If you like books by Patricia Cornwell | Librarypoint If you like books by Patricia Cornwell By: Kara Rockwell This readalike is in response to a customer's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids. You can browse the book matches here . Patricia Cornwell writes crime novels and is known especially for her series featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner. Her book Postmortem , which is the first novel to feature Dr. Scarpetta, won a slew of awards, including the Edgar Award and the Macavity Award for best first mystery. If you like books by Patricia Cornwell, here are some other books and authors that you might like: The Alibi Man by Tami Hoag Former narcotics detective Elena Estes just wants to be left alone, but when a colleague is murdered, her hunt for the killer leads her straight back to the smarmy Palm Beach crowd she abandoned long ago.

(Library Journal) Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs In a house under renovation in Charlotte, North Carolina, a plumber discovers a forgotten cellar, and some rather grisly remains—the severed head of a teenage girl, several decapitated chickens, and a couple of cauldrons containing beads, feathers, bones, and other relics of religious ceremonies. In a river not far away, an adolescent boy's torso carved with a pentagram, is found. Are these crimes the work of Satanists and devil worshipers? (catalog summary) The Devil's Bones by Jefferson Bass Investigating a suspicious death in which the victim's remains were found in a burned car, forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton engages in an unorthodox experiment to better understand the case. (catalog summary) Fractured by Karin Slaughter Detective Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation takes on the case of a girl who has been savagely murdered in one of Atlanta's most desirable neighborhoods.

(catalog summary) The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen When a perfectly preserved "mummy" is discovered in the dusty basement of Boston's Crispin Museum and an archaeologist turns up missing, medical examiner Maura Isles and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli have precious little time to derail the Archaeology Killer before he adds another chilling piece to his monstrous collection. (catalog summary) The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner Rookie FBI agent Kimberly Quincy is after a serial killer who always claims two victims, leaving clues with the first corpse that will lead to the second-whose slow, torturous death could be prevented. (Library Journal) Nine by Jan Burke LAPD homicide detective Alex Hartwick finds himself at odds with the feds when criminals on the FBI's Most Wanted list start dropping like flies in his jurisdiction. (Library Journal) Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham In a variation on the serial killer theme, newcomer Billingham's villain doesn't want to actually kill his victims (those who do die he considers mistakes ) so much as induce massive strokes that will leave them cerebrally conscious while otherwise in a completely comatose state known as locked-in syndrome.

(catalog summary) Changing the Face of Medicine | Marcella Farinelli Fierro State University of New York at Buffalo LOCATION Diagnostic and therapeutic services: Forensic pathology Education: Teaching I wanted to help sick people feel better. In 1994, Dr. Marcella Fierro was appointed chief medical examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia. She co-directs the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, offering week-long courses on topics such as advanced death investigation to medical examiners, crime scene investigators, judges, law enforcement investigators, prosecutors, forensic scientists, nurses, and others working in forensic science. Dr. Fierro's skill and dedication inspired mystery writer Patricia Cornwell to write a series of crime novels in which the protagonist, Kay Scarpetta, was modeled after Dr. Fierro. Cornwell knew Dr. Fierro because she had worked as a computer analyst in Fierro's office of chief Medical Examiner. As a result of the widespread success of Cornwell's novels, the work of forensic pathologists has become familiar to the public in a way that would not have otherwise been possible.

Marcella Fierro, graduated cum laude in biology from D'Youville College in Buffalo, New York, and decided to become a physician in 1962. She earned her doctor of medicine in forensic pathology from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine in 1966. Following an internship and residency at Ottawa Civic Hospital in Ontario, Canada, Dr. Fierro pursued residencies in pathology at the Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic Educational Foundation and at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she became chief resident in Pathology, with a fellowship in forensic pathology in the Department of Legal Medicine at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond from 1973 to 1974. With board certification in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, Dr. Fierro became chief medical examiner of Virginia, the state's highest position in forensic science, in 1994. Dr.

Fierro has been on the faculty of the Department of Legal Medicine and Pathology at Medical College of Virginia Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University since 1973, was clinical professor of pathology at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, from 1983 to 1992 and again in 1999 to 2002. She was staff pathologist at Richmond's Medical College of Virginia Hospitals from 1975 to 1992, then professor of Pathology at East Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville from 1992 to 1994. She is a member of the American Medical Association and the International Association for Identification, a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the College of American Pathologists, and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, among others, and is a past president of the National Association of Medical Examiners. Dr.

Fierro has been a consultant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Task Force on National Crime Investigation Center, Unidentified Persons and Missing Persons Files, Washington D.C., since 1983, and has served on the board of editors and been a reviewer for The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology since 1979. She has made countless presentations and lectures before academic and professional organizations and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Among her many awards is the Lifetime Achievement Award she received in 2001 the from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Medical Alumni Association, State University at Buffalo. Dr. Fierro has appeared on the Discovery Channel's New Detectives series and on BBC regarding Cornwell's novel From Potter's Field. Dr. Fierro advised Cornwell on all her Scarpetta books, including Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All that Remains, Cruel and Unusual, Body Farm, and From Potter's Field. Dr. Fierro has recently added mortality reviews to her forensic work, whereby she characterizes a death and develops a strategy for prevention.

She was a legislative resource and testified on a bill amending homicide and malicious wounding statute to increase the penalty for the murder or malicious wounding of a pregnant woman. In providing this information, Dr. Fierro observes, "I am able to perform a public health function and criminal justice service. So I can serve both the living and the dead." What was my biggest obstacle? In the 1950s and 1960s [when I was in high school and college] there were few women physicians. Medicine was an unknown as far as [career] guidance. I just knew I wanted to do it, so I did. How do I make a difference? Because I practice forensic pathology, I am able to perform a public health function and criminal justice service. So I can serve both the living and the dead. Who was my mentor? For a while in medical school, a wonderful Nazi refugee woman physician, Ellen Eckstein Rudinger was my mentor. She had left Germany and went to school all over again and became a wonderful internista wonderful woman. How has my career evolved over time? The more I learn the more fun it is.

Who Is Patricia Cornwell - Patricia Cornwell Net Worth Who Is Patricia Cornwell Read more... Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell Net Worth is $40 Million. Patricia Cornwell is a successful crime fiction novelist, originally from Florida, with an estimated net worth of $40 million dollars. Patricia Cornwell has published 20 novels in her popular Kay Scarpetta. Patricia Cornwell (born Patr... Patricia Cornwell Net Worth is $40 Million. Patricia Cornwell Net Worth is $40 Million. Patricia Cornwell is a successful crime fiction novelist, originally from Florida, with an estimated net worth of $40 million dollars. Patricia Cornwell has published 20 novels in her popular Kay Scarpetta Patricia Cornwell is a contemporary American crime writer. She is widely known for writing a popular series of novels featuring the heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner. A descendant of abolitionist and writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, Cornwell was born in Miami, Florida to Marilyn and Sam Daniels. Her father was one of the leading appellate lawyers in the United States and served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black.

Cornwell later traced her own motivations in life to the emotional abuse she says she suffered from her father, who walked out on the family on Christmas Day 1961. She has said, "He was on his deathbed. We knew it was the last time we'd see each other; he grabbed my brother's hand and mouthed 'I love you,' but he never touched me. All he did was write on a legal pad 'How's work?'" In 1961, Cornwell's family moved to Montreat, North Carolina, where her mother was hospitalized for depression. Cornwell a... Patricia Cornwell Books - Biography and List of Works - Author of 'A Scarpetta Omnibus' Home > Authors > Patricia Cornwell books Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell (born Patricia Daniels on June 9, 1956) is the author of a popular series of crime novels featuring the fictional heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta", a medical examiner. She was born in Miami, Florida. Her ex-husband is Charles Cornwell. She is a descendant of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Cornwell has made several notable charitable acts, including funding scholarships to the University of Tennessee's National Forensics Academy and donating her collection of Walter Sickert paintings to Harvard University. Eugene Bennett, a former FBI agent, attempted to murder his wife, Marguerite, in 1996 because he thought that she had had an affair four years earlier with Cornwell. The Scarpetta novels include a great deal of detail on forensics. The solution to the mystery usually is found in the forensic investigation of the murder victim's corpse, although Scarpetta does considerably more field investigation and confrontation with suspects than real-life medical examiners. The novels are considered to have influenced the development of popular TV series on forensics, both fictional, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and documentaries, such as Cold Case Squad. Procedural details are part of the allure of her novels. Cornwell herself worked at a crime lab in Virginia as a technical writer and computer analyst but not in any official medical or forensics capacity.

Her attempts to portray herself as an expert in those fields have caused some bad feelings from those who have actual training and licensing, including Kathy Reichs, who is both a board-certified forensic anthropologist and a crime novelist. Other significant themes in the Scarpetta novels include health in general; individual safety and security; food; and family. Although scenes from the novels take place in a variety of locations around the U.S. and (less commonly) internationally, the city of Richmond, Virginia features prominently. Besides the Scarpetta novels, Cornwell has written three more light-hearted police fictions featuring Andy Brazil, as well as a number of works of non-fiction. Jack the Ripper Cornwell has been involved in a continuing, self-financed search for evidence to support her theory that painter Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper. She published Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed in 2002 to much controversy, especially within the British art world, where Sickert's work is admired, and also among Ripperologists, who criticize her methods and conclusions. See Portrait Of a Killer for further information. However, Cornwell denies a Jack the Ripper obsession in full-page ads in two British newspapers.

Litigation surrounding The Last Precinct Dr. Leslie Sachs, author of The Last Precinct. In 2000 he sent letters to Cornwell's publisher, started a page on the World Wide Web, and placed stickers on his novel in order to claim that Cornwell was committing plagiarism. Cornwell successfully obtained a preliminary injunction against Sachs. The court ruled that his claims were baseless, and he was prevented from placing the stickers on his book. The court also required that booksellers remove the stickers that were already there and shut his website down for false advertising. Patricia Cornwell books Patricia Cornwell Essay - Cornwell, Patricia - eNotes.com Patricia Cornwell Essay - Cornwell, Patricia Navigate Study Guiderows (Full name Patricia Daniels Cornwell) American novelist and biographer. The following entry presents an overview of Cornwell's career through 2000. Cornwell is an award-winning novelist of forensic mysteries and police procedurals that focus on medical autopsies and investigations. Her novels are characterized by the graphic authenticity of their detail and their compelling psychological studies of professionals at work.

Cornwell has helped expand the role of the female detective in the mystery genre with her two recurring heroines—medical examiner Kay Scarpetta and police chief Judy Hammer. Cornwell's first novel in her Scarpetta series, Postmortem (1990), was the only novel to ever win the Edgar, Creasy, Anthony, and Macavity awards for best first crime novel, and the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure award all in the same year. Biographical Information Cornwell was born on June 9, 1956, in Miami, Florida, to Sam and Marilyn Zenner Daniels. Her parents divorced when Cornwell was five years old, and her mother moved Cornwell and her two brothers to Montreat, North Carolina. By the time Cornwell was nine, her mother was suffering from severe clinical depression. Unable to cope, she turned her children over to her Montreat neighbors, the Reverend and Mrs. Billy Graham. Ruth Graham put the children into foster care with a missionary couple who had recently returned from the Congo. In 1979 Cornwell graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina with a bachelor of arts in English.

She began work as a police reporter for the Charlotte Observer and, in 1980, married Charles Cornwell, a Davidson College professor of English. She would later win an investigative reporting award from the North Carolina Press Association for a series of articles on prostitution. In 1981 Cornwell and her husband moved to Richmond, Virginia, so Charles could train to become a minister. During this period, Cornwell began working with her husband to expand a newspaper profile that she had written on Ruth Graham into her first book, A Time for Remembering: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham (1983), which won the Gold Medallion Book Award for biography from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. At the time, Cornwell was also working at the Chief Medical Examiner's office in Richmond and volunteering as a weekend police officer. Cornwell was divorced from her husband in 1990, the same year she published Postmortem, her first mystery novel. In addition to the critical awards she received for Postmortem, Cornwell also received the Golden Dagger award from the British Crime Writers Association for Cruel and Unusual (1993).

Major Works The first novel in Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series, Postmortem, focuses on the rape and murder of several Richmond women by a serial killer. The plot follows the work of Dr. Scarpetta, the chief medical examiner of Virginia, as she attempts to uncover the killer's identity. Frequently faced with sexism regarding her ability to handle a “man's job,” Scarpetta ably displays her knowledge of the innovative technologies of modern forensic medicine to solve the case. The character of Scarpetta was inspired by the accumulation of the research and training Cornwell received while working in Richmond's Chief Medical Examiner's office. Scarpetta serves as the protagonist in several other Cornwell mysteries including Body of Evidence (1992), The Body Farm (1994), and The Last Precinct (2000). Throughout the series, Scarpetta struggles with balancing her career and personal life. She routinely solves mysteries using the most up-to-date forensic equipment and receiving help from Lt. Marino, an old police colleague, and Lucy, her computer-savvy teenage niece.

During her investigations, Scarpetta attracts the attention of a psychotic serial killer named Temple Gault, who was introduced in Cruel and Unusual and became a recurring character in the series. Gault is cunning and sadistic, with a knowledge of forensic science that rivals Scarpetta's own. In Hornet's Nest (1997), Cornwell introduced a new protagonist, Judy Hammer, the chief of police in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hammer and her deputy Virginia West are assigned to protect a reporter/volunteer policeman, Andy Brazil, as he follows them around their daily patrols through the city. Hammer also serves as the heroine of Southern Cross (1998) and Isle of Dogs (2001). The Hammer mysteries are more character-driven and satirical than the Scarpetta novels, focusing less on scientific detail and more on the day-to-day experiences of a local police force. Critical Reception Critics have consistently praised Cornwell's attention to scientific detail in her Scarpetta novels, particularly in Postmortem and The Body Farm. Many reviewers have argued that Cornwell's attention to the minutiae of police work and her realistic portrayal of forensic investigations make her mysteries more plausible and engaging than the work of many of her peers.

However, as the series has progressed, critical praise for the Scarpetta books has declined considerably. A number of critics have complained that the Scarpetta characters have become predicable and the plots formulaic. Nicholas Blincoe has commented that “the Kay Scarpetta of Black Notice (1999) is a Kay in decline, whose author doesn't control her with devices such as motivation or plausibility.” Cornwell's second series of mysteries—The Hammer books—has met with a mixed response by reviewers and audiences alike. Some commentators have criticized the Hammer characters for lacking depth, and noted that Cornwell's use of the third person narrative in the series makes the prose seem static and distant. More Content: Cornwell, Patricia (hide) Patricia Cornwell Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell Net Worth Patricia Cornwell Scarpetta Read more... Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell Net Worth is $40 Million. Patricia Cornwell is a successful crime fiction novelist, originally from Florida, with an estimated net worth of $40 million dollars. Patricia Cornwell has published 20 novels in her popular Kay Scarpetta. Patricia Cornwell (born Patr...

Patricia Cornwell Net Worth is $40 Million. Patricia Cornwell Net Worth is $40 Million. Patricia Cornwell is a successful crime fiction novelist, originally from Florida, with an estimated net worth of $40 million dollars. Patricia Cornwell has published 20 novels in her popular Kay Scarpetta Patricia Cornwell is a contemporary American crime writer. She is widely known for writing a popular series of novels featuring the heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner. A descendant of abolitionist and writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, Cornwell was born in Miami, Florida to Marilyn and Sam Daniels. Her father was one of the leading appellate lawyers in the United States and served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. Cornwell later traced her own motivations in life to the emotional abuse she says she suffered from her father, who walked out on the family on Christmas Day 1961. She has said, "He was on his deathbed. We knew it was the last time we'd see each other; he grabbed my brother's hand and mouthed 'I love you,' but he never touched me.

All he did was write on a legal pad 'How's work?'" In 1961, Cornwell's family moved to Montreat, North Carolina, where her mother was hospitalized for depression. Cornwell a... Patricia Cornwell Talks New Book, 'Red Mist,' Forensics, and Angelina Jolie - The Daily Beast article Patricia Cornwell Talks New Book, 'Red Mist,' Forensics, and Angelina Jolie Crime writer Patricia Cornwell returns with a new book featuring her heroine Scarpetta, Red Mist. She talks to Janice Kaplan about forensics, being a female writer, and Angelina Jolie. Janice Kaplan 12.13.11 9:45 AM ET Patricia Cornwell’s 19 crime novels featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta have helped bring forensic science to national prominence. With 100 million copies of her books now in print, Cornwell is often hailed as an expert on blood, bad guys, and DNA. Her interest is more than theoretical, and she funds numerous forensic organizations around the country. With her newest Scarpetta book, Red Mist, just out, she talks about crime, TV, and Angelina Jolie.

You’re practically the godmother of forensics in fiction. Do you watch shows like CSI and think, "Wait, I did that first"? I don’t watch CSI . I’m more interested in seeing the real procedures than a dramatic interpretation. No disrespect towards CSI or any others, but I enjoy crime shows that are richer in character and story, like Criminal Minds. I’m making a guest appearance on that next month. It’s not a huge role—I don’t catch the bad guys or anything, since they don’t need my help for that. But I’m fascinated by profiling and forensic psychology. Why do you think people are suddenly so intrigued by forensics? The human capacity to be curious has always existed. Think of what happens when you walk into someone’s bedroom and see a strange array of things—the phone is in a certain place, a notebook is on a chair, a hat is hung up. It’s in our nature to re-create what the person was doing. We’re taking in data constantly—getting information about people that will help us navigate through the world. We apply the same curiosity to a crime scene. The greatest gift is our own eyes, sense of smell, and abilities to deduce.

Add to that the proliferation of dazzling technologies that can help us rewind the tape and answer questions about why this person died and who did it and why. Fiction has raised our crime-solving expectations, but how much high-tech equipment is being used in the real world? It’s not just a matter of owning a high-tech instrument. I’ve seen a lot of sad situations where police departments get interesting technologies to find blood that’s invisible or lift fingerprints or whatever—and then can’t afford to train people to use them. Money is a big factor in this bad economy. This equipment is really expensive, and you’re going to see police take a real hit in terms of being able to do their work in the field. We hear about rape test kits or DNA samples sitting on shelves for years with nobody looking at them. Why is that? Backlog in the labs is a big problem. So much now constitutes evidence, and police turn in more than ever before. If you know you can get DNA off the mouse to a computer, then the mouse is coming in. Maybe you turn in the tissue you found in the wastepaper basket and some water out of the toilet.

People are turning in everything but the kitchen sink, hoping for a few skin cells that might tell them a story. What’s changed the most since you started at the medical examiner’s office? The newer technologies in DNA testing have been the biggest change. A lot of what you see on TV—like light sources where fingerprints pop out or footprints appear in neon colors—has been around for a while. The equipment keeps changing, but people were using lasers and dusting powders that fluoresced when I started. With DNA, the ability to find out a lot more with a lot less has increased our ability for identification. Is DNA the killer app in terms of solving crimes? The better it gets, the worse it gets in some ways. We can now get DNA from things you can hardly see—three or four skin cells. While that’s amazing, you still have to ask: how did it get there? Just because your DNA is at a crime scene doesn’t mean you had anything to do with that crime. Maybe you touched something that ended up in that room. I constantly remind people that crime isn’t solved by technology; it’s solved by people. You have to figure out—is this really significant? An investigator has to ask that question.

After 19 books with Kay Scarpetta, how do you feel about her these days? I like her better now. In the first decade she was almost unrelentingly serious and had a difficult time with relationships. I was attempting to show a very harsh reality, so I was trying to be very linear and not have distractions. I kept to the point. Now that you can read forensic detail all over, I’m not just interested in what surgical instrument she’ll use when she walks in the morgue. I care even more about her reflections on what she’s about to do. She’s evolving and she’s more fun to be with. Get The Beast In Your Inbox! Daily DigestStart and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast. Cheat SheetA speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't). Patricia Cornwell talks Kay Scarpetta and a life of crime novels - The Washington Post Patricia Cornwell talks Kay Scarpetta and a life of crime novels The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published.

You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! Got it By Kevin Nance By Kevin Nance December 16, 2011 When Richmond medical examiner Kay Scarpetta plunged her scalpel into a corpse for the first time more than a quarter of a century ago, her creator, Patricia Cornwell, had no idea that big things were in store for both of them. In the first several novels the former crime reporter wrote, all unpublished, Scarpetta — blond and beautiful, detail-oriented and driven — wasn’t even the protagonist. When she finally saw print as the heroine of Cornwell’s first published novel, 1990’s “Postmortem” — which swept that year’s mystery-novel honors, including the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony and Macavity awards — it still wasn’t immediately clear that she would become one of the most popular characters in the history of crime fiction. “I wasn’t thinking that far ahead,” recalls Cornwell, whose manuscript was rejected by several New York houses before being accepted by Scribner.

“I just thought it was a dream that I was actually getting published.” Since then, the Scarpetta books have sold an astounding 100 million copies in 35 languages in 120 countries, with “Red Mist,” the 19th of the series, making its debut at No. 2 on The Washington Post’s bestseller list Sunday. A Scarpetta movie starring Angelina Jolie is in the works. And Cornwell — touted by her current publisher, Putnam, as “the world’s No. 1 best-selling crime writer” — is firmly established as the creator of one of the publishing industry’s most durable and lucrative franchises. No one is more surprised than Cornwell herself. “It’s like running on a track, you know, and at some point you stop and ask yourself, ‘How did I do so many miles?’ ” she says in an interview from her home in Boston. “Nineteen Scarpetta novels — yes, I know, it’s shocking. When I see all my books in a bookcase, it makes me really tired.” “The biggest risk with a series that goes on this long is that you’ll get bored with the character,” says author Patricia Cornwell.

“I’m just grateful I’m still interested, and that the readers are, too.” (Gina Crozier/Gina Crozier) Not that tired. As she spoke, Cornwell was preparing to leave for her “Red Mist” book tour, which kicked off last month in the United Kingdom; the American tour, which includes stops in New York, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, Dallas and Florida, is ongoing. And she’s already at work on a 20th novel featuring the character originally known in some circles as “the female Quincy,” after the forensic pathologist played on TV by Jack Klugman. “The biggest risk with a series that goes on this long is that you’ll get bored with the character,” says Cornwell, 55. “I’m just grateful I’m still interested, and that the readers are, too.” What accounts for Scarpetta’s longevity?

The most obvious answer is that, as she has from the first, Cornwell packs every novel with what seems to be insider information — about the latest technologies and strategies in forensic pathology and the ways they can reveal the secrets of dead bodies, including how they got that way; about the procedures of police, the FBI and the military; and about the psychology and methods of criminals. These last, in the case of “Red Mist,” include some very scary poisons and — perhaps — intentionally botched prison executions leading to fates far worse than death. In the new book, Scarpetta finds herself in Savannah, Ga., where she visits an inmate in a women’s prison and becomes interested in a series of suspicious deaths there. She also ends up investigating the horrendous killing of a Savannah family several years earlier, a crime for which it appears the wrong person has been convicted. Another reason for Scarpetta’s stamina as an object of fascination, both for her creator and for readers, is that she has evolved considerably over time.

In the early novels, she could be “prickly,” as reviewer Marilyn Stasio put it in the New York Times, and so caught up in her work that she forgot to be human, even with the people closest to her — including her FBI agent husband, Benton; her Everyman sidekick, Marino; and her computer-geek niece, Lucy. More recently, a kinder, gentler Scarpetta has emerged. “She was pretty isolated in the earlier books, but now she’s mellowed in some ways, and her interaction with the other characters has gotten more interesting,” Cornwell says. “She’s more of a caretaker than she was, more understanding and protective of the people around her. She’s older, of course, and as you age, you become vividly aware of how important your connections are. She’s built a family of sorts, and that’s important, because the books aren’t just about the nuts and bolts of forensics anymore. They’re more about walking into a room where Marino is and wondering why he’s looking at her that way.” Scarpetta is also more vulnerable, more psychologically transparent than she once was.

Although she presents herself to the world — to her adversaries in particular — as supremely confident, in fact she is a worrier, prone to self-doubt and feelings of culpability for outcomes beyond her control. “You tend to feel guilty about a lot of things that have nothing to do with you,” Benton tells her, with his typical bluntness, in “Red Mist.” “You think it’s your responsibility to fix things. Or prevent them. You always have.” (Not that she enjoys being analyzed, especially when it’s so spot-on. “I see,” she snaps. “When I think I can make a difference, I should never trust it.”) ’Red Mist’ is Cornwell’s 19th book in the Kay Scarpetta series. (Putnam) The new wrinkles in Scarpetta’s character are derived, in part, from those of her creator. As Benton points out in the new book, his wife’s Atlas complex is related to her difficult relationship with her father — a clear echo of Cornwell’s own history. Her late father, a lawyer named Sam Daniels, walked out on the family on Christmas Day when she was 5 years old.

“In that magical-thinking sort of way, it had to be my failure, because if he’d loved me enough, he wouldn’t have left,” Cornwell recalls. “We were never close after that, even though he had a daughter from his new marriage and treated her like a little princess. Of course, his feelings toward me were colored by the fact that he hated my mother. But no one ever said to me, ‘This is not about you.’ I guess I’m still working on that.” And so is Scarpetta. Then again, Cornwell has bestowed aspects of her personality and background upon other characters, as well. Like Benton, she can be cerebral to a fault. Like Marino, she’s capable of snap judgments and “leaving my things lying all over the place.” Like Lucy, she’s a helicopter pilot and a devotee of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. And like Jaime Berger, a lawyer who makes a return appearance in “Red Mist,” Cornwell was once married to a man, then got a divorce when she fell in love with a woman. (She is now married to Staci Ann Gruber, a Harvard educator.) Scarpetta’s movements have also mirrored her creator’s.

After several years in Richmond, Scarpetta moved on to new posts in Florida, South Carolina and, most recently, Boston. At one point in “Red Mist,” Scarpetta reflects that she had “no business” in Richmond, “the capital of the Confederacy.” “I think politically she does better in Massachusetts,” Cornwell says. “Some areas of the South she has trouble with, just like I do. She prefers someplace that’s more live-and-let-live, where there aren’t so many judgments about people’s race, religion or sexual orientation. I don’t want her in a place where she has to deal with that all the time.” Cornwell and Scarpetta are one, then — a fact reinforced, in “Red Mist,” by the author’s return to the first-person point of view. The Scarpetta series began in first person, then shifted midway through to third person, which allowed Cornwell greater freedom to inhabit the minds of other characters. But this had unforeseen consequences that she came to regret. “I went to third person because I wanted the ability to take on all these other personas and show the reader things that Scarpetta doesn’t experience herself,” she recalls.

“But as I gradually realized, when I was showing those things, as in ‘Predator,’ it could be very frightening. In the third person, I was in the persona of the people doing these violent, disgusting things, and it made me really uncomfortable. When I shifted back to first person, it was like returning to someone I hadn’t visited in years. It was much more comfortable, for me and for the readers. In the first person, the readers feel smart, like it’s them solving the case. And because they’re holding her hand, so to speak, they feel safe, even when bad things are happening in the story.” Cornwell’s concern for her readers — with whom she’s in direct and regular contact via Facebook and Twitter — should reassure those who might be concerned that author and character, after so many books together, might tire of each other’s company. Scarpetta will never suffer the fate of her distant ancestor, Sherlock Holmes, whose creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, got so bored with the famous sleuth that he killed him off (only to resurrect him a few years later after an outcry from the detective’s legion of fans).

“I can’t imagine doing that, and I never would, because it would traumatize my readers,” Cornwell says. “As silly as it sounds, these characters are very real to the fans, as I discovered from the firestorm that happened when I killed off Benton.” (Scarpetta’s husband died in 1998’s “Point of Origin,” then reappeared, after what Cornwell calls a “hue and cry” by readers, in 2003’s “Blow Fly.” ) “An author who doesn’t care about the readers is foolish.” Patricia Cornwell, like Kay Scarpetta, would never make such a rookie mistake. lifestyle Best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell is born - Jun 09, 1956 - HISTORY.com Best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell is born Share this: Best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell is born Author Best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell is born URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1956, one of the world’s top-selling crime novelists, Patricia Cornwell, best known for her forensic pathologist character Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is born in Miami, Florida.

Cornwell, whose maiden name is Daniels, had a difficult childhood: When she was 5, her father, a lawyer, left the family. Afterward, Cornwell moved with her mother and two brothers to Montreat, North Carolina. There, her mother was hospitalized for mental illness, forcing Cornwell and her brothers to spend time in foster care. Cornwell graduated from Davidson College in 1979, married her college professor and became a reporter for the Charlotte Observer, eventually covering the police beat. She went on to work for six years as a technical writer and computer analyst in the chief medical examiner’s office in Richmond, Virginia. After multiple rejections from publishers, Cornwell’s first novel, “Postmortem,” was released in 1990. The book features Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the brainy, murder-solving medical examiner. “Postmortem” was a hit, and Cornwell has since penned 18 other top sellers starring Scarpetta. Known for meticulous research and grisly detail in her writing, Cornwell attends autopsies and interviews forensic scientists and law-enforcement professionals to keep up with the latest procedures and technology.

She’s also learned to pilot helicopters, shoot guns and scuba dive because her characters do. Her books have been credited with helping to inspire such TV shows as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Cold Case.” In addition to the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written novels featuring journalist-turned-cop Andy Brazil and state police investigator Win Garano, along with several cookbooks and a children’s book. In 2002, the blockbuster author published “Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed,” based on her own intensive investigation into the notorious, never-captured 19th century London serial killer, who she believes was the British artist Walter Sickert. Cornwell’s personal life has occasionally read like the pages of a crime thriller. In 1992, the writer, then divorced, had a brief affair with married FBI agent Margo Bennett. Four years later, Bennett’s estranged husband Eugene, an ex-FBI agent who blamed the affair for the breakup of his marriage, launched an (ultimately unsuccessful) plot to murder his wife.

Today, Cornwell, whose crime fiction has earned her an estimated $100 million, travels with bodyguards and is known for her philanthropy, donating millions to forensic research and animal rescue, among other causes. Related Videos

Question: Who is the medical examiner central to the crime novels of Patricia Cornwell?
Answer: Kay Scarpetta