, Scarpetta must fight a cunning, cruel—and invisible—enemy in a race against time. . . . From Booklist Cornwell returns to form—somewhat—after the plodding Scarpetta Factor (2009). Told in the first person, the story finds Kay Scarpetta, now the chief medical examiner of the new Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts, involved in a couple of cases: the mysterious sudden death of a man and the murder of a child (whose confessed killer seems to be innocent). Soon she begins to suspect the two cases are related—joined by a piece of high-tech hardware found in the first victim’s apartment—and before too long, she realizes she’s facing what could be her most clever foe yet. For the first time in a while, Cornwell seems genuinely interested in Scarpetta again, giving the novel that spark of life that has made the series so enjoyable for its many fans. The book is still a long way from the glory days of Postmortem (1991) and From Potter’s Field (1995), but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. Series fans who have felt a bit let down of late will be pleased. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Print, radio, television, in-person, billboards, Twitter, Facebook, iPhone apps—about the only thing Putnam isn’t doing to promote Cornwell’s latest is a graffiti campaign. --David Pitt Review Praise for Patricia Cornwell and the Scarpetta series:“Cornwell brings [compulsive murderers] to full, frightening life.”—The New York Times Book Review “Cornwell remains the master of incorporating real-life science into pulse-pounding fiction.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “Cornwell has created a character so real, so compelling, so driven that this reader has to remind herself regularly that Scarpetta is just a product of an author’s imagination.”—USA Today “Cornwell certainly is skilled at dissecting the not always attractive innards of human nature.”—Forbes About the Author Patricia Cornwell is one of the world’s major internationally bestselling authors, translated into thirty-six languages in more than 120 countries. She is a founder of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine; a founding member of the National Forensic Academy; a member of the Advisory Board for the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, New York City; and a member of the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital’s National Council, where she is an advocate for psychiatric research. In 2008, Cornwell won the Galaxy British Book Awards’ Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year—the first American to win this prestigious award. In 2011, she was awarded the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture in Paris. Her earlier works include Postmortem—the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year—and Cruel & Unusual, which won Britain’s Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel of 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American author. From AudioFile n this latest installment in the Scarpetta series, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, noted forensic pathologist, is now director of the Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts. While she's been away at Dover Air Force Base on a six-month assignment, things have gone very wrong at the CFC; the bodies are piling up; her second in command, Jack Fielding, has gone missing; and Kay may be the next target. This dark, brooding story, told in primarily the first person, is mired in detail that lends little and irritates much. Kate Burton's delivery is often rushed. Her credible variation of accents lends interest but cannot overcome the listener's weariness in the face of so much introspection and useless melodrama. Not Cornwell's best effort. A.C.P. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine