Postmortem is a 1990 crime fiction novel by author Patricia Cornwell and her debut novel. The first novel of the Kay Scarpetta series, it received the 1991 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Plot summary

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the chief medical examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia, is called to the scene of a gruesome strangling, the latest in a string of unsolved murders in Richmond. Among the clues left by the killer is a mysterious substance which fluoresces under laser light, which the killer has used to clean the scenes of forensic evidence. Scarpetta and Pete Marino, a detective with the Richmond police, work with FBI profiler Benton Wesley to attempt to piece together the pathology of the killer. Initial evidence appears to point to the fourth victim's husband, but Scarpetta suspects otherwise despite Marino's insistence. Meanwhile, in her personal life, Scarpetta must deal with the presence of her extremely precocious ten-year-old niece, Lucy, as well as an uncertain romantic relationship with the local Commonwealth's attorney. Believing that the killer thrives on media attention and hoping to flush him out by provoking his ego, Scarpetta, Wesley, and local investigative reporter Abby Turnbull conspire to release a news story which suggests that the killer has a mental disorder and a distinctive body odor due to a rare metabolic disease. While attempting to find another link between the murders, Scarpetta discovers that all five victims had recently called 9-1-1; she suspects that the killer is a 911 operator and chose his victims based on their voices. Scarpetta is awakened in the middle of the night by the killer, who has broken into her home. As she attempts to reach for a gun, Marino bursts into her bedroom and shoots the intruder, having realized that the news article would make Scarpetta a likely target. Scarpetta's suspicion proves to be correct; the killer was a 9-1-1 dispatcher.

Characters in Postmortem

Victims

Literary significance and 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. The novel was a major success and won numerous literary awards. The book is loosely based on the crimes of Timothy Wilson Spencer; Cornwell was working in the OCME at the time of his killings.

Awards and nominations

Patricia Cornwell received the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony and Macavity Awards and the French Prix du Roman d'Adventure for Postmortem.

Allusions to real life