New Releases by Patricia Cornwell

Scarpetta is back! In this twenty-fifth in the electrifying, landmark #1 bestselling thriller series chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta hunts an ingenious killer who has mastered cutting-edge science for the most nefarious ends. Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta has returned to Virginia as the chief medical examiner. She and her husband Benton are headquartered five miles from the Pentagon, in a post-pandemic world that''s been torn apart by civil and political unrest. Just weeks into the job, Scarpetta is called to investigate a woman''s body which has been shockingly displayed on railroad tracks. As Scarpetta follows the trail, it leads unnervingly close to her own neighbourhood... At the same time, two scientists are found dead in a top-secret laboratory in outer space. Scarpetta is summoned to the White House Situation Room and tasked with finding out what happened. But even as she''s working the first crime scene in space from the ground, an apparent serial killer strikes again. And this time, Scarpetta could be in greater danger than ever before... In this latest novel in her groundbreaking Kay Scarpetta series, Patricia Cornwell captivates readers with the shocking twists, high-wire tension, and forensic detail that she is famous for, proving once again why she''s the world''s #1 bestselling crime writer.

In questo nuovo romanzo il capitano Calli Chase è coinvolta in una lotta contro il tempo per sventare un terribile complotto che tiene in bilico il destino dell''umanità. All''indomani del fallimentare lancio di un razzo della NASA, il capitano Calli Chase si ritrova faccia a faccia con la sua gemella scomparsa da tempo, e con l''inquietante interrogativo di chi sia davvero. Adesso che il programma top secret avviato anni prima ha incontrato un ostacolo inaspettato, solo Calli può reindirizzarne il corso e risolvere la situazione. Aiutata da tecnologie all''avanguardia, l''investigatrice scienziata della NASA e pilota della Space Force dovrà a ogni costo scoprire l''anello mancante che lega il sabotaggio del razzo a quello che le sta accadendo. Una ricerca che qualcuno sembra intenzionato a fermare a ogni costo. Dalla NASA alla fattoria della famiglia Chase, dalla Casa Bianca alle lontane orbite spaziali, Calli deve misurarsi con un avversario astuto e spietato. Come in una pericolosa partita a scacchi planetaria, una sola mossa sbagliata rischia di scatenare conseguenze catastrofiche che si estenderanno ben oltre i confini della Terra. Il nuovo emozionante thriller dell''autrice bestseller Patricia Cornwell regala ai lettori una protagonista indimenticabile, degna erede di Kay Scarpetta, che terrà i lettori incollati alla pagina.

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.

Alguien acecha a Beryl Madison. Alguien que la espía, que observa todos sus movimientos y que le hace amenazantes y obscenas llamadas telefónicas. La joven y solitaria escritora busca refugio en Miami, pero al final regresa a su casa de Richmond. La misma noche en que llega, Beryl, inexplicablemente, franquea el paso de su casa al asesino. Así comienza para la doctora Kay Scarpetta la investigación de un delito tan tortuoso como extraño. ¿Por qué abrió Beryl la puerta? ¿Conocía a su asesino? Scarpetta comienza a atar los cabos de las intrincadas pruebas forenses y, gracias a unas inquietantes cartas, descubre que la escritora estaba siendo acosada. Lo que Scarpetta no consigue explicarse es por qué Beryl dejó entrar al criminal. Por su parte, el codicioso abogado de Madison acusa a la forense de perder el último manuscrito de su cliente, un texto autobiográfico en el que hablaba de su enigmática relación con un galardonado y reconocido escritor. Mientras Scarpetta reconstruye los pasos de Beryl, irá acercándose, poco a poco y sin darse cuenta, a un asesino que acecha en la sombra. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Someone is stalking Beryl Madison. They are following her every move and making threatening, obscene phone calls. The young and lonely writer seeks refuge in Miami, but ultimately returns to her home in Richmond. The same night she arrives, she opens the door for the murderer. Why did Beryl opened the door?

#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell returns with the remarkable twenty-fourth thriller in her popular high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. In the quiet of twilight, on an early autumn day, twenty-six-year-old Elisa Vandersteel is killed while riding her bicycle along the Charles River. It appears she was struck by lightning—except the weather is perfectly clear with not a cloud in sight. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the Cambridge Forensic Center’s director and chief, decides at the scene that this is no accidental Act of God. Her investigation becomes complicated when she begins receiving a flurry of bizarre poems from an anonymous cyberbully who calls himself Tailend Charlie. Though subsequent lab results support Scarpetta’s conclusions, the threatening messages don’t stop. When the tenth poem arrives exactly twenty-four hours after Elisa’s death, Scarpetta begins to suspect the harasser is involved, and sounds the alarm to her investigative partner Pete Marino and her husband, FBI analyst Benton Wesley. She also enlists the help of her niece, Lucy. But to Scarpetta’s surprise, tracking the slippery Tailend Charlie is nearly impossible, even for someone as brilliant as her niece. Also, Lucy can’t explain how this anonymous nemesis could have access to private information. To make matters worse, a venomous media is whipping the public into a frenzy, questioning the seasoned forensics chief’s judgment and "a quack cause of death on a par with spontaneous combustion."

Un thriller protagonizado por la doctora forense Kay Scarpetta. Un brutal asesino siembra el pánico en Richmond, Virginia, al amparo de la noche. Tres mujeres han aparecido salvajemente asesinadas en sus propios dormitorios. El responsable de estos crímenes deja muy pocas pistas y actúa siempre los sábados de madrugada. De manera que cuando la doctora Kay Scarpetta, jefa del Departamento de Medicina Legal, recibe una llamada a las dos y media de la mañana, supone que algo grave ha sucedido: hay una cuarta víctima. Scarpetta recurrirá a los últimos avances científicos para desenmascarar al predador, y tendrá que vérselas con aquellos que quieren sabotear su trabajo y arruinar su reputación. Post Mórtem fue el primer título protagonizado por la doctora forense Kay Scarpetta que publicó Patricia Cornwell. Por esta novela recibió múltiples premios literarios y con ella comenzó una de las series de novela criminal más exitosa de todos los tiempos. ** Premio Sherlock en 1999 al mejor detective creado por un autor estadounidense.

In Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell has a character as strong as any in popular fiction" —Wall Street Journal New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the newest engrossing thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Depraved Heart: “Void of social duty and fatally bent on mischief.” —Mayes v. People, 806 III. 306 (1883) Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece Lucy. But how can it be? It’s clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago. As Scarpetta watches she begins to learn frightening secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That film clip and then others sent soon after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her confused, worried, and not knowing where to turn. She doesn’t know whom she can tell—not her FBI husband Benton Wesley or her investigative partner Pete Marino. Not even Lucy. In this new novel, Cornwell launches these unforgettable characters on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the mysterious death of a Hollywood mogul’s daughter, aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and videos from the past that threaten to destroy Scarpetta’s entire world and everyone she loves. The diabolical presence behind what unfolds seems obvious—but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that’s the message they send when they raid Lucy’s estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life. In the latest novel in her bestselling series featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell will captivate readers with the shocking twists, high-wire tension, and cutting-edge forensic detail that she is famous for, proving yet again why she’s the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer.

In this novel of “nail-biting suspense” (The Boston Globe) from #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell, Kay Scarpetta is thrust deep into the dark world of designer drugs, drone technology, organized crime, and shocking corruption at the highest levels. IN DEVELOPMENT AS THE ORIGINAL SERIES SCARPETTA STARRING NICOLE KIDMAN AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS A body, oddly draped in an unusual cloth, has just been discovered inside the sheltered gates of MIT, and it’s suspected the identity is that of missing computer engineering grad student Gail Shipton, last seen the night before at a trendy Cambridge bar. It appears she’s been murdered, mere weeks before the trial in her $100 million lawsuit against her former financial manager, and Massachusetts Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta doubts it’s a coincidence. She also fears the case may have a connection with her computer genius niece, Lucy. At a glance there is no sign of what killed Gail Shipton, but she’s covered with a fine dust that under ultraviolet light fluoresces brilliantly in three vivid colors, what Scarpetta calls a mineral fingerprint. Clearly the body has been posed with chilling premeditation that is symbolic and meant to shock, and Scarpetta worries that the person responsible is the Capital Murderer, whose most recent sexual homicides have terrorized Washington, D.C. In Dust, Scarpetta and her colleagues are up against a force far more sinister than a sexual predator who fits the criminal classification of a “spectacle killer.” With unparalleled high-tension suspense and the latest in forensic technology, Patricia Cornwell once again proves her exceptional ability to surprise—and to thrill.

After working on one of the worst mass killings in US history, Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta returns home to recover, but an unsettling call drives her straight back to work. The body of a young woman has been discovered inside the sheltered gates of MIT, draped in an unusual cloth and posed in a way that is too deliberate to be the killer''s first strike. A preliminary examination reveals that the body is covered in a fine dust that under ultra-violet light fluoresces blood-red, emerald-green and sapphire-blue, and physical evidence links this to another series of disturbing homicides in Washington, DC. As Scarpetta pieces together the fragments of evidence she discovers that the cases connect, yet also seem to conflict, and with so much at stake, it''s clear that she is the only one who can solve it . . . Dust is a thrilling, addictive novel featuring one of the most iconic, original and compelling characters in crime fiction today.

#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.

From one of the world’s number top selling crime writers comes the extraordinary twentieth Kay Scarpetta novel. A woman has vanished while digging a dinosaur bone bed in the remote wilderness of Canada. Somehow, the only evidence has made its way to the inbox of Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, over two thousand miles away in Boston. She has no idea why. But as events unfold with alarming speed, Scarpetta begins to suspect that the paleontologist’s disappearance is connected to a series of crimes much closer to home: a gruesome murder, inexplicable tortures, and trace evidence from the last living creatures of the dinosaur age. When she turns to those around her, Scarpetta finds that the danger and suspicion have penetrated even her closest circles. Her niece Lucy speaks in riddles. Her lead investigator, Pete Marino, and FBI forensic psychologist and husband, Benton Wesley, have secrets of their own. Feeling alone and betrayed, Scarpetta is tempted by someone from her past as she tracks a killer both cunning and cruel.

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing from south Florida, returns to the city that turned its back on her five years ago. Richmond, Virginia’s recently appointed chief medical examiner claims that he needs Scarpetta’s help to solve a perplexing crime. When she arrives, however, Scarpetta finds that nothing is as she expected: her former lab is in the final stages of demolition; the inept chief isn’t the one who requested her after all; her old assistant chief has developed personal problems that he won’t reveal; and a glamorous FBI agent, whom Scarpetta dislikes instantly, meddles with the case. Deprived of assistance from colleagues Benton and Lucy, who are embroiled in what first appears to be an unrelated attempted rape by a stalker, Scarpetta is faced with investigating the death of a fourteen-year-old girl, working with the smallest pieces of evidence—traces that only the most thorough hunters can identify. She must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak—and to reveal the sad truth that may be more than even she can bear…

With high-tension suspense and cutting-edge technology, Patricia Cornwell—the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer—once again proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthrall in this remarkable novel featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. On her quest to find out exactly what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months before, 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 intelligence agent husband, Benton Wesley, Scarpetta is determined to hear this woman out. Scarpetta has both personal and professional reasons to learn more about a string of grisly killings: the murder of a Savannah family years earlier, a young woman on death row, and then other inexplicable deaths that begin to occur at a breathtaking pace. 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: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than twenty years into her career, Kay Scarpetta is confronted with a case that could ruin her professionally—and personally . . . “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 Kay Scarpetta’s secret military ties have drawn her to Dover Air Force Base and Port Mortuary, where she’s performing autopsies on fallen soldiers. But her new headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts—the Cambridge Forensic Center—is the first civilian facility in the U.S. to do virtual autopsies, and it is there that she encounters a devastating event. A young man has died, apparently from a cardiac arrhythmia, eerily close to Scarpetta’s new Cambridge home. But when his body is examined the next morning, there are stunning indications that he may have been alive when he was zipped inside a pouch and locked inside the Center’s cooler. Various 3-D radiology scans reveal more shocking details about internal injuries unlike any Scarpetta has ever seen—details that suggest the possibility of a conspiracy to cause mass casualties. With Benton, Marino, and Lucy at her side, Scarpetta must fight a cunning, cruel—and invisible—enemy in a race against time. . . .

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. . . .

Ruth Bell Graham is known as the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. It was Ruth who influenced Billy, as his most trusted life-partner. In Ruth, a Portrait, we meet this fascinating and remarkable woman. Brimming with anecdotes, this is a breathtaking journey, with stops at many of this century''s epoch-making events. The childhood years of the future Mrs. Billy Graham were spent light-years away--in the China of the 1920s and 1930s. The daughter of medical missionaries, she and her family were caught in a crucible of unspeakable hardship; in addition to pestilence and plague, there was the unstable political and military turmoil surrounding the Nationalist government, the Communists, and the Japanese invaders. These hazardous realities shaped Ruth Bell and her family, a family inured to difficulties, but buoyed up by their deep belief in God''s abiding will. Virtually raised by the Grahams, the author is a repository of Ruth Bell Graham''s stories and has seen firsthand the spirit of this courageous woman. Patricia Cornwell not only gives readers a full, rounded, and intimate portrait of Ruth Bell Graham, but also insight into the life of the Graham family and particularly Billy Graham.

Dr Kay Scarpetta returns to face new challenges in Patricia Cornwell''s internationally acclaimed series.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell takes readers to a place where what you see can''t be believed in this pulse-punding thriller. DA Monique Lamont has a special job for Massachusetts state investigator Win Garano. As part of a new public relations campaign about the dangers of declining neighborhoods, Lamont is sending Win to Watertown to come up with a “drama,” and she thinks she knows just the case that will serve. Garano is skeptical because he knows that Watertown is also the home base for a loose association of municipal police departments called the FRONT, set up so they aren''t dependent on the state—much to Lamont''s anger. Win senses a much deeper agenda—but has no idea just how deep it goes. In the days that follow, he''ll find Lamont''s task. and the places it leads him, will resemble a house of mirrors—everywhere he turns, he''s not quite sure if what he''s seeing is true.

Kay Scarpetta finds herself pitted against a possible bioterrorist in this suspense-filled read from #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell. When a woman turns up dismembered in a landfill, Scarpetta initially suspects the work of a serial killer she’s been tracking. But her investigation turns far more dangerous when she realizes the victim’s skin is covered in an unusual rash—and Scarpetta herself may have just been exposed to a deadly virus.

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing with the National Forensic Academy in Florida, takes charge of a case that stretches from steamy Florida to snowbound Boston; one that at first appears as unnerving as any she has ever faced. The teasing psychological clues lead Scarpetta and her team—Pete Marino, Benton Wesley, and Lucy Farinelli—to suspect that they are hunting someone with a cunning and malevolent mind whose secrets have kept them in the shadows, until now. Predator is proof once again that Patricia Cornwell has few peers with her extraordinary ability to entertain and enthrall.

Sparks fly and twists abound in this electrifying thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling crime author Patricia Cornwell. Massachusetts state investigator Win Garano is called home from Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is completing a course at the National Forensic Academy. His boss, the district attorney, attractive but hard-charging, is planning to run for governor, and as a showcase she''s planning to use a new crime initiative called At Risk—its motto: “Any crime, any time.” In particular, she''s been looking for a way to employ cutting-edge DNA technology, and she thinks she’s found the perfect subject in an unsolved twenty-year-old murder in Tennessee. If her office solves the case, it ought to make them all look pretty good, right? Win isn''t so sure—not sure about anything to do with this woman, really—but before he can open his mouth, a shocking piece of violence intervenes, an act that shakes up both their lives and the lives of everyone around them. It''s not a random event. Is it personal? Is it professional? Whatever it is, the implications are very, very bad indeed...and they''re about to get much worse.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Dr. Kay Scarpetta faces a bold, brilliant killer from her past—and soon realizes she may be his next target—in this “nerve-jangling game of cat and mouse” (People). “[Cornwell’s] prose grabs the reader by the throat and doesn’t let go until the last page.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch IN DEVELOPMENT AS THE ORIGINAL SERIES SCARPETTA STARRING NICOLE KIDMAN AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS Dr. Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner of Virginia and consultant for the FBI, is in the midst of a late-night autopsy at the morgue when the call comes: Gault, the sadistic psychopath who has eluded capture for years, has struck again. She and longtime FBI and police colleagues Benton Wesley and Captain Pete Marino fly to the eerie early-morning scene, where they immediately recognize Gault’s grizzly handiwork. But no one seems to know his bald female victim, whose naked body has been propped up against a frozen fountain. It makes no sense that she apparently disrobed in the bitter cold without a struggle and walked barefoot over snow to her death. While Scarpetta sorts through the strange forensic evidence, Gault kills again. But the prey he ultimately seeks is Scarpetta, for it becomes increasingly apparent that he is as focused on her as she is on him. It may be possible that he kills to impress her, and that he’s trying to get at her through her young niece, Lucy, who is the brains behind CAIN, the worldwide FBI computer network. Through what proves to be Scarpetta’s most frightening chase, she can almost sense the evil, electric presence of her nemesis. But when she draws close, he slips back into the darkness, waiting for the time when they at last meet. . . .

#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. “The Body Farm is Cornwell at her chilling best.”—USA Today IN DEVELOPMENT AS THE ORIGINAL SERIES SCARPETTA STARRING NICOLE KIDMAN AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS 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.

Now updated with new material that brings the killer''s picture into clearer focus. In the fall of 1888, all of London was held in the grip of unspeakable terror. An elusive madman calling himself Jack the Ripper was brutally butchering women in the slums of London’s East End. Police seemed powerless to stop the killer, who delighted in taunting them and whose crimes were clearly escalating in violence from victim to victim. And then the Ripper’s violent spree seemingly ended as abruptly as it had begun. He had struck out of nowhere and then vanished from the scene. Decades passed, then fifty years, then a hundred, and the Ripper’s bloody sexual crimes became anemic and impotent fodder for puzzles, mystery weekends, crime conventions, and so-called “Ripper Walks” that end with pints of ale in the pubs of Whitechapel. But to number-one New York Times bestselling novelist Patricia Cornwell, the Ripper murders are not cute little mysteries to be transformed into parlor games or movies but rather a series of terrible crimes that no one should get away with, even after death. Now Cornwell applies her trademark skills for meticulous research and scientific expertise to dig deeper into the Ripper case than any detective before her—and reveal the true identity of this fabled Victorian killer. In Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed, Cornwell combines the rigorous discipline of twenty-first century police investigation with forensic techniques undreamed of during the late Victorian era to solve one of the most infamous and difficult serial murder cases in history. Drawing on unparalleled access to original Ripper evidence, documents, and records, as well as archival, academic, and law-enforcement resources, FBI profilers, and top forensic scientists, Cornwell reveals that Jack the Ripper was none other than a respected painter of his day, an artist now collected by some of the world’s finest museums: Walter Richard Sickert. It has been said of Cornwell that no one depicts the human capability for evil better than she. Adding layer after layer of circumstantial evidence to the physical evidence discovered by modern forensic science and expert minds, Cornwell shows that Sickert, who died peacefully in his bed in 1942, at the age of 81, was not only one of Great Britain’s greatest painters but also a serial killer, a damaged diabolical man driven by megalomania and hate. She exposes Sickert as the author of the infamous Ripper letters that were written to the Metropolitan Police and the press. Her detailed analysis of his paintings shows that his art continually depicted his horrific mutilation of his victims, and her examination of this man’s birth defects, the consequent genital surgical interventions, and their effects on his upbringing present a casebook example of how a psychopathic killer is created. New information and startling revelations detailed in Portrait of a Killer include: - How a year-long battery of more than 100 DNA tests—on samples drawn by Cornwell’s forensics team in September 2001 from original Ripper letters and Sickert documents—yielded the first shadows of the 75- to 114 year-old genetic evid...

Patricia Cornwell’s novels of big-city police have taken this classic genre to a new level. Now, with this #1 New York Times bestselling novel, she outdoes herself, with a wry tale of life and turmoil behind the blue wall. Chaos breaks loose when the governor of Virginia orders that speed traps be painted on all streets and highways, and warns that speeders will be caught by monitoring aircraft flying overhead. But the eccentric island of Tangier, fourteen miles off the coast of Virginia in Chesapeake Bay, responds by declaring war on its own state. Judy Hammer, newly installed as the superintendent of the Virginia State Police, and Andy Brazil, a state trooper and Hammer’s right hand and confidant, find themselves at their wits’ end as they try to protect the public from the politicians—and vice versa—in this pitch-perfect, darkly comic romp.

Un cadavre décomposé est retrouvé à bord d''un cargo belge faisant étape à Richmond. Malgré une autopsie minutieuse, Kay Scarpetta ne parvient à déterminer ni l''identité du mort ni les causes du décès. Seuls indices : un tatouage et des poils blonds. Encore hantée par la mort de Benton (Combustion), en butte aux intrigues de collègues rivaux, Kay, flanquée de son fidèle Marino, et toujours proche de Lucy, sa nièce, se lance dans une enquête qui la mènera en France, des bureaux lyonnais d''Interpol à la morgue de Paris, avant de la ramener en Virginie où l''attend un tueur monstrueux, le Loup-garou. Le douzième best-seller depuis PostMortem de la star internationale du crime.

Patricia Cornwell has a sixth sense about the men and women in blue. In Hornet''s Nest, her page-turning novel about crime and police in Charlotte, North Carolina, Cornwell moved behind the badges of these real-life heroes to uncover flesh-and-blood characters who strode through her pages to reveal vulnerable, passionate, brave, sometimes doubting, always fascinating figures. In Southern Cross, Cornwell takes us even closer to the personal and professional lives of big-city police, in a story of corruption, scandal, and robberies that escalate to murder. This time, her setting is Richmond, Virginia, where Charlotte Police Chief Judy Hammer has been brought by an NIJ grant to clean up the police force. Reeling from the recent death of her husband, and resented by the police force, city manager, and mayor of Richmond, Hammer is joined by her deputy chief Virginia West and rookie Andy Brazil on the most difficult assignment of her career. In the face of overwhelming public scrutiny, the trio must bring truth, order, and sanity to a city in trouble.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this “gripping” (People) thriller, the clues to a series of remorseless killings go up in smoke—and only Kay Scarpetta can find them. “[Point of Origin] sears its way into the psyche . . . ablaze with Cornwell’s finest, scariest writing.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution IN DEVELOPMENT AS THE ORIGINAL SERIES SCARPETTA STARRING NICOLE KIDMAN AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS The devastating fire tore through the horse farm, destroying everything it touched. Picking through the wreckage, Dr. Kay Scarpetta uncovers human remains—the work of an audacious and wily killer who uses fire to mask his brutal murders. And 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. Tragedy strikes close to home. And Scarpetta must match Grethen’s every move with one of her own to douse the inferno of evil that threatens everyone around her. . . .

Patricia Cornwell turns from forensics to police procedures in Hornet''s Nest. The gritty, heroic life of big-city police is seen through the eyes of three leading crimefighters from Charlotte, North Carolina--Police Chief Judy Hammer, Deputy Chief Virginia West, and ambitious young reporter Andy Brazil.