Book Review: Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell (Kay Scarpetta 18)

I enjoyed the early Scarpetta novels very much but they have dipped very much in readability and Kathy Reichs has surpassed these novels by quite a long way now. However, I loyally continue to read the Patricia Cornwell novels in the hope that she will regain her form.

Scarpetta is the new chief of the Cambridge Forensic Centre that is a joint state/federal venture and she returns to her post after working with the Air Force. When she gets back to Cambridge she finds that standards have slipped. She discovers that one of the corpses could have been alive when it was put in the cooler. This revelation could ruin Scarpetta personally and professionally as well as shutting down the facility.

It soon becomes clear that sabotage of the facility is someone's aim. Scarpetta and her usual cast of characters (Marino, Lucy and Benton) investigate the cases that come up to bring the perpetrator to justice.

I enjoyed this novel a little bit more than the recent novels in the series, so hopefully number 19 will be a return to form? This one is on the way for me.

7/10