My Review (spoiler-free):

I started reading this last year the week it came out, then stopped. I had a hard time following Tana French's In the Woods with a different kind of crime thriller, and put it down. I didn't want to pick it back up until I absolutely had to - that is, when the next Scarpetta book came out. I have Red Mist and I intend to get to it a lot faster - early reviews say it is much better than Port Mortuary and I'm betting on it. Port Mortuary was, to be perfectly honest, a little slow going for me. The story takes place over a few days, and while the start is promising, it tapers off. I love the Kay Scarpetta books and I'm always a fan of the characters - I just would have preferred more action, less talk.

The Bottom Line:
Not flawed in any technical way, Port Mortuary may not be what readers want from Kay Scarpetta & Co.


Thank you Patricia Cornwell for writing a better book for #18 than #17. I almost stopped reading Scarpetta novels as they had gotten so crazy and psychological and creepy. This one was (thankfully!) a return to a good forensic mystery--along with some weighty psychological past. I think I can now go pick up book #19.

Scarpetta is back in the driver’s seat, something the series regular reader will find exciting. Working with the US Military to examine the death of fallen soldiers, Scarpetta flashes back to a fellowship she undertook at the beginning of her career in South Africa. Back in the present, the mysterious death of a man in Scarpetta’s neighbourhood could have disastrous results when it’s found that the man was still bleeding after being locked in the morgue’s refrigeration unit overnight. Could this mean the end of Scarpetta’s career, as well as those close around her? Additionally, when a letter arrives from a troubled mother, begging Scarpetta to reopen the case that will send her son away for life, our famed pathologist discovers some eerie truths about a certain member of her staff; truths that could begin an ever more chaotic set of events. How do all these cases tie together and will Scarpetta be able to shake her past mistakes before those in her present permanently ruin her?

Cornwell has answered the pleas of Scarpetta fans with an explosive novel that could only have been told from the first person perspective. With a great deal of technology (so much so that Cornwell must preface the book with ‘this could happen’) and a whole list of alphabet soup acronyms, the reader is in for a fast-paced ride that will not end as the mysteries and curiosities pile up one on top of another. Perhaps one of her best works yet, Cornwell returns to the pace she set in the early novels, with blunt dialogue and cases that take the reader’s breath away.

Kudos Madam Cornwell on a fabulous novel. You never cease to amaze me!

I was so disappointed in this book. I am a huge fan of Kay Scarpetta and crew and this was just awful. Who was this whiny, self-absorbed person? It certainly is not the strong willed world renowned forensic examiner we all know and love. It took me 3 weeks to force myself through this book. I may not pick up any future ones at all.

a bit hit and miss for me....too much happening in snippets of implied conversation

non leggevo Cornwell da anni ormai, ma questo mi ha stuzzicato!

Insufferable and boring. Kay is so arrogant and full of herself.
Oh and somehow she’s also a colonel apparently...

It’s like a case of Mary-Sue (even if I don’t like using that word) except usually even they are more likable.

This book ended well but I really struggled with the style in which the story/mystery unfolded. It was mostly expressed in first person "thoughts" over a period of about 30 hours and it just didn't work for me. I didn't really relate to the main character and because of the way the story was told, I also didn't get into the rest of it as a result. I'm glad I persevered but I'm not sure I'd try this author again. (Rating more 2.5 than 2.)

Cornwell's Scarpette series continues to be a disappointment. After reading about 200 pages, I decided that none of it was even needed. Kay Scarpette plays hardly any role in catching the killer or figuring out the murder and yet again at the end she becomes a victim and someone saves her (which is starting to get a little old). Thankfully I didn't buy this one and only borrowed it because it would not have been worth the money. For a 500 page book, only the last 150 pages was probably needed and maybe another 50 pages from the beginning to explain what was going on. I also found it quite unbelievable that Cornwell suddenly had the audacity to bring it up so far into the series that Kay got through college paid for because she had been in the military?! There were also other things found in the beginning that were just much too difficult to believe. In addition Kay Scarpetta is Giving this book 2 stars might have been a little too nice of me.