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Patricia Cornwell

Early Life

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

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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
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.

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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

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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

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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."

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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”:

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

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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”:

“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”:

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

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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.

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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.