Four women with nothing in common, united only in death. Four brutalized victims of a brilliant monster - a "Mr. Nobody", moving undetected through a paralyzed city, leaving behind a gruesome trail of carnage . . . but few clues. With skilled hands, an unerring eye, and the latest advances in forensic research, an unrelenting female medical examiner - Kay Scarpetta - is determined to unmask a maniac. But someone is trying to sabotage Kay's investigation from the inside. And worse yet, someone wants her dead . . .
Kay Scarpetta Series
This gripping series follows a brilliant forensic pathologist as she delves into the darkest corners of the human mind to uncover the truth behind the most brutal crimes. With each case, she confronts not only the perpetrators but also her own limitations and moral dilemmas. Her uncompromising approach and analytical skills lead her to expose hidden motives and culprits seeking to remain undetected. It's a fascinating journey into the world of forensic science and criminal psychology.






Recommended Reading Order
Pop-up paper sculptures for each letter celebrate the Christmas season.
All that Remains
- 438 pages
- 16 hours of reading
A killer is stalking young lovers. Taking their lives ... and leaving just one tantalising clue ... When the bodies of young courting couples start turning up in remote woodlands areas, Dr Kay Scarpetta's task as Chief Medical Examiner is made more difficult by the effects of the elements. Eight times she must write that the cause of death is undetermined. But when the latest girl goes missing turns out to be the daughter of one of the most powerful women in America, Kay finds herself prey to political pressure and press harassment. As she starts to investigate, she finds that vital evidence is being withheld from her - or even faked. And all the time a cunning, sadistic killer is still at large ... For more about Patricia Cornwell and her books visit her website at www.patricia-cornwell.com
“A knockout” (People) of a thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. “Killing me won’t kill the beast” are the last words of rapist-murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell, written four days before his execution. But they can’t explain how medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds Waddell’s fingerprints on another crime scene—after she’d performed his autopsy. If this is some sort of game, Scarpetta seems to be the target. And if the next victim is someone she knows, the punishment will be cruel and unusual...
The Body Farm
- 351 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Kay Scarpetta is back, consulting forensic pathologist for the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, in her grittiest and most compelling case yet. In rural North Carolina, the brutal murder of eleven-year-old Emily Steiner has shaken a small town. But more disturbing are the details of the crime, chillingly reminiscent of the handiwork of a serial killer who has eluded the unit for years. Into this volatile atmosphere comes Scarpetta's ingenious, rebellious niece Lucy, an FBI intern with a promising future in Quantico's computer engineering facility—until she is accused of a shocking security violation. While coming to terms with Lucy, Kay must conduct a grisly forensic investigation at a clandestine research facility in Tennessee known as The Body Farm. There she will find more answers to Emily Steiner's murder—and evidence that paints a picture of a crime more horrifying than she imagined…
From Potter's field
- 369 pages
- 13 hours of reading
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
Cause of Death
- 370 pages
- 13 hours of reading
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
Unnatural Exposure
- 367 pages
- 13 hours of reading
A body is discovered in a Virginia landfill. The details --- expert removal of head and limbs --- mirror that of a case Dr. Kay Scarpetta has been investigating in Ireland. But for Scarpetta, the game has only just begun. The killer boldly contacts her via the Internet, signing off with the ominous screen name deadoc. As her investigation deepens, Scarpetta discovers that the victim in Virginia was exposed to a rare smallpox-like virus before she was killed, and that Scarpetta herself could be infected. Now she knows she is up against a killer unlike any she has pursued before --- a relentless psychopath with access to an incredibly sophisticated arsenal of deadly force. And with a very personal interest in seeing Kay Scarpetta suffer.
Point of origin
- 342 pages
- 12 hours of reading
Carrie Grethen, partner in crime to William Temple Gault, has escaped from prison. Before she does so she sends Kay Scarpetta a message which makes it all too clear that she blames her (and Lucy, and Benton Wesley, and Pete Marino) for Gault's death, and has specific - if cryptic - plans for revenge. Wary and quite shaken, Scarpetta still has a professional life to get on with, including investigating the death of an unknown female in a fire which has destroyed the isolated farmhouse home of her erstwhile political boss. The post mortem reveals that the woman was stabbed before the fire was started, but while Scarpetta and her colleagues are puzzling over means and motive they are called out to the scene of another fire and another murder. The pattern is the same, the answers as elusive and then Benton disappears while following up a tip-off. Suddenly, and with appalling clarity, Scarpetta sees that Carrie has set up a scenario in which she can manipulate them all and in which she appears to have the inescapable upper hand. A novel of high suspense from the acknowledged mistress of the forensic thriller.
Een vrouwelijke patholooganatoom raakt betrokken bij verschillende moordzaken die haar op het spoor van een weerwolf brengen.
The last precinct
- 468 pages
- 17 hours of reading
The new era of Scarpetta begins… In this #1 New York Times bestselling novel, Patricia Cornwell takes her readers deeper into Kay Scarpetta’s heart and soul than ever before…. Thwarting an attack by a suspected serial killer puts Virginia’s Chief Medial Examiner Kay Scarpetta in the harsh glare of the spotlight. As her personal and professional lives come under suspicion, she discovers that the so-called Werewolf murders may have extended to New York City and into the darkest corners of her past. A formidable prosecutor, a female assistant district attorney from New York, is brought into the case—and Scarpetta must struggle to make what she knows to be the truth prevail against mounting and unnerving evidence to the contrary. Tested in every way, she turns inward to ask, Where do you go when there is nowhere left?
Blow fly
- 467 pages
- 17 hours of reading
After her resignation as Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner and the horrifying events which threatened her life in THE LAST PRECINCT, Kay Scarpetta has abandoned her elegant home in Richmond and is quietly living in Florida, beginning to get some balance back in her life and slowly establishing herself as a private forensic consultant. But her past won't let her rest, and her grief for Benton Wesley continues to grow, not diminish, as does the rage within Lucy, her niece. Then the architect of her changed fortunes contacts her from his cell on death row: deformed, blinded by Scarpetta's own actions, incarcerated in Texas strongest prison, Jean-Baptiste Chardonne still has the ability to terrify. But, unkown to Scarpetta, there are other forces behind the wolfman's apparent actions, invisibly shepherding her and those closest to her towards eliminating those who threaten them all. And it is all orchestrated by the one man in her life who knows every nuance of her soul. Visit the author's website at www.patricia-cornwell.com
Since Postmortem garnered critical acclaim and a record-breaking five awards for a first crime novel, the Scarpetta novels have often been imitated, but never bettered. Against her own judgement and the advice of Benton Wesley and her niece, Lucy, Scarpetta agrees to return to Virginia as a consultant pathologist on a case involving the death of a fourteen-year-old girl. Accompanied by Pete Marino she finds the once familiar territory of her morgue and her department much changed, and the new Chief Medical Examiner treats her with disdain despite the obvious fact that he is in desperate need of her expertise. But professional as ever, she re-examines the evidence and proves the girl was murdered. She also finds trace evidence which matches that found on an accident victim and at the scene where one of Lucy's operatives was attacked. It is not only a forensic puzzle, but opens up the probability that someone is after those closest to Scarpetta. Visit the author's website at www.patriciacornwell.com
Predator
- 400 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Florida is full of human predators, and they all give Dr Kay Scarpetta the opportunity and the means to do what she does best - persuading the dead to speak to her. And in Boston, Benton Wesley is working on a secret case involving convicted killers. It is a project which gives Scarpetta deep disquiet, as does the behaviour of her niece, Lucy, who is spending too much time in cheap bars looking for casual pick-ups. The Academy is called when a woman's body is found in Boston. She has been tortured, sexually abused, her body tattooed with handprints. The same sort of handprints Lucy had seen on the flesh of her latest pick-up. Meanwhile, Scarpetta and Marino are investigating the disappearance of a family in Florida, called in by a concerned neighbour, but as they search and find the tell-tale signs of abduction rather than disappearance, they also discover that someone had assumed the identity of the caller, and she is now dead. They've been set up, and it becomes clear that someone is tracking their every move.
Book of the dead
- 512 pages
- 18 hours of reading
The 'book of the dead' is the morgue log in which all cases are entered. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to have a new meaning. Fresh from her battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta moves to South Carolina and opens a private forensic pathology practice. A string of brutal killings shatters her dreams of a quiet life.
Scarpetta
- 592 pages
- 21 hours of reading
The novel features Kay Scarpetta, a renowned forensic pathologist, as she navigates a gripping crime investigation. With a blend of suspense and intricate details, the story showcases Scarpetta's expertise and determination to uncover the truth. As she confronts complex challenges and dangerous adversaries, the narrative promises a thrilling journey filled with twists and revelations, highlighting the author's signature style of storytelling that has captivated readers nationwide.
It is the week before Christmas. A tanking economy has prompted Dr. Kay Scarpetta - despite her busy schedule and her continuing work as the senior forensic analyst for CNN - to offer her services pro bono to New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In no time at all, her increased visibility seems to precipitate a string of unexpected and unsettling events. She is asked live on the air about the sensational case of Hannah Starr, who has vanished and is presumed dead. Moments later during the same telecast she receives a startling call-in from a former psychiatrist patient of Benton Wesley's. When she returns after the show to the apartment where she and Benton live, she finds an ominous package - possibly a bomb - waiting for her at the front desk. Soon the apparent threat on Scarpetta's life finds her embroiled in a surreal plot that includes a famous actor accused of an unthinkable sex crime and the disappearance of a beautiful millionaires with whom Lucy seems to have shared a secret past
Port Mortuary
- 354 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Krimi. When Scarpetta examines a young man's body, she discovers stunning indications that he may have been alive when he was zipped inside a pouch and locked inside the cooler of her new Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts. Various 3-D radiology scans reveal more shocking details about internal injuries unlike any Scarpetta has ever seen. These suggest the possibility of a conspiracy to cause mass casualties, and she races against time to discover who and why before more people die
Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings.
A woman has vanished while digging a dinosaur bone bed in the remote wilderness of Canada. Somehow, the only evidence has made its way to the inbox of Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, over two thousand miles away in Boston. She has no idea why. But as events unfold with alarming speed, Scarpetta begins to suspect the paleontologist's disappearance is connected to a series of crimes much closer to home: a gruesome murder, inexplicable tortures, and trace evidence from the last living creatures of the dinosaur age. When she turns to those around her, Scarpetta finds that the danger and suspicion have penetrated even her closest circles. Her niece Lucy speaks in riddles. Her lead investigator Pete Marino and FBI husband Benton Wesley have secrets of their own. Feeling alone and betrayed, Scarpetta is tempted by someone from her past as she tracks a killer both cunning and cruel.
Dust. Die Blendung, englische Ausgabe
- 404 pages
- 15 hours of reading
After working on one of the worst mass killings in US history, Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta returns home to recover, but an unsettling call drives her straight back to work. The body of a young woman has been discovered inside the sheltered gates of MIT, draped in an unusual cloth and posed in a way that is too deliberate to be the killer's first strike. A preliminary examination reveals that the body is covered in a fine dust that under ultra-violet light fluoresces blood-red, emerald-green and sapphire-blue, and physical evidence links this to another series of disturbing homicides in Washington, DC. As Scarpetta pieces together the fragments of evidence she discovers that the cases connect, yet also seem to conflict, and with so much at stake, it's clear that she is the only one who can solve it . . . Dust is a thrilling, addictive novel featuring one of the most iconic, original and compelling characters in crime fiction today.
Patricia Cornwell delivers the next enthralling thriller in her high-stakes series starring Kay Scarpetta - a complex tale involving a serial sniper who strikes chillingly close to the forensic sleuth herself.
The No. 1 bestselling series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.
Chaos
- 385 pages
- 14 hours of reading
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the twenty-fourth thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta"--
Related books
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.
A Second Scarpetta Omnibus
Cruel And Unusual / The Body Farm / From Potter's Field
- 1024 pages
- 36 hours of reading
Book by Patricia Cornwell
Ein Fall für Kay Scarpetta / Ein Mord für Kay Scarpetta
- 795 pages
- 28 hours of reading
Kay Scarpetta bittet zu Tisch. Aus d. Amerikan. v. Peter Beyer
- 94 pages
- 4 hours of reading
In diesem Buch zeigt sich die Krimiheldin Kay Scarpetta als Gastgeberin, die zusammen mit ihrem Kollegen Pete Marino und ihrer Nichte Lucy Farinelli an Weihnachten kocht. Jeder bringt sein Spezialgericht mit, was einen neuen Blick auf die Charaktere aus Patricia Cornwells Bestsellern ermöglicht.





















