Are you looking for the best Patricia Cornwell books? Worry no more, you’re in the right place!
In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Post Mortem, while working at the Chief Medical Examiner’s office in Richmond, Virginia. an auspicious debut, she went on to win the edgar, creasey, anthony and macavity.
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Becoming an international phenomenon, the scarpetta series won the cornwell sherlock award for best detective created by an american author, the golden dagger award, the rba thriller award, and the knight medal of the order of arts and letters. for her contributions to literary and artistic development.
cornwell was born in miami. grew up in montreat, north carolina, and now lives and works in boston and los angeles.
We reviewed all the books written by Patricia Cornwell for you, and after hours of painstaking research, we bring you some of her best books.
It is not an easy task to find the best books of an author because each book is different from each other. Therefore, we also consider scores based on the sale and reader review of various book rating websites such as Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing, Bookbub, Bookish, etc. to find the best books.
I hope this article on top 10 patricia cornwell books will help you narrow down your choice to make your book selection process easier and faster.
Happy reading!
patricia cornwell’s best books
The 10 best books by Patricia Cornwell are generalized below.
1. postmortem
A serial killer is on the loose in Richmond, Virginia. three women have been killed, brutalized and strangled in their own bedrooms. there is no pattern: the killer seems to attack randomly, but always early on a Saturday morning.
so when dr. Kay Scarpetta, Medical Director, wakes up at 2:33 am, she knows the news is bad: there is a fourth victim. And she now fears for those who will follow her unless she can dig up new forensic evidence to help the police.
But not everyone is happy to see a woman in this powerful job. someone may even want to ruin her career and reputation.
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2. the body farm
The Corpse Farm is a crime novel by Patricia Cornwell. is the fifth book by dr. kay scarpetta series.
Kay Scarpetta is called in to assist in the investigation of the brutal murder of 11-year-old Emily Steiner in rural North Carolina, whose murder is chillingly reminiscent of the work of a serial killer who has eluded the FBI. during years.
Scarpetta teams up with her resourceful and rebellious niece, Lucy, an FBI intern with a promising future at Quantico’s computer engineering facility. To help with the investigation, Scarpetta turns to a clandestine research facility in Tennessee known as the Corpse Farm.
There he finds answers about the murder of Emily Steiner, and evidence that paints a picture of a crime more horrific than he could have imagined.
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3. unnatural exposure
Full of tension and non-stop surprises, Unnatural Exposition is a thrilling chapter in the life of Virginia’s chief medical examiner, Kay Scarpetta, and a triumph for New York Times #1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell.
An elderly woman’s body is found dismembered in a Virginia landfill. Scarpetta initially believes the clues reflect those of a serial killer she has followed before. but upon further investigation, he discovers puzzling smallpox-like rashes on the woman’s body that, perhaps, point in another direction.
When contacted by the killer via email, Scarpetta enlists the help of her computer-savvy niece Lucy to help track this monster through cyberspace. Learning that Virginia’s victim was exposed to a high-tech virus that could trigger an epidemic, Scarpetta realizes she’s dealing with a sophisticated mind.
Her investigation takes her from the government’s Biological Defense Facility in Utah to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and finally to quarantine when it is discovered that Scarpetta has been exposed to this deadly virus.
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Along the way, she’s forced to grapple with the unscrupulous ambitions of a cunning FBI agent, Lucy’s troubles, and her own turbulent feelings for Agent Wesley Benton.
Unnatural Exposure is the eighth book in the Kay Scarpetta series.
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4. flesh and blood
Number one bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the next gripping thriller in her high-stakes series starring Kay Scarpetta – a complex story involving a serial sniper who strikes chillingly close to the forensic detective herself.
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It’s the chief medical examiner, dr. Kay Scarpetta’s birthday, and as he enjoys a quiet morning, a man is shot and killed five minutes from his house. the bullet went through him while he was unloading groceries from his car. however, no one heard or saw anything.
It looks like the work of a serial sniper, one who leaves no trace except small shards of copper, and whose seemingly impossible shots cause instant death. As Scarpetta investigates and uncovers details only she can analyze, she begins to suspect the killer is sending her a message.
Added to Scarpetta’s growing discomfort is the feeling that those closest to her are keeping secrets. And when the sniper’s pursuit of Ella leads Scarpetta to a shipwreck off the Florida coast, she comes face to face with shocking evidence implicating Ella’s niece, Lucy, and Scarpetta’s flesh and blood. /p>
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5. dust
after working on one of the worst mass murders in the us. uu. story, scarpetta returns to her home in cambridge, massachusetts. Exhausted and ill, she is recovering at home when she receives a disturbing call. The body of a young woman has been discovered on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology rugby field.
The victim, a graduate student named Gail Shipman, is oddly dressed in ivory linen and poses too deliberately to be the killer’s first strike. A preliminary examination of the sea of red mud where the body was left also reveals a strange residue that fluoresces blood red, emerald green, and sapphire blue.
Physical evidence links the case to a series of exceptionally bizarre homicides in Washington, D.C., where Scarpetta’s husband, from the FBI, has been sent to help capture a serial killer dubbed the Capital Killer. all the cases are connected and yet they seem to be in conflict. Gail Shipman was murdered for financial gain, or was she?
It will take the usual cast of characters to uncover the truth, including Scarpetta’s partner, Pete Marino, who has undergone a drastic change in his life that puts him center stage in a Cambridge investigation that puts everyone at risk.
You can get this book for free with your audible trial. click here to get this free audiobook with your audible trial.
also read: patricia cornwell books in order
6. cause of death
on a lazy day, away from the hustle and bustle of richmond, in a small cabin on the virginia coast, dr. Kay Scarpetta receives a disturbing phone call from the Chesapeake police. Thirty feet in the murky waters of Virginia’s Elizabeth River, the body of a diver is discovered near the dormant Naval Shipyard.
As the police begin to search for clues, investigative reporter Ted Eddings’ wallet is found. Nervous about the possible identity of the victim, Scarpetta orders the crime scene cordoned off and left alone until she arrives.
what was he doing there, looking for civil war relics like the officer suggested, or was there a bigger story? As he sifts through the multitude of clues, a second murder strikes much closer to home. This new development puts Scarpetta and his colleagues on the trail of a military conspiracy.
Full of lurid details that legions of cornwell fans have come to expect, the cause of death is an impressive mystery. Cause of Death is the seventh book in the Kay Scarpetta series.
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7. the last enclosure
Scarpetta’s eleventh novel, in which the chief medical examiner is being investigated by a grand jury for murder. she knows that she is being framed and she no longer knows who she can trust.
physically and psychologically hurt by his encounter with the chandonne killer, dr. Kay Scarpetta has to leave his house in the hands of the police team investigating the attack.
He finds refuge with an old friend, Anna Zenner, but it’s not the safe haven he needs when he discovers that Anna has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury investigating Scarpetta for murder. Ella Kay knows she’s being framed and she knows she can’t trust anyone.
Meanwhile, it appears that Chandonne killed a woman in New York before his Virginia murder spree, but when Scarpetta takes a closer look at the case with New York District Attorney Jaime Berger, proof of his guilt is far away. to be true; in fact, she begins to believe that she cannot be the author of any of the crimes that are imputed to her.
As she follows the forensic trail to the real killer, she gradually realizes that someone has been spinning a web for years with the goal of catching her. who is she and why are they so desperate to get rid of her?
You can get this book for free with your audible trial. click here to get this free audiobook with your audible trial.
8. chasing the ripper
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From new york times bestselling author patricia cornwell comes ripper: the secret life of walter sickert, a comprehensive and intriguing exposition of one of the world’s most chilling serial murder cases, and the police force that doesn’t managed to solve it.
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walter sickert, vain and charismatic, made a name for himself as a painter in victorian london. But the macabre nature of his art, as well as ample evidence, point to another name, one that has left its bloody mark on the pages of history: Jack the Ripper.
Cornwell has collected never-before-seen archival material, including a rare mortuary photo, personal correspondence and a will with a mysterious autopsy clause, and has applied cutting-edge forensic science to open up an old crime to new scrutiny. .
Incorporating material from Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper – Case Closed, this new edition has been revised and expanded to include eight new chapters.
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9. depraved heart
Patricia Cornwell, the number one New York Times bestselling author, delivers the riveting 23rd thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner dr. kay scarpetta.
dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when an emergency alert sounds on his phone. A video link lands in his text message and appears to be from his computer genius niece, Lucy. but as it may be it’s clearly surveillance footage of lucy taken nearly twenty years ago.
As Scarpetta watches, she begins to uncover terrifying secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That movie clip and then others sent shortly after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta, leaving her confused, worried and not knowing where to turn.
She doesn’t know who she can tell, not her FBI husband, Benton Wesley, or her fellow investigator, 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, the wreckage of a plane at the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a creepy present left in the back of a crime scene truck and videos from the past that threaten to destroy the entire world for scarpetta and everyone she loves.
The diabolical presence behind what is happening seems obvious, but strangely, not to the fbi. That’s certainly the message they send when they raid Lucy’s estate and start building a case that could land her in prison for the rest of her life.
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10. quantum
International bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers thrilling thrills in a series featuring a brilliant and unusual new heroine, cutting-edge cyber technology, and astronomically high stakes.
On the eve of a top-secret space mission, Captain Calli Chase spots an alarm going off in the tunnels beneath a NASA research facility. Calli, a NASA pilot, quantum physicist, and cybercrime investigator, knows that a brewing blizzard and government shutdown could provide the perfect cover for a sabotage, with deadly consequences.
Turns out the danger is worse than I thought. A splatter of dried blood, a missing security plate, a suspicious suicide: a series of disturbing clues point to Calli’s twin sister, Carme, who has been mine for days.
Desperate to stop the countdown to disaster and clear her sister’s name, Captain Chase digs deep into her vast knowledge of cybersecurity and her painful past, searching for answers to her twin’s erratic behavior.
As time runs out, he realizes that failure spells catastrophe, not just for the space program, but for the security of the entire nation.
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