Autopsy: A Scarpetta Novel

A familiar author is a great choice for vacation, as there’s no need to learn about their characters or world. But even if you haven’t tried Patricia Cornwell before, this 25th in the series is a cracking read. The author’s long-running medical examiner character, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is back, but a lot has changed in her life. The COVID-19 pandemic is over and it has devastated Scarpetta’s family; her always-tense relationship with sister Dorothy has been complicated by Dorothy’s marriage to Scarpetta’s sidekick, Marino; and the doctor has moved from Miami to a Virginia job that’s turning out to be a nightmare. Very unusual for Scarpetta and for forensic science-related novels is the site of an early case in this book: space, from where one astronaut has returned, abandoning his colleagues. When Scarpetta is called in to observe the opening of the capsule they inhabit, in case an autopsy is needed, it pulls her away from investigating the death of a young woman who was recently found by the railway tracks, with the tantalizing clue—or is it just a coincidence?—of train-flattened pennies nearby. The doctor herself even has a scrape with death this time, all adding up to what readers have come to love from Cornwell: puzzling cases that star both science and family (and found family) love.