Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Cornwell, Patricia - Charles Champlin (review date 11 February 1990)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

Charles Champlin (review date 11 February 1990)

SOURCE: Champlin, Charles. “Bloody Sunday.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (11 February 1990): 5.

[In the following positive excerpt, Champlin discusses Cornwell's attention to scientific detail in Postmortem.]

Patricia Daniels Cornwell was a crime reporter on the Charlotte Observer who then became a computer analyst in the chief medical examiner's office in Virginia. Her only previous book was a biography of Mrs. Billy Graham. For her first mystery, Postmortem, she has created a protagonist, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, who is, conveniently enough, Virginia's chief medical examiner.

The police are confronting a serial rapist, following a forensic trial in which the computer is massively involved. Cornwell trots out her expertise in dazzling and occasionally bewildering fashion. But the specifics are fascinating, as work well-described always is, whether it's Dick Francis at...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Charles Champlin (review date 11 February 1990)
   2. Joan Hamerman Robbins (review date 7 July 1991)
   3. Charles Champlin (review date 20 September 1992)
   4. Eva Schegulla (review date summer 1993)
   5. Bettina Berch (review date fall 1993)
   6. Charles Champlin (review date 4 September 1994)
   7. Dinitia Smith (review date 11 September 1994)
   8. Maureen Corrigan (review date 20 August 1995)
   9. Jonathan Coe (review date 1 October 1995)
   10. Mary Scott (review date 13 October 1995)
   11. Mary Cantwell (essay date 14 July 1996)
   12. David Sexton (review date 1 March 1997)
   13. Kirkus Reviews (review date 1 July 1997)
   14. Paul Skenazy (review date 20 July 1997)
   15. Peter Messent (essay date fall–winter 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright