Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell is an American crime novelist best known for the Kay Scarpetta series, which centers on a medical examiner solving murders through forensic evidence.

Connect

Kay Scarpetta: A fictional Virginia medical examiner who investigates murders in Patricia Cornwell’s crime novels. Cornwell’s signature character anchors her best-known series.
Postmortem: Patricia Cornwell’s 1990 crime novel, the first published book in the Kay Scarpetta series. This breakthrough novel established Scarpetta and the series’ forensic focus.
Richmond, Virginia: The capital of Virginia and the city where Patricia Cornwell worked in the state medical examiner’s office. Cornwell’s experience in Richmond informed the setting and working world of her early novels.
Forensic thriller: A crime thriller in which scientific examination of physical evidence drives the investigation. Cornwell’s novels became a prominent model for this subgenre.
Forensic pathology: The branch of pathology that investigates disease and injury to establish causes of death in legal contexts. Scarpetta’s profession supplies the series’ medical investigations.
Body of Evidence: Patricia Cornwell’s 1991 crime novel and the second book in the Kay Scarpetta series. Its plot extends the series’ use of forensic evidence in murder investigations.
The Charlotte Observer: A daily newspaper based in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Patricia Cornwell worked as a reporter. Her journalism career preceded her crime-writing success.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: An American television crime drama about forensic investigators solving cases in Las Vegas. Its forensic crime-solving shares territory with the investigative appeal of Cornwell’s fiction.
Crime fiction: Fiction centered on crimes, their investigation, or the pursuit and punishment of perpetrators. Cornwell writes within this broad genre, with forensic investigation at its center.
Forensic science: The application of scientific methods to questions of law and criminal investigation. Cornwell’s plots make forensic methods central to detecting and explaining crimes.