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Patricia Cornwell

Goodreads author profile

born

in Miami, Florida, The United States

gender

female

website

http://www.patriciacornwell.com/

twitter username

1pcornwell

genre

Mystery & Thrillers, Literature & Fiction

member since

June 2012

About this author

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Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working as a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. At her first signing, held during a lunch break from the morgue, Patricia sold no copies of Postmortem and fielded exactly one question – an elderly woman asked her where she could find the cookbooks.

Postmortem would go on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure prize – the first book ever to claim them all these distinctions in a single year. To date, Cornwell’s books have sold some 100 million copies in thirty-six languages in over 120 countries. She’s authored twenty-three New York Times bestsellers.

Patricia’s novels cent...more Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working as a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. At her first signing, held during a lunch break from the morgue, Patricia sold no copies of Postmortem and fielded exactly one question – an elderly woman asked her where she could find the cookbooks.

Postmortem would go on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure prize – the first book ever to claim them all these distinctions in a single year. To date, Cornwell’s books have sold some 100 million copies in thirty-six languages in over 120 countries. She’s authored twenty-three New York Times bestsellers.

Patricia’s novels center primarily on medical examiner Kay Scarpetta along with her tech-savvy niece Lucy and fellow investigator Pete Marino. Over twenty years, these characters have grown into an international phenomenon, eventually winning Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development.

Fox 20th Century currently owns the rights to the Scarpetta film, with Angelina Jolie slated to play Kay.

Patricia’s literary career expands outside the realm of the Kay Scarpetta series – she’s authored a definitive account of Jack the Ripper’s identity, two cookbooks (Food to Die For and Scarpetta’s Winter Table), a children’s book (Life’s Little Fable), and a biography of Ruth Graham. She’s also developed two other series based on Win Garano, an upstart Boston detective, and Andy Brazil, an enterprising Charlotte reporter.

Though Cornwell now lives in Boston, she was born in Miami and grew up in Montreat, North Carolina. After earning her degree in English from Davidson College in 1979, she began working at the Charlotte Observer, taking whatever stories came her way and rapidly advancing from listing television programs to covering the police beat. Cornwell received widespread attention and praise for her series of articles on prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte.

From the Charlotte Observer, Cornwell moved to a job with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia – a post she would later bestow upon the fictional Kay Scarpetta. It was during these years that Patricia penned Postmortem and began submitting it to major publishing houses in New York, without initial success.

When not writing from her Boston home, Patricia tirelessly researches cutting-edge forensic technologies to include in her work. She flies her own helicopter, proudly emblazoned with the Scarpetta Crest, everywhere that might inspire her - from dinosaur bone beds to submarine factories to islands which host rare marine specimens.

Her interests span outside the literary: Patricia co-founded the National Forensic Academy and created a Chair in Organic Science at Harvard. She appears as a forensic consultant on CNN and serves as a member of Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital’s National Council, where she advocates for psychiatric research. She’s helped fund the ICU at Cornell’s Animal Hospital, the scientific study of a Confederate submarine, the archaeological excavation of Jamestown, and a variety of law enforcement charities. To stay in shape, she remains an avid tennis player.

Patricia is also committed to funding scholarships and literacy programs. Her advice to aspiring authors: “Start writing. And don’t take no for an answer."

Her latest book, Red Mist, is available now.(less)

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Patricia Cornwell's Books

Average rating: 3.80 · 500,177 ratings · 14,605 reviews · 68 distinct works · Similar authors

	Postmortem (Kay Scarpetta, #1) 3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 76,433 ratings — published 1990 — 31 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cruel and Unusual (Kay Scarpetta, #4) 4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 avg rating — 43,545 ratings — published 1993 — 81 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Body Farm (Kay Scarpetta, #5) 3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 31,629 ratings — published 1994 — 81 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Body of Evidence (Kay Scarpetta, #2) 3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 30,823 ratings — published 1991 — 74 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	All That Remains (Kay Scarpetta, #3) 3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 27,550 ratings — published 1992 — 74 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Point of Origin (Kay Scarpetta, #9) 3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 26,768 ratings — published 1998 — 60 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	From Potter's Field (Kay Scarpetta, #6) 3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 25,122 ratings — published 1995 — 78 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Unnatural Exposure (Kay Scarpetta, #8) 3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 24,265 ratings — published 1997 — 72 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cause of Death (Kay Scarpetta, #7) 3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 avg rating — 22,256 ratings — published 1996 — 73 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blow Fly (Kay Scarpetta, #12) 3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 avg rating — 19,351 ratings — published 2003 — 69 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Patricia Cornwell…

Series by Patricia Cornwell

Kay Scarpetta (21 books)
by Patricia Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
3.8573426355415315 of 5 stars 3.86 avg rating — 449,069 ratings

Andy Brazil (3 books)
by Patricia Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
3.136542394211106 of 5 stars 3.14 avg rating — 19,071 ratings

Winston Garano (2 books)
by Patricia Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
3.22805913809374 of 5 stars 3.23 avg rating — 9,537 ratings

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More of Patricia's books…

Quotes by Patricia Cornwell

“Do no harm & leave the world a better place than you found it.”
― Patricia Cornwell

tags: inspirational

117 people liked it

“rain slowly slides down the glass as if the night is crying.”
― Patricia Cornwell, Trace

tags: forensics, murder, mystery, science

93 people liked it

“I wouldn't want to assume that all men are like you. If I did, I know I would give them up entirely”
― Patricia Cornwell, The Body Farm

tags: love, men

68 people liked it

See all Patricia Cornwell's quotes »

Polls

Which book would you like to see as the selection for the Group Reads category "1st book in a Mystery Series with a Female Protagonist"?

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

29 votes 24.4%

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

28 votes 23.5%

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig

20 votes 16.8%

Real Murders by Charlaine Harris

14 votes 11.8%

Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell

8 votes 6.7%

I Scream, You Scream by Wendy Lyn Watson

7 votes 5.9%

Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton

6 votes 5.0%

The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith

4 votes 3.4%

Speak No Evil by Allison Brennan

2 votes 1.7%

Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne

1 vote 0.8%

119 total votes

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