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| Cornwell, Patricia
Cornwell, Patricia
Patricia Cornwell
Early Life
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Patricia Cornwell was born as Patricia Daniels on June 9, 1956 in Miami,
Florida. Cornwell`s parents separated when Patricia was five.
Cornwell told the New York Times (3/23/97) that her father left the family
on Christmas Day in 1961 to join his secretary, whom he had made pregnant.
After her parents divorced, when Patricia was 5, she was molested by a
security guard who had been friendly to her. He lured her into his car and
attempted to assault her. Patricia`s older brother rode up on his bicycle and
chased the man off. In 1993 Cornwell went public with the incident to encourage
other sex-abuse victims to talk.
Pat Daniels moved Patricia and her two brothers to Montreat, N.C. in 1963
when Patricia was seven. After her divorce, Pat Daniels suffered from
depression, and during the Christmas season when Patricia was nine, her mother
tried to give her and her two brothers to Bill and Ruth Graham.
Patricia and her brothers stayed with missionaries, Manfred and Lenore
Saunders, for three months while their mother received medical treatment.
It was while Cornwell was staying with the missionaries that she developed
her passion for writing and where her imagination first found an outlet.
Cornwell`s earliest childhood writings were poems and short stories. Even
through she would escape into her imaginary world, her poems always seemed to be
based in real events.
Cornwell also wrote stories that pre-dated her now-famous genre.
While she was young, Cornwell also took up drawing.
1974-76
Patricia also developed a passion for tennis, and started on a sterling
high school career.
Cornwell`s high school didn`t have a girls` tennis team, so she played on
the boys` squad, against other boys. She never lost a match.
Cornwell won the Most Outstanding in Tennis Award while in high school. She
also played on the girls` basketball team and was a varsity girls basketball
cheerleader. She was Junior Marshall of the football homecoming court and was
also a member of the basketball homecoming court.
While in high school, Cornwell also participated in many other activities.
She was the secretary-treasurer of her school`s chapter of the Fellowship of
Christian Athletes, a member of the Student Council, Inter-nation Simulation
Team; Shawano Court, and was a member of the Beta Club.
Cornwell began attending King College in Bristol, Tennessee and continued
to entertain plans of becoming a professional tennis player. During her freshman
year Cornwell was the only female on the squad, and played on the men`s team.
Cornwell dropped out of competitive play when she was 19.
She also dropped out of King College and was diagnosed with anorexia
nervosa and bulimia after her sophomore year. According to a Newsweek article
(7/22/96) Cornwell was a straight-A student at the time.
Cornwell underwent treatment at Appalachia Hall, the same hospital which
treated her mother during her depression when Patricia was a child.
1976-79
During the summer of 1976, Cornwell had the biggest chance meeting of her
life. While giving a tennis lesson in Montreat, N.C., she met Ed White,
admissions director of highly selective
Davidson College in North Carolina. White
had just learned that morning that Davidson had an opening among incoming
transfers, and after talking to Cornwell, invited her to apply. She was accepted
in less than a month, and Cornwell enrolled that fall. During her senior year at Davidson, Cornwell landed a job inserting the
daily television listings at the
Charlotte Observer newspaper. But Patricia Daniels didn`t stay in the Features Department for long. She
soon have moved up to the Newsroom.
While Cornwell was a student at Davidson, she met an English professor by
the name of Dr. Charles L. Cornwell. Charles Cornwell had graduated from
Davidson in 1961, and was 17 years older than Patricia. He taught Chaucer and
American Literature.
1979-81
Patricia Daniels graduated from Davidson College with a Bachelor of Arts
Degree in English Literature in 1979. She and Charles Cornwell were married on
June 14, 1980. He was 41, she 24.
In the meantime, Patricia`s career as a reporter was beginning to blossom.
It was while she was on the police beat that she first fired a gun, a .44
Magnum owned by John York, a veteran police reporter.
Cornwell continued to hone her writing skills during this time. Cornwell
wrote under the by-line of Patsy Daniels. She won an investigative reporting
award from the North Carolina Press Association in 1980 for a series she did on
prostitution she did for the Observer.
In the May, 1997, issue of Vanity Fair Magazine Cornwell said she was raped
by a person involved in law enforcement while she was a young reporter at the
Observer, but refused to give details.
It was also during this time that Patricia learned of a former landlady
from Charles` youth, a lady named Scarpetta. Charles would tell Patricia stories
of the landlady to pass the time.
1981-83
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In 1981, Charles Cornwell decided to become a minister, and he joined the
Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and Patricia followed him.
While in North Carolina, however, Patricia had been trying to persuade Ruth
Graham to allow her to write Graham`s biography. Graham finally consented, and
Patricia started work on "A Time For Remembering". The book was eventually
ublished by Harper and Row in 1983.
"A Time For Remembering" was awarded the Gold Medallion Book Award for
biography by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association in 1985.
Cornwell received a $40,000 advance for the book and it sold 250,000
copies. The money, however, went for writing and travelling expenses and most of
the copies were sold cut-rate to religious book clubs. "A Time for Remembering"
was re-issued on September 1, 1997 under the title
" Ruth, a Portrait: The Ruth Bell Graham Story" by
Doubleday.
1983-88
In 1983, Cornwell suffered another physical setback. She fell while jogging
and broke both of her elbows. Around this time Cornwell held her first public
book signing, staged at a public library. Four people showed up.
In August of 1984, a physician friend in Richmond suggested to Cornwell
that she should talk to a medical examiner to get an insider`s view of the
morgue. The doctor referred her to Dr. Marcella Fierro, then the Deputy Chief
Medical Examiner of Virginia. Fierro is now the Chief M.E. of Virginia.
Cornwell finally landed a part-time job in the Richmond Medical Examiner`s
Office as technical writer. Five years later she had a full-time job as a
computer analyst in the office. While at the ME`s office Cornwell found the
inspiration for Dr. Kay Scarpetta in Fierro.
Fierro was the person who told Cornwell that if she wanted to experience
police work that she should become a volunteer police officer.
It was also while she was working at the Medical Examiner`s office in
Richmond that she started to write novels. Cornwell first wrote her first novel
in 1984, and it was rejected by every publisher she sent it to. She would
eventually write three books in four years, and all were rejected and remain
unpublished.
1988-90
In 1988 Charles Cornwell received an offer to become a pastor of a church
in Texas, and Patricia refused to go. The two separated in 1989 and were
divorced in 1990.
But while divorce brought independence, it also brought headaches. Cornwell
had $18,000 in credit card bills after her divorce, none of her novels were
being published, she was sleeping on floor of her small apartment, and her job
at the morgue was at a dead-end.
Then Cornwell wrote Sara Ann Freed, the editor of
Mysterious Press.
Freed was the one editor who had encouraged Cornwell to keep writing. Freed
suggested expanding the role of Scarpetta, to stop writing about exotic events,
and to write about the world she lived in. At the same time Cornwell started the re-write, Richmond began to be
terrorized by a serial murderer/rapist. The second victim was a neurosurgeon.
The murders unnerved Cornwell, and she bought her first gun. More importantly,
Cornwell used the crimes as the genesis for "Postmortem" re-write.
After Cornwell finished "Postmortem" in 1988, and she was asked to attend a
dedication of a new morgue in Dade County. While there Cornwell met Edna
Buchanan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning police reporter of the Miami Herald and
author of "The Corpse Had a Familiar Face." Buchanan suggested that Cornwell
contact Michael Congdon, and she sent him a draft of the new book. Seven months
later, Congdon agreed to take Cornwell on as a client.
1990
Finally, in 1990, six years after Cornwell first started writing,
"Postmortem" was bought and published by Scribner`s. Cornwell was paid a mere
$6,000 for the book, but she became the first American female author to win the
Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, Macavity, and the French Prix du Roman d`Adventurei in
a single year. Cornwell would eventually go on to write six Kay Scarpetta books
for Scribner`s.
1991
In 1991 "Postmortem" made news again. John Waterman was arrested in
Sarasota, Fla. for the murder of Jackie Galloway. Galloway had been tied up with
a drapery cord and her fingernails had been broken away from her hands. A copy
of "Postmortem" was found among Waterman`s personal effects. In the novel`s
start, Dr. Lori Peterson was tied up and strangled with a drapery cord and her
fingers had been broken. Waterman was convicted of second-degree murder and is
currently serving a 45-year sentence in Florida.
Cornwell expressed remorse over the murder, but defended her novel.
Success, both commercially and financially followed for Cornwell with each
succeeding book. "Body of Evidence" (1991) generated a $20,000 advance from
Scribner`s. Her next advance was $750,000 for "All That Remains" (1992) and
"Cruel & Unusual" (1993). "The Body Farm" (1994) and "From Potter`s Field"
(1995) brought an advance of $4.5 million.
Cornwell was the subject of the American television program
" 48 Hours" in
September, 1991, and major newspapers started clamoring for
interviews.
1992
Cornwell became a book reviewer for the New York Times in 1992.
But new worries came along with the new-found fame, however. Cornwell told
The Guardian in 1995 that she has been the target of stalkers, threats, and
burglaries.
Cornwell told the New York Times (3/23/97) that she started taking the
anti-depressant Prozac in 1992 for her depression, but that she started having
problems with alcohol at the same time.
1993
The behaviour almost cost Cornwell her life in 1993. After drinking a
pitcher of Bloody Marys, she drove her rented Mercedes-Benz 190 to the Ivy at
the Shore restaurant in Malibu, Cal. She had drinks with her agent at the time,
Diane Cairns, and washed it down with two glasses of wine.
While driving home along the Pacific Coast Highway Cornwell rammed her car
into a stalled vacant van, struck two other cars, and flipped the Mercedes over
three times. She needed to be cut from the wreckage and needed to be air-lifted
to the hospital.
In early 1993 Cornwell voluntarily checked herself into Edgehill Newport.
After completing a 30-day treatment program she returned to California and went
to court. Cornwell was told that if she was found guilty of driving under the
influence in California again within the next three years that she would go to
jail. Since she had successfully completed the program, however, there would be
no jail time or probation for this offense.
In 1993 Cornwell signed with International Creative Management (ICM), and
Esther Newberg became her agent. Her editor at Scribner`s was Suzanne Kirk, and
Cornwell dedicated "Cause of Death" to her. Her editor now is Stacy Creamer. Her
art director is Mary Gayle Guidon. The Chief Operating Officer of Cornwell
Enterprises is Pamela Torrez.
Cornwell was appointed by then-Governor L. Douglas Wilder to be the
chairman of the Virginia Film Office Advisory Board in 1993. The Advisory Board
disbanded in 1994.
Cornwell also started her own film production company in 1993. She founded
Bell Vision Productions, with herself as Chief Executive Officer and President,
titles Cornwell retain to this day. In 1996 Cornwell changed the name to Bell
Vision Visual Communication as the company moved more toward graphic productions
rather than film production.
1994-96
The New York Times (3/23/97) reported that Cornwell`s physician, Dr. Erika
Blanton, diagnosed her as being manic depressive in 1994 and prescribed Lithium.
Blanton, however, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch (3/25/97) that she was
Cornwell`s gynaecologist and merely referred her to a psychiatrist.
Cornwell herself disputed the New York Times story and said on the American
television program Today (NBC) (7/14/97) that she suffered from a bi-polar
disorder and was taking lamictal.
In September, 1994, Cornwell was a guest of President Bill Clinton at the
White House. Clinton is reported to be a fan of Cornwell`s novels. In 1995
Cornwell signed with the American publishing house of G.P. Putnam`s Sons for a
two-book deal which would bring Cornwell $12 million. Before the first book of
the deal was released Putnam re-signed Cornwell for another three books. The new
deal would bring Cornwell $24 million, making her the highest paid female author
in the world up to that date.
1996
Her first Scarpetta novel for Putnam, "Cause of Death," was for four
consecutive weeks among the New York Times Best Sellers. Her latest Scarpetta
novel, "Point of Origin" was be released on July 6, 1998.
Granada Television filmed a biography of Cornwell, where she tells her life
story, in part, in a documentary titled
" Patricia Cornwell: Richmond - City of Shadows."
The biography aired in England and Ireland in March, 1997 as the first part of a
six-part mini-series entitled "God Bless America" where six American authors
narrate documentaries about their home towns. It has yet to air in the United
States. In March, 1996, Cornwell made her acting debut in a series of Public
Service Announcements for the Virginia Blood Services and the Metropolitan
Washington Blood Banks to encourage her fans to make blood donations. She played
herself as she read from a prepared script.
In June, 1996, Cornwell`s private life became public again, as a former FBI
agent named Eugene Bennett was accused of the attempted murder of his wife,
Marguerite.
Bennett`s attorneys claimed their client had been distraught over his
wife`s affair with Cornwell, and was temporarily insane. The jury didn`t buy the
defence and found Bennett guilty of attempted murder. Bennett was sentenced to
23 years in prison on May 15, 1997.
1997
In April, 1997, Cornwell donated $250,000 to the
Science Museum of Virginia to help build
the Life Sciences Wing. Construction is already underway and is expected to be
complete by the end of 2000. On May 10, 1997, Cornwell appeared in Houston, Tex., along with fellow
authors Scott Turow, Dominick Dunne, and others as a guest of former first lady
Barbara Bush as part of a fund-raiser benefiting
The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.
Cornwell read a passage from "Unnatural Exposure." On May 27, 1997, Cornwell made a $1 million endowment to Davidson College,
making her the youngest Davidson alumnus ever to make an endowment of that
magnitude. The money will endow the Patricia Cornwell Scholarships.
In July, 1997, in an interview with
America on-line, Cornwell stated that she was
expanding into writing children`s books. In 1996 Cornwell had received a
pre-publishing copyright for a children`s book entitled "Life`s Little Fable."
The book has yet to be published. On July 20, 1997, Cornwell coupled her Richmond, Va., book signing for
Unnatural Exposure with a blood drive held by The Virginia
Blood Services. The event raised 141 pints of blood, a record collection for a
one-day drive. On October 7, 1997, Cornwell hosted the opening for the new "Quoth the
Raven" exhibit at the
Edgar Allen Poe Museum in Richmond, Va.
The exhibit boasts the largest public display of Poe`s work. In October, 1997, Cornwell threw her support behind
James Gilmore III, the Republican
candidate for governor of Virginia. She became his top individual contributor to
his campaign, donating $150,000 in three steps. In December, 1997, Gilmore appointed Cornwell, along with 30 others, to
serve on his Transition Advisory Committee. The advisors will work closely with
transition task forces appointed earlier by Gilmore.
1998
On January 5, 1998, Penguin-Putnam released "Hornet`s Nest" in paperback in
the U.S.
On January 8, 1998, ATF,
the television show on which Cornwell is executive producer, went into
production starring Kathy Baker and Amy Brenneman. The show was not bought by
the American Broadcasting Company for either a fall, 1998, premier nor as a
mid-season replacement. ABC-TV has no plans as of this writing to air the pilot
episode of ATF. In February, 1998, Cornwell`s seventh and eighth Scarpetta novels were
translated into foreign languages. Cause of Death was translated in Italian
while Unnatural Exposure was translated into French.
Cornwell toured both Italy and France, and staged book signings in Paris.
"Unnatural Exposure" was retitled Mordoc in France, after a nation-wide contest
was held by French publisher, Calmann-Levy.
In July, 1998, the ninth Scarpetta novel, titled "Point of Origin," will be
released.
There are also rumours that Cornwell is planning to donate $1 million to
the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.
Insights
Ironically, when Cornwell was younger she was so afraid of bodies that she
never attended a funeral until she was 20 years old. She still suffers from a
fear of heights and claustrophobia, which made learning to scuba dive all the
more difficult.
To overcome her fear of heights, Cornwell learned to fly a helicopter. In
July, 1998, she arrived at her signing in Richmond, Va., in a Bell Jet Ranger
helicopter.
Her last three crime novels have all been best sellers.
Sidelights
The New York Times Magazine (7/14/96) reporter that Cornwell always wears
three gold rings, a wedding band she bought in Verona, the home of Scarpetta`s
ancestors, and it symbolises her commitment to her work; the second symbolises
the book she was working on at the time of the article, "Hornet`s Nest; and the
third bears the Scarpetta logo and symbolises the relationship Cornwell has with
her heroine.
In "The Body Farm" Scarpetta wears a gold Intaglio seal ring.
The Scarpetta logo is the initial "S" centred by a caduceus. A jewelled
caduceus pin is referred to in "From Potter`s Field."
Cornwell also owns many of the firearms mentioned in her novels. She has
been reported as owning a 9-millimeter Browning, a .38 police issue Smith &
Wesson, a .357 Magnum, a Glock 9 mm., and a Walther .380 semi-automatic.
Cornwell also knows how to use the guns. She practices on firing ranges
often.
The cover jackets for "From Potter`s Field, "Cause of Death" and "Hornet`s
Nest" were all designed by M. G. Guidon of Bell Vision Productions, Inc. Bell
Vision Productions is owned by Cornwell Enterprises.
Cornwell has also given over $200,000 in scholarships to Davidson College
each year. The Scarpetta Prize for Excellence in Scientific Writing and the
Patricia D. Cornwell Scholarship for Excellence in Writing each carry a $10,000
scholarship. The scholarships are four-year awards, with winners chosen in their
senior year in high school. Each winner, if the students keep up their grades,
receive a total of $40,000.
The first two Cornwell Scholars, Chad Fogelman and Sean McGrew, graduated
from Davidson in 1997. Fogelman graduated magna cum laude with honours in
English, and plans to teach English in Japan before attending graduate school.
McGrew will teach English in China.
Cornwell promised her agent, Esther Newberg, a dozen roses for every
million dollars Newberg negotiated for her. To date, Newberg has received
deliveries of 4 1/2 dozen, 12 dozen and 24 dozen roses (Richmond Times-Dispatch,
3/8/96).
Cornwell`s father, Sam Daniels, died in 1996.
Charles Cornwell was a minister at the First Scots Presbyterian Church in
Charleston, S.C. He was recently named a senior editor at the publishing house
of Wyrick & Co. in Charleston, S.C.
Cornwell is currently a member of the International Crime Writers
Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, International
Association of Identification, National Association of Medical Examiners, and
the Author`s Guild.
Cornwell now lives in Richmond, Va., with her Boston Terrier, Chopper.
Books
A Time for Remembering (1983)
Postmortem (1990)
Body of Evidence (1991)
All that Remains (1992)
Cruel and Unusual (1993)
The Body Farm (1994)
The First Scarpetta Collection (1995)
From Potter’s Field (1995)
Cause of Death (1996)
Hornet’s Nest (1997)
Unnatural Exposure (1997)
Patricia Cornwell- Three Complete Novels (1997)
Ruth, A Portrait (1997)
Point of Orgin (1998)
Scarpetta’s Winter Table (1998)
Southern Cross (1999)
“Postmortem”:
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Postmortem starts in Richmond, Friday June Sixth 1989. A human monster
moves undetected, leaving a gruesome trail of stranglings that has paralysed the
city. Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta senses the worst: a deliberate campaign by
a brilliant serial killer— a "Mr.Nobody"—whose signatures offer
precious few clues. With an unerring eye, she must call on the latest advances
in forensic research to have a chance at unmasking the maniac. But this
investigation will test Kay like no other, because it`s being sabotaged from
within—and someone wants her dead.
As the book progresses there are more murders and only the odd clue. The
book spends a large part of time with Scarpetta´s niece who has very little
relevance overall, the man she is dating who is like a liaison between the local
government and her office and the hard edged street detective. A lot of
speculation is aimed as to who the killer is and for awhile it looks to be her
boyfriend. Her computer gets hacked and evidence is changed. He has access and
it centres on him.
In the end it was a unassuming young man who breaks into Kay`s home and is
then shot by the hard edged detective who was waiting across the
street.
The victims of “Postmortem” are:
- Brenda Steppe, killed April 19. 1989
- Patty Lewis, killed May 10. 1989
- Cecilie Tyler, killed May 31, 1989
- Lori Anne Petersen, killed June 7. 1989
- Henna Yarborough, killed June 14.
1989
The main things I did like is that she has a good understanding about the
way crime scenes are handled and how police go about an investigation. I also
liked the fact that the killer was a 911 emergency phone operator and that is
how he chooses his victims. But the book did spend too much time on
relationships and not enough on the murders for my liking.
"Postmortem", the first Dr Kay Scarpetta novel is a must read. The book is
full of surprises and certainly one of Cornwells best novels. In Britain in one
the John Creasey award for Best First Crime Novel, it was surely
desevered.
“Body of Evidence”:
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“Body of Evidence” starts October 30. 1990. Pete Marino has
recently been promoted to Lieutenant and drives a new Ford, rather than the
familiar old Plymouth. He is in his early fifties. Mark James, who had an affair
with Kay Scarpetta in law school more than fifteen years ago, resurfaces.
After being terrorised by an unknown stalker, Beryl Madison, a best-selling
novelist flees from Richmond and goes to Key West. Within hours of her return to
Richmond, she is brutally murdered in her home. The Killer in this novel is a
lowlife who works in a airport, and in an exciting twist Kay Scarpetta, invites
the killer into her home after her bag is lost in the airport.
She soon realises that she put her work not home address on her
bag.
The victims in “Body of Evidence” are
- Beryl Stratton Madison, killed on October 29.
1990
- Cary Harper, killed on November 10. 1990
- Sterling Harper, died on November 11. 1990
- Al Hunt, died on November 16.
1990
"Body Of Evidence" shows that Cornwell is certainly capable of equalling
herself. The story about a murdered novelist is tense full of thrills and with a
dose of brilliance here and there. This is worth a read. Cornwell creates a
exciting chase between Scarpetta and the killer.
“All that remains”:
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Fred Cheney, white male, nineteen and Deborah Harvey, white, female,
nineteen left Richmond, Virginia, for the North Carolina coast but never
arrived. Their Jeep is found at a highway rest area, the keys still in the
ignition, belongings undisturbed. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Virginia’s chief
medical examiner, suspects that both Deborah and Fred are already dead, the
latest victims in a string of mysterious killings that have occurred over the
past two years. Four young couples have perished in similar circumstances , all
within a fifty-mile radius of Williamsburg. Months after they were reported
missing, their decomposed bodies were found without shoes or socks, deep in
virtually impenetrable woods. Bones and fragments of clothing and a jack of
hearts are all that remain.
Dr. Kay Scarpetta is frustrated by her inability to determine the cause of
death. The pressure intensifies as Deborah’s mother, Pat Harvey, the
national “drug czar”, focuses her immense political power and
resources on Scarpetta, Pete Marino of the Richmond Police, and the federal
agents investigating the Couple Killings, as the press has dubbed them. Reporter
Abby Turnbull also researches the murders, uncovering some secrets that may turn
the case in a new and dangerous direction.
When Scarpetta learns the FBI is withholding evidence, she finds herself
confronting the most challenging and baffling case she’s ever
encountered.
The victims of “All that remains” are:
- A dog, Dammit, killed August 1984?
- Jill Harrington and Elizabeth Mott, killed
September 14. 1984?found the day after
- Bruce Philips and Judy Roberts, killed June 1.
1990, found ten weeks later
- Jim Freeman and Bonnie Smyth, killed July 29.
1990, found November 12. 1990
- Ben Anderson and Carolyn Bennett, killed March
1991, found September 1991
- Susan Wilcox and Mike Martin, killed February
1992, found May 15. 1992
- Frederick Cheney and Deborah Harvey, killed
August 31. 1992, found January 12. 1993
- Abby Turnbull is killed during the investigation
of the murders sometime during April 1993.
"All That Remains" is another brilliant case for Americas best pathologist
from Americas best novelist.
The twists in the Patricia Cornwells books are not conventual Murder
mysteries, the killers are unknown to the reader until the end, they are usually
just a nobody . I however have not read all of Cornwells novels so I’m
unsure what the other killers are like.
Characters:
Dr. Kay Scarpetta, M.E.
Dr. Kay Scarpetta is Patricia Cornwell`s most famous and popular character.
Scarpetta has been the focus of almost all of her novels.
Dr. Kay Scarpetta was born in Miami, Florida to Italian American parents
sometime in the late 40`s. She has an older sister, Dorothy, who she is not
very close to. Her father died when Kay was very young. Kay and her mother
have a typical mother/daughter relationship. Kay is very fond of her niece,
Lucy (Dorothy`s daughter) and even helped to raise her. Kay graduated as a M.D.
from John`s Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland in the early seventies. A
few years later she graduated from Georgetown Law School. As her career was
taking off as a medical examiner, her love life was floundering. She has had
two serious relationships, both of which end in unhappiness. She is the Chief
Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Aside from her work as a medical examiner, she works for the FBI as part of
VICAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). She, Pete Marino (police
officer) and Benton Wesley (former teacher and currently an agent with the FBI)
investigate violent crimes committed by serial killers. Scarpetta`s work in
this program is mostly examining deceased bodies and trying to develop the M.O.
to apprehend the serial killers before they strike again. She smokes too much,
drinks too much and gets completely too involved in her cases.
Pete Marino
Pete Marino is in his early fifties and he is a detective sergeant. He has
got a big belly and he smokes.
Marino, in addition to being a detective sergeant for the city, is
Wesley´s regional team partner.
He has the habit of arriving at a crime scene and acting as if he did not
want to be there.
Benton Wesley
Benton Wesley is a handsome man, who works as FBI suspect profiler in
Richmond’s field office, where he actually spends very little time. When
he wasn’t on the road, he was usually at the National Academy in Quantico
teaching death-investigation classes and doing what he could to coax VICAP (is
an acronym for Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) through is rocky
adolescence.
Lucy Farinelli
Dr. Kay Scarpetta´s niece Lucy is 10 years old and a computer whiz
kid, who often helps with computer related problems. She wears glasses, fiddles
with high school level math and science and even Oracle tables for fun.
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