Reprinted from Spring 1994, Volume 2, Issue #4
Patricia D. Cornwell is the award-winning (Gold Dagger, Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, Macavity, and French Prix du Roman d'Aventure) author of four Dr. Kay Scarpetta novels, Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All That Remains, and Cruel and Unusual.
Most Cornwell fans know that she worked as a computer analyst for six years at the Virginia Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Richmond before writing her first novel,Postmortem. Many also know that prior to her stint with the medical examiner's office, she spent two years of police reporting for The Charlotte Observer, where she won an award for investigative reporting. In the on-going series that features forensic specialist, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell notes that research is very important. She has witnessed hundreds of autopsies, attended countless medical school lectures, worked as a volunteer police officer and trained intensively at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia (just like Jodie Foster did for "Silence of the Lambs"). "If I want a character to do or know something," she says, "I try to do or know the same thing."
In an interview following the publication of All That Remains, the third novel in the Scarpetta series, Cornwell noted that she intersperses writing with research, having recently attended a forensic pathology practicum at Quantico, and a homicide investigation school in Baltimore.
"Many homicides are investigated in the laboratories, fibers, biological samples, hairs, injuries, weapons and the staging of a scene are very telling details that can point to the offender. It used to be that everyone prayed for a fingerprint. Now microscopic evidence and the more bizarre--such as bugs and vegetable debris--can be interpreted as signposts along the trail. DNA can tell us who committed the crime. . .Theoretically DNA can even tell us if Abraham Lincoln was healthy when he was assassinated."
Some readers may have heard that Postmortem was the "inspiration" for a real copycat crime. Cornwell responded to this situation by explaining, "It is a very bad moment when it appears that your work may have inspired a violent act. However, I realize that the offender would have been inspired by something--television, a movie, a novel, a magazine, the Bible. You must remember, a normal person does not read a crime novel and suddenly decide to kill the girl next door."
In her forthcoming book (The Body Farm, Scribners, October 1994 $23), Cornwell has apparently dropped the "D." from her name and made a few changes to Kay Scarpetta, as well. Scarpetta is a consulting forensic pathologist for the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit now, and she travels to rural western North Carolina to investigate the murder of an eleven-year-old girl. Scarpetta must rely on the medical and laboratory reports to track this serial killer. Unfortunately, the "facts" don't add up correctly.
Cornwell indicated that one reason for Scarpetta becoming a consultant to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit is that it allows the doctor to become involved in cases throughout the United States and the world.
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