Patricia Cornwell

    Patricia Cornwell is one of my favorite authors and her character, Kay Scarpetta never disappoints.Although this latest installment had me thinking Scarpetta may be on her last leg. The endings of the initial Scarpetta novels were surprising and unexpected but now they are somewhat obvious. Scarpetta's cast of  characters have become mere shells of themselves, in order to create the plots. Scarpetta has been the antagonist for 19 novels and has received  many awards, including the Gold Dagger, Edgar Award, and  the Sherlock Award for her creation of Kay Scarpetta. 

    Patricia Cornwell was born in 1956, in Miami, Florida and was a descendant of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her father, Sam Daniels was an appellate lawyer and a law clerk for the Supreme Court. Cornwell said the emotional abuse from her father motivated her to succeeded in life. Daniels walked out on the family Christmas day 1961 and was close to his deathbed. After her fathers death the family packed up and moved to Montreat, North Carolina, where her mother was hospitalized for depression. She attended King college, in Tennessee  and the transferred to Davidson and graduated with B.A. in English

  In 1979 she became a reporter for The Charlotte Observer and was drawn to covering crime scene beat. In 1983 she published a biography of Ruth Graham Bell a close family friend. The following year she began working for the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia. She was technical writer and then a computer annalist, while also volunteering for the Richmond Police Department. She worked at the medical examiners office for six years and wrote three novels, each rejected before publication. Postmortem, the first Scarpetta novel was published in 1990, which then won 4 prestigious literary awards, and she remains the only author to do so.

  Although she is  noted mostly for her  Scarpetta novels, her other characters, Andy Brazil and Judy Hammer are a crime fighting duo from Charlotte. Brazil started the series as a newspaper reporter and eventually became a police officer. Hammer resembles Scarpetta in the facts they are both strong women in a male dominated career field. One of my other favorite characters in Win Garano, who is a Massachusetts State Police Trooper, he also shares the spotlight with  district attorney and is a carbon copy of all her strong female characters. Another similarity between author and Scarpetta is the love of cooking. Cornwell is the author of two cookbooks both bearing Scapetta's name.Cornwell wrote Portrait of a Killer, a Jack the Ripper book, caused some to think she was obsessed with the still unknown killer. Cornwell believes that Walter Sickert , a painter was the mass murder who terrorized London's Whitechaple district in the late 1800's. She also wrote  two autobiographies about family friend Ruth Graham Bell. Finally a children's book published in 1999 rounds out her literary portfolio.

 I wish Cornwell would put some more Win Garano novels on the bookshelves. I enjoyed those stories as much as Scarpetta and they take place in Massachusetts. I would not be shocked to hear that Red Mist, her last novel will be the end of the famous Kay Scarpetta. I could get lucky and by some chance Cornwell reads my blog and gives me my wish.