Patricia Cornwell
Author of Postmortem
About the Author
Patricia Cornwell was born in Miami, Florida on June 9, 1956. When she was nine years old, her mother tried to give her and her two brothers to evangelist Billy Graham and his wife to care for. For a while the children lived with missionaries since their mother was unable to care for them. After show more graduating from Davidson College in 1979, she worked for The Charlotte Observer eventually covering the police beat and winning an investigative reporting award from the North Carolina Press Association for a series of articles on prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte. Her award-winning biography of Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of Billy Graham, A Time for Remembering, was published in 1983. From 1984 to 1990, she worked as a technical writer and a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. While working for the medical examiner, she began to write novels. Although the award-winning novel Postmortem was initially rejected by seven different publishers, once it was published in 1990 it became the only novel ever to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Adventure, in one year. She is the author of the Kay Scarpetta series, the Andy Brazil series, and the Winston Garano series. She has also written two cookbooks entitled Scarpetta's Winter Table and Food to Die For; a children's book entitled Life's Little Fable; and non-fiction works like Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell CD Audio Treasury Volume Two: Postmortem | Body of Evidence [Abridged Audiobook] (2006) 14 copies
Five Scarpetta Novels (Cause of Death, Unnatural Exposure, Point of Origin, Black Notice, and Trace) (2011) 8 copies
Kay Scarpetta Series 6-15: 12 Books Collection Set By Patricia Cornwell (From Potter's Field, Cause Of Death,Unnatural… (2020) 3 copies
Kay Scarpetta Series 11-15: 5 Books Collection Set By Patricia Cornwell (The Last Precinct, Blow Fly, Trace, Predator,… (2020) 2 copies
No title 2 copies
Kay Scarpetta Series 1-5 Collection 5 Books Set By Patricia Cornwell (Postmortem, Body Of Evidence, All That Remains,… (2022) 2 copies
Second Chance Tuesday 2 copies
7 Patricial Cornwell Books--Portrait Of A Killer,Predator,Cause of Death,Isle of Dogs,Body of Evidence,Cause of… (2003) 2 copies
Totenbuch 1 copy
Link 1 copy
Split Image (2010) 1 copy
Star Quest 1 copy
Phantom 1 copy
Kay Scarpetta Series 16-20: 5 Books Collection Set By Patricia Cornwell (Scarpetta, The Scarpetta Factor, Port… (2022) 1 copy
Vestígio 1 copy
Big Day in Moscow: Sketchbook Favorite Place Coloring Book: Vol. 2: Adult Activity Book (Volume 2) 1 copy
RUTH PORTRAIT FLR 1 copy
Touch of Darkness 1 copy
The Last Precinct / Predator 1 copy
Scarpetta, Part 2 1 copy
Personalities along the track...: Gladstone's tribute to our railway workers (2001) — Editor — 1 copy
Harlequin 1 copy
Trace / Predator 1 copy
Cornwell Patricia 1 copy
Scarpetta, Part 1 1 copy
Konseki 1 (痕跡 上) 1 copy
Konseki 2 (痕跡 下) 1 copy
Predator, Part 1 1 copy
Predator, Part 2 1 copy
Scarpetta Series Books 1-6, by Patricia Cornwell (Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All That Remains, Cruel & Unusual, The… (1990) 1 copy
8 Volume Collection (Set) of Patricia Cornwell Novels Including: Scarpetta, Cause of Death, Southern Cross, the Front,… (1995) 1 copy
Point Of Sale Book # ( 1 copy
Associated Works
The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them (2006) — Contributor — 399 copies, 18 reviews
Time Life Book Digest: It Doesn't Take a Hero / All That Remains / Honest Illusions / Double Deuce (1992) 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Cornwell, Patricia Carroll Daniels
- Other names
- קורנוול, פטרישה דניאלס
- Birthdate
- 1956-06-09
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Miami, Florida, USA
- Places of residence
- Miami, Florida, USA (birth)
Montreat, North Carolina, USA
New York, New York, USA - Education
- Davidson College (BA | 1979 | English)
- Occupations
- reporter
technical writer (Office of Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia)
computer analyst - Relationships
- Gruber, Staci (spouse)
- Short biography
- Her first crime novel, Postmortem, was published by Scribner’s in 1990. Initially rejected by seven major publishing houses, it became the first novel to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure in a single year. In Postmortem, Cornwell introduced Dr. Kay Scarpetta as the intrepid Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1999, Dr. Scarpetta herself won the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author
Members
Reviews
Body of Evidence (Kay Scarpetta) by Patricia Cornwell
Well written with enough plot and subplots to keep you adequately baffled and a climax which is brief but well played. I also appreciated the book's technical aspects as Cornwell's heroine, Dr Scarpetta, pores over the evidence...who knew a bit of textile fibre could be so telling? The only drawback for me was her sidekick, Officer Marino, his character a grating, paper thin caricature of a hard-nosed meathead replete with homophobic slurs and the grammatical flair of a particularly dense 8-year old: "You'se guys" and "We was comin' to the office" for example. It got tired really fast.… (more)
The thirteenth book of Cornwell’s series about pathologist Kay Scarpetta, no longer Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and her second using third-person POV narratives. It follows straight from the previous book, Blow Fly, and in fact continues a story arc begun in earlier novels. Hairy wolfman killer is in the wind after escaping from prison (apparently not that difficult, even for someone as distinctive in appearance). Meanwhile, his brother is holed up in the bayous, and responsible for a string of disappearances that no one seems particularly interested in, at least no one in the police departments there.
Scarpetta is called back to Richmond to help investigate the mysterious death of a teenage girl. Scarpetta soon comes to despise her replacement as chief medical examiner, and also discovers the girl was murdered. And one narrative is from the killer’s POV, revealing he is an ex-employee of the Scarpetta’s from years before. He’s fastened onto Lucy as a way of having revenge on Scarpetta, and has been stalking her. Unfortunately for him, Lucy is not to be trifled with.
After eleven books written from Scarpetta’s POV as first-person narratives, Blow Fly came as a surprise. Nor was it, I think, entirely successful. Trace makes a better fist of it, but the plot still feels like it’s treading water. The teenage girl’s murder is an interesting forensic puzzle, and cleverly resolved. But the rest feels like pieces being moved around just to clean up a couple of untidy narrative threads from earlier books.
Blow Fly marked a definite change in the series, and Traces continues that: Scarpetta as freelance consultant, Lucy closer to vigilante than private detective, serial killers with beefs against Scarpetta conspiring somewhere in the background… The narrative style works better than Blow Fly, but the whole series is in danger of flying off the rails as its characters become even more super-competent. Still, plenty more books to go before I’m caught up, so we shall see…… (more)
Scarpetta is called back to Richmond to help investigate the mysterious death of a teenage girl. Scarpetta soon comes to despise her replacement as chief medical examiner, and also discovers the girl was murdered. And one narrative is from the killer’s POV, revealing he is an ex-employee of the Scarpetta’s from years before. He’s fastened onto Lucy as a way of having revenge on Scarpetta, and has been stalking her. Unfortunately for him, Lucy is not to be trifled with.
After eleven books written from Scarpetta’s POV as first-person narratives, Blow Fly came as a surprise. Nor was it, I think, entirely successful. Trace makes a better fist of it, but the plot still feels like it’s treading water. The teenage girl’s murder is an interesting forensic puzzle, and cleverly resolved. But the rest feels like pieces being moved around just to clean up a couple of untidy narrative threads from earlier books.
Blow Fly marked a definite change in the series, and Traces continues that: Scarpetta as freelance consultant, Lucy closer to vigilante than private detective, serial killers with beefs against Scarpetta conspiring somewhere in the background… The narrative style works better than Blow Fly, but the whole series is in danger of flying off the rails as its characters become even more super-competent. Still, plenty more books to go before I’m caught up, so we shall see…… (more)
Another edge-of-the-seat crime thriller from Cornwell. Having read a number of the Scarpetta books over the years I knew what to expect and was not disappointed. There is lots of suspense with the FBI seemingly after Kay's niece, Lucy--a nemesis thought to be dead--videos from a couple of decades ago--familiar characters from previous books and readers are off to a good story. Readers who enjoy crime stories will want to put this on their to-be-read pile.
I must say I was drawn in from the very beginning and read it in two sittings. I did not solve either of the two crimes which were committed either.
Lists
Books About Murder (17)
Edgar Award (1)
A Novel Cure (1)
Female Author (5)
Jarett's Books (4)
Florida (3)
Read in 2014 (2)
Detective Stories (14)
READ IN 2022 (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 127
- Also by
- 14
- Members
- 125,275
- Popularity
- #59
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 1,670
- ISBNs
- 2,764
- Languages
- 31
- Favorited
- 267
