How long does it take to read Postmortem?
Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell takes about 6 hours 40 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
Book 1 of Kay Scarpetta
Next: Body of Evidence
About 6 hours 40 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1990. 364 pages, about 100,100 words.
14 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 11 hours 7 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 6 hours 40 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 10 minutes |
The page count is the median across 82 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
A killer is stalking the streets of Richmond, Virginia. When the bodies begin to mount, Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta is pulled into a chilling investigation that blends high-stakes forensics with psychological warfare. Armed with cutting-edge science and unflinching resolve, Scarpetta must navigate hostile forces both inside and outside the investigation—because someone isn’t just trying to hide the truth. They’re trying to kill her.
Subjects: Fiction, Medical examiners (Law), Kay Scarpetta (Fictitious character), Virginia in fiction, Women detectives, Women physicians in fiction
