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Autopsy cover art

Autopsy

By: Patricia Cornwell
Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
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Summary

The legendary Patricia Cornwell is back with her number one best-selling, groundbreaking series following Kay Scarpetta.

Kay Scarpetta is back, and this time she’s right in the path of danger....

World-renowned forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta and her husband, Benton, a psychologist with the US Secret Service, have returned to Virginia. They are headquartered five miles from the Pentagon in a post-pandemic world that’s been torn by civil and political unrest.

Just weeks into the job, Scarpetta is called to a railway track where a woman’s body has been shockingly displayed, her throat cut down to the spine. But the trail of clues will lead Scarpetta back to her own neighbourhood.

At the same time, a catastrophe occurs in a top-secret lab in outer space, endangering the scientists aboard. Scarpetta is summoned to the White House to find out what happened. As she starts the new investigation, an apparent serial killer strikes again, this time dangerously close to home.

©2021 Patricia Cornwell (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Astonishing...there’s no other crime writer like her." (The Times)

"Accomplished." (Financial Times)

What listeners say about Autopsy

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    1 out of 5 stars

Awful

I always used to really enjoy the Scarpetta books, although the quality tapered off as the series went on. I was looking forward to listening to, as opposed to reading, my first Audible Scarpetta, and what a disappointment. This book is simply awful. The story is rubbish, and the reader is almost unlistenable-to, to the extent that I even wonder sometimes if it is AI and not a real person. Bad accents, terrible phrasing, I will try and get a refund, and suggest you don’t waste your money/credits on this.

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7 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Very disappointing

Far to much “filler” in the first half of the book. I found the ending most unsatisfactory. It’s hard to believe this is the same author that wrote great page turners in the past.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • MR
  • 05-01-22

Faulty audio, average plot

Firstly, there is something wrong with this recording on Audible. Susan Erickson sounds like she’s had a stroke and the speed needs changing to 1.1 for her to sound normal; even then I wish these books were still narrated by Lorelei King.

Anyway, welcome to Kay Scarpetta’s Moonraker. The plot ticks along nicely for the majority of the book with all the usual characters present, and the right mix of suspense and intrigue even if some of the sub-plots are a little far fetched.

The Covid reference is a mistake and a lazy way to achieve the outcome (surely The Doc would know that the mortality rate was circa 200 per million higher in the US than the UK) and sadly that show isn’t over yet.

The epilogue feels like she hit the word count for her publisher and then wrapped it all up as quickly as possible. A disappointing end but still a relatively enjoyable listen if you’re a fan of the series.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Patricia Cornwell is perfection as always

the story is gripping right till the final momemts, there is tragedy and chaos throughout some of which i will never forgive!
as always clever, witty, and engaging.
is it too soon to ask for the next one?!

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2 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • SB
  • 24-01-23

Hideous voice, cannot listen

Would like a refund as the voice is so bad, I will never listen to it. It’s weird and robotic and like nails on a blackboard! And I am a fan of the author in written form!! I would be happy to re record the book for free as I love her work but will never listen to this.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Robotic & pointless

Struggled with the last few Scarpetta novels and this was no different. For a book entitled Autopsy you would think there'd be an actual autopsy in the story somewhere. Tried the audiobook this time so I could do something else while I listened. The narrator sounded like a robotic you tube voice pronouncing every syllable. Had to speed it up for regular intonation. I will persevere with the next one because I'm invested in the characters lives but I do wish the author would get back to the quality of the earlier books in the series.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing as I loved the books

From the narration it was unclear at times when Scarpetta was thinking something and when she was saying it out loud, which was quite confusing. The character interactions were not very believable.
Also the plot seemed very slow with a lot of irrelevant waffle, and then seemed very rushed at the end to finish it.
I will not be buying the next book. Any chance of a refund on this one??

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent as always

Author is amazing but the reader is terrible!!! Great plot as always and just a shame the person voicing it is robotic

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration, average storyline

Isn’t it about time to swap the narrator? Ericksen is just so exhausting to listen to, every word read with so much suspense and breath, making most of the story sound borderline ridiculous. And it’s impossible to distinguish between characters and also when a sentence is speech or thought, making it difficult to follow the storyline at times.
And it’s a confusing story as it is, lots of random plots that lead nowhere, the poisoned wine, the space autopsy, just seemed unnecessarily and ads nothing to the story, though I’m sure the research was fun.
Not Cornwells finest, but by now we’ll forgive that just to spend a few hours in the company of Kay and Marino.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible

Boring. Terrible narrative gave up a few times , shame she used to be a good writer

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