Most Popular Books by Patricia Cornwell

Scarpetta, an all-new Original Series, is coming soon to Prime Video! Enter the chilling and captivating world of Dr. Kay Scarpetta before Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis bring the mystery to life onscreen. “The new audience will be compelled by the characters, crimes, and mysteries that are the trifecta of Patricia’s masterful storytelling… and a warning……there WILL be BLOOD.” – Jamie Lee Curtis #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Dr. Kay Scarpetta is on a deadly mission that will pull her in two opposite directions: toward protecting her career or toward the truth . . . The nightmare begins when a cargo ship arriving at Richmond’s Deep Water Terminal from Belgium is discovered to be transporting a locked, sealed container holding the decomposed remains of a stowaway. The autopsy performed by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta initially reveals neither cause of death nor an identification. But the victim’s personal effects and an odd tattoo take Scarpetta on a hunt for information that leads to Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, France, where she receives critical instructions: Go to the Paris morgue to receive forbidden, secret evidence and then return to Virginia to carry out a mission. It is a mission that could ruin her career—and places her and the ones she holds dear at mortal risk.

From a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a heart-pounding thriller in which Scarpetta receives a message from beyond the grave. SCARPETTA, based on the character Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is soon to be a streaming series starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis. "Hauntingly original, impossibly clever and devilishly clever." —Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark Autopsies can reveal the secrets of the dead.And this victim is sending Scarpetta a message ... Summoned to an abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr. Kay Scarpetta is devastated to learn that the victim is a man she once had an intense love affair with. The murder scene is bizarre, with a crop circle of petals around the body, and Giordano’s skin is strangely red. Scarpetta’s niece Lucy believes he was dropped from an unidentified flying craft. Scarpetta knows an autopsy can reveal the dead’s secrets, but she is shocked to find her friend seems to have deliberately left her a clue. As the investigators are torn between suspicions of otherworldly forces, and of Giordano himself, Scarpetta detects an explanation closer to home that, in her mind, is far more evil ...

The first book in the Kay Scarpetta series, from No. 1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell - coming soon to Prime Video. A serial killer is on the loose in Richmond, Virginia. Three women have died, brutalised and strangled in their own bedroom. There is no pattern: the killer appears to strike at random - but always early on Saturday mornings. So when Dr Kay Scarpetta, chief medical officer, is awakened at 2.33 am, she knows the news is bad: there is a fourth victim. And she fears now for those that will follow unless she can dig up new forensic evidence to aid the police. But not everyone is pleased to see a woman in this powerful job. Someone may even want to ruin her career and reputation . . . Enter the world of Dr Kay Scarpetta before Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis bring it to life on screen. ''Devilishly clever'' SUNDAY TIMES ''The top gun in this field'' DAILY TELEGRAPH ''Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns'' MIRROR ''The Agatha Christie of the DNA age'' EXPRESS

The inspiration for the Prime Video series Scarpetta—starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis! #1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell returns to the chilling world of gutsy medical examiner Kay Scarpetta in this classic forensic thriller. An unidentified nude female sits propped against a fountain in Central Park. There are no signs of struggle. When Dr. Kay Scarpetta and her colleagues Benton Wesley and Pete Marino arrive on the scene, they instantly recognize the signature of serial killer Temple Brooks Gault. Scarpetta, on assignment with the FBI, visits the New York City morgue on Christmas morning, where she must use her forensic expertise to give a name to the nameless—a difficult task. But as she sorts through conflicting forensic clues, Gault claims his next victim. He has infiltrated the FBI’s top secret artificial-intelligence system developed by Scarpetta’s niece, and sends taunting messages as his butchery continues, moving terrifyingly closer to Scarpetta herself.

Five action-packed thrillers in the #1 New York Times bestselling Scarpetta series: Cause of Death, Unnatural Exposure, Point of Origin, and Trace. “Cornwell remains the master of incorporating real-life science into pulse-pounding fiction.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer IN DEVELOPMENT AS THE ORIGINAL SERIES SCARPETTA STARRING NICOLE KIDMAN AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS Cause of Death: On New Year’s Eve, Dr. Kay Scarpetta plunges into the depths of the Elizabeth River to recover the very human remains of an investigative reporter. With the advent of a second murder—this one closer to home—the case envelops Scarpetta and those closest to her in a web of danger and threatens to wreak fear and death far beyond Virginia. Unnatural Exposure: When Dr. Kay Scarpetta determines that a murder victim was exposed to a rare smallpox-like virus before she died and, later, that she herself may have been infected, she realizes that she is up against a killer with access to an incredibly sophisticated arsenal of deadly force. Point of Origin: Picking through the wreckage of a devastating fire, Dr. Kay Scarpetta uncovers human remains. When Scarpetta learns that her old nemesis, Carrie Grethen, has escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is somehow involved, the investigation becomes personal. Black Notice: A cargo ship arriving from Belgium holds a locked, sealed container with the decomposed remains of a stowaway. Dr. Kay Scarpetta initially finds neither cause of death nor an identification. But the victim’s personal effects and an odd tattoo take Scarpetta on an international hunt that could ruin her career—and places her and the ones she holds dear at mortal risk. Trace: While investigating the death of a teen girl, Dr. Kay Scarpetta must work with the smallest pieces of evidence—traces that only the most thorough hunters can identify. Now she must follow the twisting leads and tracks the strange details in order to make the dead speak. . . .

Scarpetta, an all-new Original Series, is coming soon to Prime Video! Enter the chilling and captivating world of Dr. Kay Scarpetta before Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis bring the mystery to life onscreen. “The new audience will be compelled by the characters, crimes, and mysteries that are the trifecta of Patricia’s masterful storytelling… and a warning……there WILL be BLOOD.” – Jamie Lee Curtis #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The gruesome murder of a young girl leads Dr. Kay Scarpetta on the hunt for an elusive serial killer in this “ingenious” (Washington Post Book World) thriller. Eleven-year-old Emily Steiner is dead. She left a North Carolina church meeting late one October afternoon and strolled along a lakeside path toward her house two miles away. Who met her on the path? Who followed her home, kidnapped her from her bedroom, and left her body by the lake days later? It’s a puzzling and terrifying crime, reminiscent of the work of serial killer Temple Gault, who has long eluded Dr. Kay Scarpetta and law enforcement for years. Into this volatile atmosphere comes Scarpetta’s ingenious, rebellious niece Lucy, an FBI intern with a promising future in Quantico’s computer engineering facility—until she is accused of a shocking security violation. While coming to terms with Lucy, Kay must conduct a grisly forensic investigation at a clandestine research facility in Tennessee known as The Body Farm. There she will find more answers to Emily Steiner’s murder—and evidence that paints a picture of a crime more horrifying than she ever imagined.

“When it comes to the forensic sciences, nobody can touch Cornwell.” —New York Times Book Review [PLEASE BOX:] CHAOS From the Ancient Greek (χάος or kháos) A vast chasm or void. Anarchy. The science of unpredictability. On a late summer evening in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dr. Kay Scarpetta and her investigative partner, Pete Marino, respond to a call about a dead bicyclist near the Kennedy School of Government. It appears that a young woman has been attacked with almost superhuman force. Even before Scarpetta’s headquarters has been officially notified about the case, Marino and Scarpetta’s FBI agent husband, Benton Wesley, receive suspicious calls, allegedly from someone at Interpol. But it makes no sense. Why would the elite international police agency know about the case or be interested? It soon becomes apparent that an onslaught of harassment might be the work of an anonymous cyberbully named Tailend Charlie, who has been sending cryptic communications to Scarpetta for over a week. Even Lucy, her brilliant tech-savvy niece, can’t trace who it is or how this person could have access to intimate information. When a second death shocks Scarpetta to her core, it becomes apparent she and those close to her are confronted with something far bigger and more dangerous than they’d ever imagined.

The inspiration for the Prime Video series Scarpetta—starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis! #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell’s classic forensic thriller, featuring gutsy medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. A reclusive author, Beryl Madison finds no safe haven from months of menacing phone calls—or the tormented feeling that her every move is being watched. When the writer is found slain in her own home, Kay Scarpetta pieces together the intricate forensic evidence—while unwittingly edging closer to a killer waiting in the shadows.

Scarpetta, an all-new Original Series, is coming soon to Prime Video! Enter the chilling and captivating world of Dr. Kay Scarpetta before Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis bring the mystery to life onscreen. “The new audience will be compelled by the characters, crimes, and mysteries that are the trifecta of Patricia’s masterful storytelling… and a warning……there WILL be BLOOD.” —Jamie Lee Curtis Dr. Kay Scarpetta’s investigation leads her into a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale in this red-hot thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell. On her quest to find out exactly what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months before, Dr. Kay Scarpetta drives to the Georgia Prison for Women to meet a convicted sex offender and the mother of a vicious and diabolically brilliant killer. Against the advice of her FBI criminal agent husband, Benton Wesley, Scarpetta is determined to hear this woman out. The quest is personal, but also professional. As the director of the new Cambridge Forensic Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and with her connection to the Department of Defense, Scarpetta has urgent reasons to learn more about a string of grisly killings that she feels are somehow linked to Fielding’s death. The murder of a Savannah family years earlier, a young woman on death row, and then other explicable deaths that begin to occur at a breathtaking pace—all of these are related, but who is behind them, and why? Driven by inner forces, Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding’s death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive. . . . And she’s the only one who can stop it.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A cold case turns red-hot when a death-row inmate renews his acquaintance with Dr. Kay Scarpetta in this “utterly chilling [and] grisly, fast-paced thriller” (Entertainment Weekly). “Engaging and horrifying . . . a book that fans will want to read for the sheer voyeuristic quality of watching the characters they know so well go beyond their limits.”—Houston Chronicle IN DEVELOPMENT AS THE ORIGINAL SERIES SCARPETTA STARRING NICOLE KIDMAN AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS Dr. Kay Scarpetta is settling into her new life as a private forensic consultant and is deep into a case that has left colleagues in Louisiana profoundly disturbed. A woman is found dead in a seedy hotel, dressed to go out, keys in her hand. Her history of blackouts, and her violent outbursts while under their spell, offer more questions than clues about the cause of her death. Then Scarpetta receives news that chills her to the core: Jean-Baptiste Chandonne—the vicious and unrepentant Wolfman, who pursued her to her very doorstep—has asked to see her. From his cell on death row, he demands an audience with the legendary Dr. Scarpetta. With friends and family by her side, Scarpetta tries to guess what sort of endgame this madman has in mind and how, if at all, it’s related to the Louisiana case. She begins to unravel a twisting, international conspiracy and then confronts the shock of her life: a blow that will force her to question the loyalty and trust of all she holds dear.

The legendary, No. 1 bestelling series following Dr. Kay Scarpetta

Scarpetta, an all-new Original Series, is coming soon to Prime Video! Enter the chilling and captivating world of Dr. Kay Scarpetta before Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis bring the mystery to life onscreen. “The new audience will be compelled by the characters, crimes, and mysteries that are the trifecta of Patricia’s masterful storytelling… and a warning……there WILL be BLOOD.” – Jamie Lee Curtis Dr. Kay Scarpetta is faced with a labyrinthine case that wraps a web of danger around her and those closest to her—and threatens to wreak fear and death far beyond Virginia—in this “standout” (New York Newsday) thriller from #1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell. On 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 the Elizabeth River to recover the very human remains of Ted Eddings, an investigative reporter. Was Eddings probing the Inactive Shipyard for a story, or simply diving for sunken trinkets? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified? With the advent of a second murder—this one closer to home—the case envelops Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and police captain Pete Marino in a world where both cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned detective work are critical offensive weapons. Together they follow the trail of death to a well of violence as dark and forbidding as the water that swirled over Ted Eddings.

The inspiration for the Prime Video series Scarpetta—starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis! “A knockout” (People) of a thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta. “Killing me won’t kill the beast” are the last words of rapist-murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell, written four days before his execution. But they can’t explain how medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds Waddell’s fingerprints on another crime scene—after she’d performed his autopsy. If this is some sort of game, Scarpetta seems to be the target. And if the next victim is someone she knows, the punishment will be cruel and unusual...

New York Times Bestseller The inspiration for the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series Scarpetta—starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis! In this relaunch of the electrifying, landmark #1 bestselling thriller series, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta hunts those responsible for two wildly divergent and chilling murders. “Autopsy revitalizes this venerable series and its beloved cast of characters... Whether you’re revisiting the indomitable Scarpetta or meeting her for the very first time, this is an ideal (re)entry point.” - Criminal Element Forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta has come almost full circle, returning to Virginia, the state where she launched her storied career, as the chief medical examiner. Finding herself the new girl in town once again after being away for many years, she’s inherited both an overbearing secretary and a legacy of neglect and potential corruption. She and her husband, Benton Wesley, now a forensic psychologist with the U.S. Secret Service, have relocated to Old Town Alexandria, where she’s headquartered five miles from the Pentagon in a post-pandemic world that’s been torn apart by civil and political unrest. After just weeks on the job, she’s called to a scene by railroad tracks—a woman’s body has been shockingly displayed, her throat cut down to the spine—and as Scarpetta begins to follow the trail, it leads unnervingly close to her own historic neighborhood. At the same time, a catastrophe occurs in a top secret labou00adratory in outer space, endangering at least two scientists aboard. Appointed to the highly classified Doomsday Commission that specializes in sensitive national security cases, Scarpetta is summoned to the White House and tasked with finding out exactly what happened. But even as she remotely works the first potential crime scene in space, an apparent serial killer strikes again very close to home. Autopsy captivates readers with the shocking twists, high-wire tension, and forensic detail that Patricia Cornwell is famous for, proving once again why she’s the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer.