Patricia Cornwell pioneered the forensic thriller, immersing readers in the intricate world of forensic science. Her gripping narratives, often featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, are distinguished by meticulous research and cutting-edge forensic technology. Cornwell masterfully blends complex crime investigations with deep psychological insight, creating compelling narratives that delve into the darker aspects of human nature. Her influence extends beyond literature, shaping popular culture across various media.
Postmortem introduces Dr. Scarpetta, who knows the smell of bone dust from a skullcap saw and how to read a body for clues via lasers, DNA, and computers. As Scarpetta slowly closes in on a killer known as Mr. Nobody, she gets the creepy, well-informed feeling that the killer is closing in on her. Cornwell's debut swept the mystery-writing awards and made her somebody. In Body of Evidence, Scarpetta investigates the murder of a Southern writer who mysteriously opened the door for her killer. In All That Remains, she hunts a serial killer of young lovers--including the daughter of the president's drug czar, which complicates the forensic chase with political intrigue.
The fingerprints say the murderer is the man who's just been executed ... At 11.05 one December evening in Richmond, Virginia, convicted murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell is pronounced dead in the electric chair. At the morgue Dr Kay Scarpetta waits for Waddell's body. Preparing to perform a post-mortem before the subject is dead is a strange feeling, but Scarpetta has been here before. And Waddell's death is not the only newsworthy event on this freezing night: the grotesquely wounded body of a young boy is found propped against a rubbish skip. To Scarpetta the two cases seem unrelated, until she recalls that the body of Waddell's victim had been arranged in a strikingly similar position ...
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Going home is never easy, especially for Dr. Kay Scarpetta, whose chance at redemption in comes at a cost to her soul in this “rich and satisfying” (Associated Press) thriller. “Cornwell gets her Hitchcock on. . . . [She] can generate willies with subtle poetic turns.”—People IN DEVELOPMENT AS THE ORIGINAL SERIES SCARPETTA STARRING NICOLE KIDMAN AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing from South Florida, returns to the city that turned its back on her five years ago. Richmond, Virginia’s recently appointed chief medical examiner claims that he needs Scarpetta’s help to solve a perplexing crime. When she arrives, however, Scarpetta finds that nothing is as she expected: her former lab is in the final stages of demolition; the inept chief isn’t the one who requested her after all; her old assistant chief has developed personal problems that he won’t reveal; and a glamorous FBI agent, whom Scarpetta dislikes instantly, meddles with the case. Deprived of assistance from colleagues Benton and Lucy, who are embroiled in what first appears to be an unrelated attempted rape by a stalker, Scarpetta is faced with investigating the death of a fourteen-year-old girl, working with the smallest pieces of evidence—traces that only the most thorough hunters can identify. Now she must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak. . . .
Dr Kay Scarpetta has begun to think the state of Virginia is the most recent stop on the travels of a psychopath, but before she can properly liaise with colleagues in different states and different countries, another body is found. Like the others it is discovered on a waste site, but Scarpetta sees evidence which makes her doubt it is the work of the same killer. As she follows the forensic footprints the victim's life draws her away from seeing the death as an individual killing, and leads her to face the probability that someone is on the point of releasing the smallpox virus back into a world which believes the disease has been eradicated - a belief which has led to all stocks of the vaccine being destroyed. Could such a mass murderer really exist, and what sort of mind would contemplate releasing such havoc? Point Of Origin, the new Scarpetta hardback, will be published in September 1998
A farmhouse destroyed by fire. A body amongst the ruins. Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for the federal law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to a farmhouse in Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body which tells a story of a violent and grisly murder. The fire has come at the same time as another, even more incendiary horror: Carrie Grethen, a killer who nearly destroyed the lives of Scarpetta and those closest to her, has escaped from a forensic psychiatric hospital. Her whereabouts is unknown, but her ultimate destination is not, for Carrie has begun to communicate with Scarpetta, conveying her deadly - if cryptic - plans for revenge. Chillingly mesmeric in tone, labyrinthine in structure, POINT OF ORIGIN is Patricia Cornwell at her most dazzling. For more about Patricia Cornwell and her books visit her website on www.patricia-cornwell.com
Dr. Kay Scarpetta matches wits with a sadistic killer who infiltrates the FBI's top-secret artificial intelligence system and closes in on Scarpetta herself.
"Under the leafy cover of night in Richmond, Virginia, a human monster moves undetected, leaving a gruesome trail of stranglings that has paralyzed the city. Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta senses the worst: a deliberate campaign by a brilliant serial killer-a "Mr. Nobody"-whose signatures offer precious few clues. With an unerring eye, she must call on the latest advances in forensic research to have a chance at unmasking the maniac. But this investigation will test Kay like no other, because it's being sabotaged from within-and someone wants her dead."--BOOK COVER
An investigative reporter is found dead in Virginia's icy waters ... New Year's Eve and the final murder scene of Virginia's bloodiest year takes Scarpetta thirty feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface. A diver, Ted Eddings, is dead, an investigative reporter who was a favourite at the Medical Examiner's office. Was Eddings probing the frigid depths of the Inactive Shipyard for a story, or simply diving for sunken trinkets? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified? The case envelops Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and police captain Pete Marino in a world where both cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned detective work are critical offensive weapons. Together they follow the trail of death to a well of violence as dark and forbidding as water that swirled over Ted Eddings. For more about Patricia Cornwell and her books visit her website on www.patricia-cornwell.com
