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.
I'm still seeing stars. A great thriller. One of the hardest things as a series writer is keeping your famous heroes fresh year after year. Kay Scarpetta is not only still fresh, she's the same grumpy, wonderful, riveting personality she's always been - a full-on human being - and she's only getting better with time. I love catching up with her every year -- JAMES PATTERSON Riveting * THE TIMES * Cornwell knows how to craft a mean page-turner and Livid is no exception * TELEGRAPH * More than thirty years and twenty-six Scarpetta books later, Cornwell is still knocking it out of the park * LOVEREADING * Gripping . . . Sound the klaxon, Patricia Cornwell's brilliant chief medical examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta is back * HEAT * Post-mortem scenes that [will] make fans of this long-running series salivate . . . Something to look forward to * KIRKUS * This is Scarpetta's 26th outing and the plotting remains every bit as fresh as when we were introduced to her * BELFAST TELEGRAPH * PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL * - * One of the best crime writers writing today * GUARDIAN * Astonishing . . . Thirty years on, there's still no other crime writer like her * SUNDAY TIMES * The top gun in this field * DAILY TELEGRAPH * America's most stimulating and chilling writer of crime fiction * THE TIMES * Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns * MIRROR * A pioneer of the genre of forensic psychological thriller -- BBC The Agatha Christie of the DNA age * EXPRESS * The queen of the forensic thriller * MAIL ON SUNDAY * Cutting-edge * SUN * When it comes to forensic sciences, nobody can touch Cornwell * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW * Slick, fast-paced and brilliant * HEAT *