Cruel and Unusual At 11.05 one December evening in Richmond, Virginia, convicted murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell is pronounced dead in the electric chair.
At the morgue Dr Kay Scarpetta waits for Waddell’s body. Preparing to perform post mortem before the subject is dead is s strange feeling, but Scarpetta has been here before. And Waddell’s death is not the only newsworthy event on this freezing night: the grotesquely wounded body of a young boy is found propped against a rubbish skip. To Scarpetta the two cases seem unrelated, until she recalls that the body of Waddell’s victim had been arranged in a strikingly similar position.
Then a third murder id discovered, the most puzzling of all. The crime scene yields very few clues: old blood stains, fragments of feather, and - most baffling - a bloody fingerprint that points to the one suspect who could not possibly have committed the murder. 'Chillingly detailed forensic thriller confirming Cornwell as the top gun in this field' Daily Telegraph
'This book is another dazzler from the woman who has raised crime writing on to a new plateau' Irish Press
'Perhaps the first entirely credible woman sleuth, Scarpetta is closest to Sherlock Holmes in relying entirely on her brain rather than breaks or brawn to solve baffling cases' Amanda Craig, Independent
Paperback - Warner
All That Remains A killer is stalking young loners. Taking their lives ... and leaning just one tantalizing 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 undetermined.
But when the latest girl to go missing turns out to be the daughter of one of the most powerful women in America, Kay finds herself prey to political pressure and press harassment.
As she starts to investigate, she finds that vital evidence is being withheld from her - or even faked. And all the time a cunning sadistic killer is still at large ... 'Another triumph for Patricia Cornwell's special brew of forensic and intuitive sleuthing' Sunday Times
'Embodies the most enticing kind of expertise and independence' TLS
'Scalpel-sharp ... the pathology is stomach-churningly accurate and the detection stimulatingly intelligent' Sunday Express
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Body of Evidence Someone is stalking Beryl Madison. Someone who spies on her and makes threatening, obscene phone calls.
Terrified, Beryl flees to Key West - but eventually she must return to her Richmond home. The very night she arrives, Beryl inexplicably invites her killer in…
Thus begins for Dr Key Scarpetta the investigation of a crime that is as convoluted as it is bizarre. Why would Beryl open the door to someone who brutally slashed and then neatly decapitated her? Did she know her killer? Adding to the intrigue is Beryl's enigmatic relationship with a prizewinning author and the disappearance of her own manuscript.
As Scarpetta retraces Beryl's footsteps, an investigation that begins in the laboratory with microscopes and lasers leads her deep into a nightmare that soon becomes her own. 'Cornwell is the one to beat when it comes to slick speedy chillers' Sunday Telegraph
'Another cracker of a read ... Body of Evidence vaults her into the top echelon of modem thriller writers' Irish Times
Paperback - Warner
Postmortem A serial killer is on the loose in Richmond, Virginia. Three women have died, brutalised and strangled in their own bedrooms. There is no pattern: the killer appears to strike at random -but always early on Saturday mornings.
So when Dr Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner, is awakened at 2.33 am., she knows the news is bad: there is a fourth victim, and she fears now for those that will follow unless she can dig up new forensic evidence to aid the police.
But not everyone is pleased to see a woman in this powerful job. Someone may even want to ruin her career and reputation... 'Terrific first novel, full of suspense, in which even the scientific bits grip' The Times
'An excellent chiller with pace and tension' Sunday Telegraph
'Dazzling... first-rate' Los Angeles Times
"Cornwell makes looking through a microscope as exciting as a hot-pursuit chase" Washington Post
Cruel and Unusual
Cruel and Unusual