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True Crime
A Memoir
Brief Description
The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell finally tells the story that rivals all of the works that precede it: her own.Patricia Cornwell is best known for her international bestselling thriller series about forensic pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta. Every story comes from somewhere, and Scarpetta's...
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True Crime
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Description
The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell finally tells the story that rivals all of the works that precede it: her own.Patricia Cornwell is best known for her international bestselling thriller series about forensic pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta. Every story comes from somewhere, and Scarpetta's began when Patricia Cornwell embedded herself in a morgue. In this achingly honest memoir, Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas day, her mother being institutionalised twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham's wife Ruth. Cornwell depicts a harrowing hospitalisation and near-death car accident. She unflinchingly shares overcoming obstacles that later gave her the ambition to become an award-winning police reporter. From there it was research in a medical examiner's office that would turn into a full-time job. She would become a forensic expert and worldwide publishing phenomenon.Cornwell leaves no stone unturned in this deeply candid account of her life, offering inspiring insight into what made her into the international sensation she is today.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781408725054
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 05 May 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Sphere
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 22.0mm
Width: 153.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 464
About the Author
In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventures - the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. Growing into an international phenomenon, the Scarpetta series won Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development.
Today, Cornwell's novels and iconic characters are known around the world. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written the definitive nonfiction account of Jack the Ripper's identity, cookbooks, a children's book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and three other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano, Andy Brazil, and Captain Callie Chase. Cornwell continues exploring the latest space-age technologies and threats relevant to contemporary life. Her interests range from the morgue to artificial intelligence and include visits to Interpol, the Pentagon, the U.S. Secret Service and NASA. Cornwell was born in Miami. She grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston.Also by Patricia Cornwell
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Postmortem
A serial killer is on the loose in Richmond, Virginia. Three women have died, brutalised and strangled in their own bedroom. There is no pattern: the killer appears to strike at random, but always early on Saturday mornings. So when Dr Kay Scarpetta, chief medical officer, is awakened at 2.33 am, she knows the news is bad: there is a...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Predator
Florida is full of human predators, and they all give Dr Kay Scarpetta the opportunity and the means to do what she does bestโpersuading the dead to speak to her. In Boston, Benton Wesley is working on a secret case involving convicted killers. It is a project which gives Scarpetta deep disquiet, as does the behaviour of her niece, Lucy,...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Identity Unknown
THE THRILLING NEW KAY SCARPETTA MYSTERY FROM THE WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER Iconic. Bold. Brilliant. Identity Unknown is hauntingly original, impossibly clever and devilishly daring. Scalpel-sharp storytelling, trademark twists and characters that feel like family, this series is one of the all-time greats' CHRIS WHITAKER, author of Sunday Times bestseller All the Colours of the Dark Summoned to an unnerving, abandoned theme...Paperback$2900Elsewhere:$5999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Autopsy
Scarpetta is back! In this twenty-fifth entry 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,...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Postmortem
The first book in the Kay Scarpetta series, from No. 1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell - coming soon to Prime Video. A serial killer is on the loose in Richmond, Virginia. Three women have died, brutalised and strangled in their own bedroom. There is no pattern: the killer appears to strike at random - but always early on Saturday mornings....Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Sharp Force
NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE SERIAL KILLER NOT EVEN SCARPETTA... During the early hours of Christmas morning, chief medical examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta receives a chilling call. The Phantom Slasher has struck again. The serial killer has terrorised Northern Virginia for months. His pattern is to stalk with sophisticated technology that enables him to invade his victims' homes and...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Book Of The Dead
The Book of the Dead is the morgue log, the ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to have a new meaning. Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
All That Remains
A killer is stalking young lovers. Taking their lives ... and leaving just one tantalising clue ... When the bodies of young courting couples start turning up in remote woodland areas, Dr Kay Scarpetta's task as Chief Medical Examiner is made more difficult by the effects of the elements. Eight times she must write that the cause of death is...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Depraved Heart
No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the twenty-third engrossing thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is described as "an awesome force in the field of forensic science" by the New York Times Book Review. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when an...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2699Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips late August -
Chaos
Fear is a force of nature. No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the twenty-fourth engrossing thriller in her 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...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2699Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips late August -
The Bone Bed
The twentieth book in the Kay Scarpetta series, from No. 1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell. 'America's most chilling writer of crime fiction' The Times 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...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Sharp Force
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! From #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell, a serial killer wreaks havoc on Northern Virginia, appearing as a ghostly apparition before strikingโand Scarpetta must avoid becoming their next victim. Scarpetta is soon to be a streaming series starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis! No one is safe from the serial killerโnot...Paperback$7600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks
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