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Cause of Death (Kay Scarpetta #7)

by Patricia Cornwell (Goodreads Author)

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 22,620 ratings · 362 reviews

It is New Year's Eve, the last day of Virginia's bloodiest year since the Civil War. Dr. Kay Scarpetta plunges into the murky depths of a ship graveyard to recover the very human remains of Ted Eddings, an investigative reporter. What kind of story was Eddings chasing below the icy surface of the Elizabeth River? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone repo...more

Paperback, 356 pages

Published January 2nd 2007 by Berkley (first published 1996)

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Jun 22, 2012 Tara rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-book, read-in-2012, doctor-emt-paramedic-etc, police-government-agency

So much for the books getting better, I guess I spoke too soon! In this book Dr. KS is filling in for an out of town medical examiner. Then she's scuba diving (because she's certified because Dr. K can do anything), then her niece is crying and drinking and crying and what? And then the Libyan’s kill Doc Brown to steal his plutonium so Marty McFly takes off with the time machine thanks to the flux capacitor... Oh wait.. well, it was something like that.

It was like she took everything that was s...more

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Oct 02, 2008 LJ rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary_post_1945, female_author, mystery, police_procedural, virginia

CAUSE OF DEATH - Okay
Cornwell, Patricia

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 recei...more

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Aug 09, 2008 _inbetween_ rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

She reached the stage where it's so bad you laugh - it might not be a happy laugh, not even a very amused one, but you'll have to by the time it needs the state coroner to say "he ain't dead" instead of a more convincing actress. I regret that my reviews for the last four books run into each other, mostly because I wish I'd been able to make detailed notes (esp. since I'll have to get rid of these pretty volumes). This is the worst so far - it ends with IloveLucy and her aunt saving the world (a...more

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Jul 12, 2007 Honeythief rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-fiction, crime, fiction

Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta novels were something of a guilty pleasure for me during the '90s. Enjoyable and addictive page-turner crime thrillers with a generous helping of pathology and forensic science detail, which appealed to my otherwise dormant inner science geek.

But by this stage in the series - Cause of Death is the 7th Kay Scarpetta novel - Cornwell had well and truly lost the plot, both figuratively and literally.

At her best, Cornwell had always written rather plodding, uninventive...more Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta novels were something of a guilty pleasure for me during the '90s. Enjoyable and addictive page-turner crime thrillers with a generous helping of pathology and forensic science detail, which appealed to my otherwise dormant inner science geek.

But by this stage in the series - Cause of Death is the 7th Kay Scarpetta novel - Cornwell had well and truly lost the plot, both figuratively and literally.

At her best, Cornwell had always written rather plodding, uninventive prose, but as the series progressed any pretence at literary merit flew out of the window along with her dictionary. And the plots managed the seemingly impossible feat of becoming both formulaic and at the same time ludicrously outlandish and unbelievable.

While it might be true that writing series genre fiction is by its nature inherently formulaic, I'm not sure the formula should be quite so transparent and simplistic as it is here and in the subsequent Scarpetta novels.

Paul Sheldon's "No. 1 fan", Annie Wilkes, might have kidnapped the author in Misery in order to ensure that he didn't kill off his heroine, Misery Chastain, and thus end the series, but I'd be willing to bet that even the most ardent of Cornwell's fans would be more inclined to hold her hostage in order to prevent her from churning out any more of this bilge.

If you're new to reading Cornwell my advice would be to start with her first novel, Postmortem, read the series in chronological order and stop while the going is still reasonably good. And whatever you do, don't touch the Judy Hammer/Andy Brazil books (Hornet's Nest, Southern Cross etc.) with a ten foot barge pole.

Unfortunately for me, a fondness for Scarpetta's unfeasibly sexy FBI/ATF agent lesbian niece, Lucy Farinelli, has kept me plodding doggedly through the novels well after their prime. But now, thanks to a timely intervention in the form of Lucy's rather out of character sexual preference U-turn, even I've been freed from my addiction to this tosh.(less)

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Jan 03, 2013 LA Carlson rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fiction readers

Recommended to LA by: reading series in order written

Shelves: fiction

The thing to remember when reading fiction; latitude is a given. The more flawed a character is the more threads of a storyline are available. Dr. Scarpetta is a thriving type A personality who works in a man's world. Her impressions are going to be different and thankfully she is emotional. I have said and continue to think she's an extension of what Patricia Cornwell is like and I find that continually compelling. She gets involved in multiple things in this book just like the novels that have...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think this is the best Kay Scarpetta book I’ve yet read, which makes me more hopeful for the rest of the series than I was after reading the last one. Kay’s latest case comes to her while she is covering for a co-worker in the Tidewater district. A reporter Kay is familiar with has died while diving in a restricted area belonging to the US Navy. When the distrurbing bible/handbook of a local terrorist cult turns up in the victim’s house, it seems there is more going on here than meets the eye...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Thom Swennes rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Virginia, knows her job and knows her cars. Her car of choice is a Mercedes S-500 and this time it takes a role in her latest investigation. As a forensic pathologist, in Cause of Death by Patricia Cornwell, she is called in on a case of accidental drowning. After a thorough examination that, which appeared accidental, was murder. This is the seventh book in the series and once again pits the good against the evil. If you take an apparen...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Charlynn rated it 3 of 5 stars

In Cause of Death, Cornwell immediately dives into her heroine's latest case and mystery. And, yes, that is a pun, because the first victim is found submerged in a river, and Kay joins the diving team in recovering the body. While everyone wants to rule the death a drowning, the tell-tale scent of arsenic informs Kay that the case is anything but an accident; rather, it's a murder. And that's just the start of a mystery which ends up touching close to home for Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner a...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Doris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The part I found most unbelievable was that a) our heroine would, after all this time, just swallow her resentment at the good ol' boy what's a GIRL doing here mentality and b) that agent Wesley was dragged back in.

Okay, the GIRL resentment was believable, except that the ones that were most likely to downplay her were the terrorists - and that didn't happen.

I did at one point stop to check when the story was written, because the cell phones didn't seem correct. However for 1996 they were belie...more

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May 03, 2009 Rod rated it 3 of 5 stars

As usual there are several deaths, but unusually these are not caused by a serial killer. In this case we are dealing with a terrorist group led by a quasi-religious psycho. As always with Cornwell, the book is very well researched, both at the level of pathology and the workings of the FBI. Since the first death is of a diver, there is abundant detail on that subject too. I would suggest that in this title there is a surfeit of such information. Cornwell rightly feels she must get her facts rig...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Kiwiflora rated it 3 of 5 stars

So here I am - summer holidays, in a rented bach by the sea, and it is raining. No sun, swimming, walking or feeling the warm air. What to do but raid the owners' holiday book collection, always so different from what is in one's own collection or pile to read. Not much there actually. So time to take the plunge and pull one off the shelf, a well known and by all accounts highly regarded author not yet read...Patricia Cornwell! Nothing like a bit of murder, body count, forensics and blood to tak...more So here I am - summer holidays, in a rented bach by the sea, and it is raining. No sun, swimming, walking or feeling the warm air. What to do but raid the owners' holiday book collection, always so different from what is in one's own collection or pile to read. Not much there actually. So time to take the plunge and pull one off the shelf, a well known and by all accounts highly regarded author not yet read...Patricia Cornwell! Nothing like a bit of murder, body count, forensics and blood to take one away from the rain.

Published in 1996, I understand this is her 7th novel featuring that wonder woman Dr Kay Scarpetta - Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Virginia and consultant to the FBI. One New Year's Eve she receives a strange phone call concerning a body found on an anchor rope attached to a decommissioned navy vessel. What follows is a barely credible escapade into poisonings, brutal murders, a group of neo-fascist lunatics, computer wizardry and robotics and of course Dr Scarpetta intimately involved in saving the day and apprehending the perpetrators. All very fantastic and superb escapist holiday reading.

But the book is not only murder and mayhem. Never having read anything about Dr Scarpetta before, I did manage to learn an awful lot about her and her life. I guess she is in her forties, lives alone, but with a complicated personal life that returns to haunt her in this story; she has a brilliant young computer science niece who coincidentally works for the FBI and is still coming to terms with her lesbianism. Plus there are what I gather are some old hands from previous books such as Marino, who is probably the most real person in this story. As I read in one review of this book, he is so well drawn that you can almost smell the spilt egg from breakfast on his tie. And he has the best lines too!

I gather from reading about this book on Amazon that it is not Ms Cornwell's best Kay Scarpetta. Compared to her others it would appear to lack depth, have little character development, in fact almost stereotypical characters, and most importantly missing that 'extraordinary, can't-go-to-bed-til-you're-finished suspense' (Publishers' Weekly) of the previous six Scarpetta novels.

Nevertheless for a first read of this author I enjoyed it very much. Going in eyes wide open I had nothing to compare her to, or really any knowledge of the author and her character at all. If the other books in the series are better I look forward very much to reading some more in the future. I read that Angelina Jolie has been signed to play Scarpetta in a series of films - look forward to seeing those in due course. Great wet day holiday reading.(less)

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May 07, 2012 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars

Oh murder mysteries! I needed a quick read for my vacation, so thought I would take a trip down nostalgia lane and read a murder mystery. Back in the day - these were all I read. Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson, and Patricia Cornwell were my books du jour. Now I never read murder mysteries, so it was a fun experience to jump back into one again. I won't say I didn't enjoy the experience - but I find the over descriptive and melodramatic writing kind of comical now. The plot was a little weir...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Kaz rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, mystery-thriller, read-2011

I liked the first 2/3 of the book, but I didn't care much of the last 1/3 and its ending. I know I am reading a fictional entertainment book, but I am a little tired of everything has to happen around Kay. I don't know. It just didn't click in me much.

**********spoiler alert******************

I already read the book 8 of this series before this. So, I know that book 7 was about terrorist, and book 8 was about epidemic. When I read too many dramatic developments in Kay Scarpetta series, I start fe...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Jenna Romano rated it 4 of 5 stars

I gave this book a four star rating because, it was a mystery and a case solving involed book. Cause of death brings you in on a twisted ride from what happen next to getting the case solvied and figured out. "Night felt clean and dublin, and wind moaned beyond my room as if a million pipes played the air." Page 140 cornwell Patricia. This quote is meaning that theres thick air all around and winds are blown with in the night to make you see what its like and to show you how it really was being...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Dahl rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: policiaca-negra

Me comentaba recientemente una de mis compañeras de trabajo, que Causa de muerte se le resiste. Para ella es uno de esos libros que comienzas y no hay forma de que lo acabes y por ese motivo no ha intentado leer más libros de Patricia Cornwell.

Es algo que alcanzo a comprender porque me ha pasado con otros libros y autores. Lo simpático es que algo parecido me pasó también con Cornwell, de quién leí originalmente La granja de Cuerpos, que pasó por mi vida con más pena que gloria. Poco después com...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Debbie Maskus added it · review of another edition

So far, I still enjoy reading the Scarpetta series, but I foresee a problem later in the series. I figure that misfortune will hit either Benton Wesley or Pete Marino. Also, the killing of at least one of Kay's workers has been happening at an alarming rate. In this episode, I learned more about underwater diving than I really wanted to know. This installation followed the Zionists based in Virginia. Since America was established to allow religious freedom, the government is almost powerless in...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Brigid Keely rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, crime, fiction, mystery

"Cause of Death," by Patricia Cornwell, is the 7th Kay Scarpetta novel. As with the previous novels, the personal stakes continue ratcheting up, with Dr Scarpetta being targeted, stalked, harassed, bullied, threatened, etc and finally locked in a nuclear plant with terrorists.

Frankly, it's getting old.

I really like forensic science stuff and would love to see Dr Scarpetta handling a wide range of cases, or even following a single case start to finish, while interacting with her family, friends,...more "Cause of Death," by Patricia Cornwell, is the 7th Kay Scarpetta novel. As with the previous novels, the personal stakes continue ratcheting up, with Dr Scarpetta being targeted, stalked, harassed, bullied, threatened, etc and finally locked in a nuclear plant with terrorists.

Frankly, it's getting old.

I really like forensic science stuff and would love to see Dr Scarpetta handling a wide range of cases, or even following a single case start to finish, while interacting with her family, friends, coworkers, etc. The personal threats and drama just seem really over the top and excessive, like Cornwell has fallen into the trap where she has to top herself with each new book.

It's not a terrible book, although it's a bit formulaic. As with other books, Big Events happen between the scenes/books. Dr Scarpetta has moved (again! Is this the third move? fourth? since the series began?), this time into a house she (designed?) and had built herself, in a gated community. Obviously (and justifiably) rattled by the constant danger she's in, each move places her in a home more secure than the last... although she still doesn't seem to feel at all safe. She and her niece/daughter substitute Lucy continue with their personality conflicts (both are beautiful, brilliant, reserved, self centered).

We spend a lot of time inside Dr Scarpetta's head, but after 7 books I still don't feel I really know her. She likes to cook, she likes sex, she drinks whisky and has expensive taste in cars. She feels unsafe, and grapples with sexism and the negative impact it has on her/her career. She's a consummate professional. She dresses well. That's the same sort of stuff a casual acquaintance or person working down the hall from her would know, nothing more, and it's part of what keeps me from being really invested in her/the series. A co-worker of Dr Scarpetta's is murdered within the pages of this book, and it affects her, but I had absolutely no handle on the character and didn't really care. The death of a character should be an emotional thing, and instead it just felt like a puzzle piece.

As with previous books, the dialogue is often clunky as well. Cornwell really seems to have a problem with contractions, and her main characters (including rough around the edges, largely uneducated Pete Marino) don't use them, leading to awkward and stilted conversations that feel like nothing more than exposition.

I guess the only real reasons I'm still reading the series are the female POV and the forensic science, which I'm a sucker for. I don't know how long I'll continue reading them, though. They've made the transition from "enjoyable thriller" to "mediocre time waster."(less)

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Dec 05, 2010 Janet Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars

A mesmerizing new thriller starring Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta. New Year's Eve and the final murder scene of Virginia's bloodiest year since the Civil War takes Scarpetta 30 feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface. Ted Eddings, an investiagtive reporter who was a favorite at the Medical Examiner's office, has died while scuba diving. Was Eddings probing the ...more A mesmerizing new thriller starring Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta. New Year's Eve and the final murder scene o...more

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Aug 30, 2011 Sunflower rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read-2011, series-books

This is number 7 in the series? It stands perfectly well on its own, and for me has been something not too strenuous to read while home with a particularly nasty virus. (Thanks, E) The strong medical female character (Scarpetta) is interesting,though somewhat flawed in her relationships with others- why did she pick a married man as a partner, and why do all the other male authority figures try and put her down? And why is she so protective of her neice, who is an adult and fully qualified FBI a...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Peggy Barker rated it 2 of 5 stars

Kay Scarpetta has her hands full in this one. Imagine thinking like a member of an occult, believing in idol gods and applying strategies that beats them at their own games. Too many people are dying. Something can't be right.

"Cause of Death" has a plot that is somewhat hard to follow; a bone-chilling thriller that reminded me of the Harold Robbin's novel, "Spellbinder". It can leave the reader in a ray of confusion and a host of misconceptions, if he becomes obsessed by the believers and their...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Ro rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was my first Patricia Cornwell novel, and having worked in forensics for a few years, I was excited to finally delve into one of her novels. Apparently, I chose the wrong book.

I found the plot moderately interesting, but the writing style habitually annoyed me. And I didn’t particularly love the main character. Maybe if it was written in the third person, I would have liked her better. But instead I found her a little arrogant. While I enjoy a strong female lead, KS’s self-confidence came o...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Agota rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

Kada je novinar Ted Edings pronađen mrtav u reci Elizabet, Dr Skarpeta je pozvana da ispita slučaj. Da li je samo nesrećan slučaj u pitanju, jer je Edings koristio staru ronilačku opremu? Ili ipak ubistvo, a ako je tako ko je to učinio? A što je još važnije, zašto? Na prvi pogled radnja izgleda zamršteno, a Kej postaje svesna da njeno prisustvo u blizini brodogradilišta nije poželjno. Prva trećina knjige je sjajno osmišljena, daje obilje informacija o raznim oružjima, raste akcija zavere i na kr...more

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Jun 09, 2013 Zoe Carney rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the seventh Scarpetta book I've read, and it didn't disappoint. Insane plot, suspension of disbelief stretched to breaking point, and Scarpetta herself reaching new heights of Sue-ishness. Turns out she's PADI diving certified in this one! My favourite part was where she and Wesley hopped on Concorde to get to a meeting in London that served no real purpose, other than to briefly take the two of them out of the overblown crisis situation and focus on their star-crossed romance.

In short,...more

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Jun 08, 2013 Kerry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Probably one of the best Scarpetta novels I've read yet; Kay, Marino, Wesley and Lucy end up exploring the mysterious and grisly death of a journalist found dead near a navy submarine, which looks to have some tenuous link to a mysterious and disturbing cult.

There's some great laugh-aloud dialogue in this one between Lucy and Marino, and the unravelling of this particular mystery had me gripped, the tense pace building up to the end meaning that I struggled to put this one down from the last 10...more

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Mar 29, 2011 Mom rated it 4 of 5 stars

These are good stories, good plots, great characters. Scarpetta is not a perky little detective who, despite all her youthful glamour, brings down the bad guys. She's a strong, middle aged woman with issues, somebody I can admire and appreciate. The other characters, however superhuman, also have flaws that are NOT endearing, all this making PC's books stand out from other female murder mystery writers. This one was enjoyable since the characters are younger, Marino has not yet deteriorated beyo...more

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Jan 15, 2009 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

It was an ok afternoon read, but lacked cohesive style. Her intro discusses her fear of scuba diving, but the one scene in the book about scuba diving was bland and unimpressive. She goes a little overboard with the descriptions of food and cooking in the first couple of chapters and then abandons the topic. I don’t know how much of the relationship stuff is part of the series so that part may have been fine, but I felt just a touch lost – especially some of the stuff with her niece. I felt the...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Kricket rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, mystery-suspense-thriller, 2011

back to c.j. critt for the narrator on this one. thank god.

in which kay investigates the death of a charismatic journalist who died while diving "for civil war artifacts" in a virginia river. could the case be connected to a cult called the new zionists who are trying to send nuclear weapons to libya?

it kind of makes me crazy how everything important that happens in kay's love life happens between the books. i know they're mysteries, not romance novels, but still. i like having that little roma...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Samantha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dr. Kay Scarpetta plans to spend a quiet New Year with her niece Lucy while minding another corner’s jurisdiction. Instead, she finds herself embroiled in the death of an investigative report she knew well. Her first inkling of trouble comes after receiving a call alerting her to the drowning death of report Ted Eddings from a policeman that apparently doesn’t exist. At the site of the drowning, she is challenged by both the local sheriff and the Navy, for her victim is found in a graveyard for...more

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Jun 16, 2009 Anne Hawn Smith rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, forensics

These books are getting harder and harder to read. My dad was in the FBI at Quantico and a person like Lucy, with all her emotional problems, would never be hired no matter how brilliant she was. I also lived in Richmond, VA for years and found that some of the characterizations of the area to not be well done. All this personal angst is getting in the way of the plot. Corwell's earliest books used to be about the crime and it's solution and were incredibly interesting, but she has gotten to the...more

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Jan 08, 2009 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: female-author

This series is what I call a "guilty pleasure". Not at all high-brow, but easy to read thrillers with some mystery, and I have to admit that I enjoy the gruesome details about forensic pathology. Being an engineering type, I like to know the details behind things, how things work, in particular when it comes to problem solving or investigative techniques.

I do love the character of Kay Scarpetta; she's a strong, smart woman who is also attractive. She makes me nuts sometimes when she does risky t...more

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About Patricia Cornwell

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, Cre...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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Cause of Death (Kay Scarpetta #7)

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