Today I am reviewing “Autopsy,” by Patricia Cornwell.
“Autopsy” is a thriller, the twenty-fifth book in the bestselling Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell.
Kay Scarpetta is a forensic pathologist who solves the wildest crimes by the seat of her pants with meticulous forensic acumen. She’s always been aided by her friends (who’ve turned into family over time) – Benton, a forensic psychiatrist, Pete, a cop, and Lucy – her niece – who is a tech geek specializing in computers, weapons, and helicopters.
I have to be honest about Cornwell’s work. I read the first eleven books in this series and stopped. I loved the early books because Scarpetta uses medicine and forensics to solve her cases. It was different and fascinating. Later, I always meant to get back to it and read the newer books, but I never did. I got further and further behind, and someday turned into nineteen years. Yikes.
I think the reason I couldn’t get through book twelve is because Cornwell removes Scarpetta from the Richmond setting where the earlier books take place, and upends Scarpetta’s professional career. That made it feel like a break to a new series and I was less enthused. She also put the characters through some of the worst possible traumas right before book twelve, and after a certain point it was a lot to deal with as I mentally (and emotionally) followed these people that I liked. If there’s an author out there that beats up characters without killing them (George R.R. Martin comes to mind on killing characters) more than Cornwell, I have yet to find one. I think I needed a break. I kind of felt like she was beating me up too.
When I saw that her new book out this year, “Autopsy,” was set back in Richmond, and that Scarpetta had come full circle back to the very same job she’d had at the beginning, I decided to forget that I’d missed the intervening thirteen books and jump right in.
It was surprisingly easy. Cornwell did a nice job of covering the most important backstory that I’d missed. I think that’s a great ability for an author of a continuing series like this. That said, she didn’t reveal too much about the “how,” so I can go back and read those older books if I want too and I won’t know so much it destroys the suspense of the prior plots. That’s a rare gift, and she excels there.
In this story, Scarpetta is investigating a vicious murder, when another happens that may be related. Cornwell gives you some intriguing questions in this story. Is it a serial killer? And how is the second victim tied to some top secret sudden deaths in a space laboratory? Scarpetta can examine the victims on earth, but not the bodies in space. Can she and her crew find the right clues and ask the right questions to get to the killer or killers? And can she survive the attacks that threaten her career and her life at the same time?
This book was a fun read. It reminded me of the early books in many ways. Scarpetta is always put through an emotional wringer and physically tested from the beginning to the final pages in these novels. Cornwell didn’t disappoint here. It was great to reconnect with Kay Scarpetta. Her character voice was familiar and consistent and I love this character a lot. Cornwell also gave us some plot complexity in tying all the threads together in surprising ways. This is the hallmark of a seasoned pro and she always delivers.
There were some downsides, in my opinion. The pacing felt off to me. The book was front heavy until Scarpetta visits the White House to help investigate the deaths in space. After that, the book is rushed. The timeline is short anyway, taking place in under forty-eight hours. That makes it exciting and suspenseful, but it barrels to a finish much too fast. I think Cornwell could have added a hundred or a hundred and fifty pages and had a better book.
A few plot points could have been better thought out. The first attempt on Kay’s life seems more incidental than germane. It adds tension, but it feels artificial. The attempt to wreck Kay’s career as she investigates corruption is more germane, but is too easily resolved at the end. The threat fizzled, and I found it disappointing.
Finally, the investigation of the deaths in space was fascinating, and I loved the forensic details that Cornwell pulled into the novel to support this section, but in many ways, that investigation felt like a very short story that was shoved into the middle of the book, and there wasn’t enough payoff. I really felt it deserved it’s own novel and shouldn’t have been downgraded to a subplot in this one.
All in all, this book is a good read, and if you like the Kay Scarpetta series, you will likely enjoy this. If you haven’t read any Scarpetta books before, while I do recommend them, I will suggest you start with the first one. I feel that “Autopsy” suffers from “we don’t edit Patricia Cornwell because she’s Patricia Cornwell and we want that book out as fast as possible so it makes a ton of money” syndrome. This book would have benefitted from some judicious editorial suggestions on the pacing.
Check out “Autopsy” here, and the first book in the Scarpetta series here.
