Patricia Cornwell

Author profile

born

June 09, 1956 in Miami, Florida, The United States

gender

female

website

http://www.patriciacornwell.com/

genre

Mystery & Thrillers

About this author

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Patricia Cornwell was born on June 9, 1956, in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Montreat, North Carolina.

Following graduation from Davidson College in 1979, she began working at the Charlotte Observer, rapidly advancing from listing television programs to writing feature articles to covering the police beat. She won 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, 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.

Cornwell’s first crime novel, Postmortem, was pu...more Patricia Cornwell was born on June 9, 1956, in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Montreat, North Carolina.

Following graduation from Davidson College in 1979, she began working at the Charlotte Observer, rapidly advancing from listing television programs to writing feature articles to covering the police beat. She won 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, 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.

Cornwell’s 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.

Following the success of her first novel, Cornwell has written a series of bestsellers featuring Kay Scarpetta, her detective sidekick Pete Marino and her brilliant and unpredictable niece, Lucy Farinelli, including: Body of Evidence (1991); All That Remains (1992); Cruel and Unusual (1993), which won Britain’s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the year’s best crime novel; The Body Farm (1994); From Potter’s Field (1995); Cause of Death (1996); Unnatural Exposure (1997); Point of Origin (1998); Black Notice (1999); The Last Precinct (2000); Blow Fly (2003); Trace (2004); Predator (2005); Book of the Dead (2007), which won the 2008 Galaxy British

Book Awards’ Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year, making Cornwell the first American ever to win this award; Scarpetta (2008); The Scarpetta Factor (2009); and Port Mortuary (2010). In 2011 Cornwell was awarded the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, one of France’s most prestigious awards to honor those who have distinguished themselves in the domains of art or literature, or by their contribution to the development of culture in France and throughout the world.

In addition to the Scarpetta novels, she has written three best-selling books featuring Andy Brazil: Hornet’s Nest (1996), Southern Cross (1998) and Isle of Dogs (2001); two cook books: Scarpetta’s Winter Table (1998) and Food to Die For (2001); and a children’s book: Life’s Little Fable (1999). In 1997, Cornwell updated A Time for Remembering, which was reissued as Ruth, A Portrait: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham. Intrigued by Scotland Yard’s John Grieve’s observation that no one had ever tried to use modern forensic evidence to solve the murders committed by Jack the Ripper, Cornwell began her own investigation of the serial killer’s crimes. In Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed (2002), she narrates her discovery of compelling evidence to indict the famous artist Walter Sickert as the Ripper.

In January 2006, the New York Times Magazine began a 15-week serialization of At Risk, featuring Massachusetts State Police investigator Win Garano and his boss, district attorney Monique Lamont. Its sequel, The Front, was serialized in the London Times in the spring of 2008. Both novellas were subsequently published as books and promptly optioned for adaptation by Lifetime Television Network, starring Daniel Sunjata and Andie MacDowell. The films made their debut in April 2010.

In April 2009, Fox acquired the film rights to the Scarpetta novels, featuring Angelina Jolie as Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Cornwell herself wrote and co-produced the movie ATF for ABC.

Often interviewed on national television as a forensic consultant, Cornwell is (less)

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Books by Patricia Cornwell

Average rating: 3.73 · 301,650 ratings · 10,511 reviews · 98 distinct works

	Postmortem (Kay Scarpetta, #1) 3.91 avg rating — 37,739 ratings — published 1990 — 68 editions	My rating:
	The Body Farm (Kay Scarpetta, #5) 3.90 avg rating — 21,445 ratings — published 1994 — 69 editions	My rating:
	Body of Evidence (Kay Scarpetta, #2) 3.89 avg rating — 20,654 ratings — published 1991 — 65 editions	My rating:
	Cruel and Unusual (Kay Scarpetta, #4) 3.99 avg rating — 19,381 ratings — published 1993 — 62 editions	My rating:
	All That Remains (Kay Scarpetta, #3) 3.93 avg rating — 18,871 ratings — published 1992 — 66 editions	My rating:
	From Potter's Field (Kay Scarpetta, #6) 3.87 avg rating — 17,077 ratings — published 1995 — 68 editions	My rating:
	Point of Origin (Kay Scarpetta, #9) 3.86 avg rating — 15,274 ratings — published 1998 — 53 editions	My rating:
	Cause of Death (Kay Scarpetta, #7) 3.82 avg rating — 14,946 ratings — published 1996 — 62 editions	My rating:
	Unnatural Exposure (Kay Scarpetta, #8) 3.88 avg rating — 14,190 ratings — published 1997 — 61 editions	My rating:
	Blow Fly (Kay Scarpetta, #12) 3.61 avg rating — 12,823 ratings — published 2003 — 59 editions	My rating:

More books by Patricia Cornwell…

Series by Patricia Cornwell

Kay Scarpetta (20 books)
by Patricia Cornwell

3.79 avg rating — 267,041 ratings

Andy Brazil (3 books)
by Patricia Cornwell

3.07 avg rating — 13,621 ratings

Winston Garano (2 books)
by Patricia Cornwell

3.20 avg rating — 7,001 ratings

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Quotes by Patricia Cornwell

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

tags: inspirational

63 people liked it

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

tags: forensics , murder , mystery , science

59 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

31 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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The Next Best Boo...: Again and Again and Again	79	281	Nov 23, 2008 01:04am
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The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL SPRING CHALLENGE - 2009	6462	7918	Jun 14, 2009 02:57pm

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Patricia Cornwell

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Patricia's Fans (1568)

Patricia Cornwell

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Patricia Cornwell

Series by Patricia Cornwell

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Patricia Cornwell

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Videos

combine editions
Books by Patricia Cornwell