title: Postmortem / Body of Evidence / All That Remains (Kay Scarpetta)
author:  Patricia Cornwell 
description: Patricia Cornwell has said that if she hadn't written her Kay Scarpetta thrillers--the classic first three are collected in this volume--she might find them too scary to read. After all, she is the rare crime writer who knows what she's talking about: she worked on the newspaper crime beat and at the Scotland Yard-like medical examiner's office in Richmond, Virginia, at a time when a serial killer was murdering women just like her. (Cornwell sleeps with a .38 within reach.)
zlib_text: 
  
  
  Scarpetta
  
  
  Kay Scarpetta (16)
  
  
  by Patricia Cornwell
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter 1
  
  
  
  
  
  Brain tissue clung like wet, gray lint to the sleeves of Dr. Kay Scarpetta’s
  surgical gown, and the front of it was splashed with blood. Stryker saws
  whined, running water drummed, and bone dust sifted through the air like
  flour. Three tables were full. More bodies were on the way. It was Tuesday,
  January 1, New Year’s Day.
  
  
  She didn’t need to rush toxicology to know her patient had been drinking
  before he pulled the shotgun’s trigger with his toe. The instant she’d opened
  him up, she detected the putrid, pungent smell of booze as it breaks down in
  the body. When she was a forensic pathology resident long years ago, she used
  to wonder if giving substance abusers a tour of the morgue might shock them
  into sobriety. If she showed them a head opened up like an egg cup, let them
  catch the stench of postmortem champagne, maybe they’d switch to Perrier. If
  only it worked that way.
  
  
  She watched her deputy chief, Ja