10 Best Patricia Cornwell Books from the Kay Scarpetta Series

by

patricia cornwell books blog post image

Patricia Cornwell is a best-selling crime writer known for her novels featuring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.

Her first novel in the Scarpetta series, Postmortem, was inspired by a series of sensational murders in Richmond, Virginia, which is where most of the books in the series take place.

Cornwell’s books have sold over 100 million copies, and she’s even begun her own new research into the Jack the Ripper Killings.

10 Best Patricia Cornwell Books

Below are 10 of the best Patricia Cornwell books according to Goodreads, plus a look at her most recent novel published in November 2021.

1. Cruel & Unusual (1993)

In this fourth installment in the Scarpetta saga, medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is called to perform an autopsy on a convicted murderer and rapist, Ronnie Waddell, after his execution.

But after his autopsy, Waddell’s fingerprints are found at another crime scene. Scarpetta must uncover how a dead inmate could have possibly committed another murder after his death, and she’ll seek the help of her 17-year-old niece, who discovers a strange folder on her computer.

2. The Body Farm (1994)

Dr. Kay Scarpetta travels to a sleepy little town in North Carolina to investigate the murder of an 11-year-old girl, but the evidence does not add up.

To find answers, she must conduct a gruesome experiment at a remote research facility known as “The Body Farm,” which tests the decomposition of corpses.

3. Body of Evidence (1991)

After months of menacing phone calls and a terrifying message scratched into her car, reclusive author Beryl Madison returns to Richmond. But with so many threats coming her way, why would she deactivate her burglar alarm and open her door to someone who nearly decapitates her?

When the slain author is found, Dr. Scarpetta must piece together the forensic evidence, and figure out why Madison’s latest manuscript is also missing.

4. All That Remains (1992)

In Richmond, Virginia, four young couples have disappeared, only to be found months later as mutilated corpses.

When the daughter of the president’s newest drug czar vanishes with her boyfriend, Dr. Scarpetta knows time is limited. To catch the killer, she’ll have to follow a grim trail of evidence that ties the present homicides to a grisly crime in the past .

5. Point of Origin (1998)

After a fire destroys a farmhouse, Dr. Kay Scarpetta discovers human remains among the wreckage—the work of an audacious killer masks his brutal murders with fire.

Then, Scarpetta learns that her old nemesis, Carrie Grethen, has escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is somehow involved. She’ll have to match Grethen’s every move with one of her own to finally put out the bloody blaze.

6. Unnatural Exposure (1997)

When a woman’s dismembered body is discovered in a landfill, Dr. Kay Scarpetta suspects it’s the work of a serial killer she’s been tracking.

But her investigation soon takes a more dangerous turn, as she realizes the victim’s skin is covered in an unusual rash, pitting Scarpetta against a possible bioterrorist and deadly virus.

7. From Potter’s Field (1995)

It’s the holiday season, but it’s anything but festive for Dr. Scarpetta. Upon examining a dead woman found nude in snowy Central Park, Scarpetta immediately recognizes the grisly work of her nemesis, Temple Brooks Gault.

She soon realizes that Gault’s murders are a violent chain that seem to be leading up to one ultimate kill—Scarpetta herself.

8. Cause of Death (1996)

On the last day of Virginia’s bloodiest year since the Civil War, Dr. Kay Scarpetta plunges into the murky depths of a ship graveyard in the Elizabeth River to recover the remains of Ted Eddings, an investigative reporter.

What kind of story was Eddings chasing in the icy river, and why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified? She soon discovers that Eddings’ murder is just the first layer of a much deeper conspiracy that will test her criminal and forensic knowledge like never before.

9. Blow Fly (2003)


Just as she’s settling into her new life as a private forensic consultant, Dr. Kay Scarpetta is tasked with investigating a cold case in Louisiana that’s eight years old.

Then she receives news that Jean-Baptiste Chandonne—the vicious Wolfman who pursued her to her very doorstep—has made a request to see her from his cell on death row. What kind of endgame does the mad man have in mind, and is it related to the current case?

10. Black Notice (1999)

When a stowaway’s remains are found on a cargo ship from Belgium, the decomposed body offers Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta no clues to its identity or the cause of death.

But an odd tattoo soon leads her to Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, France, and right towards a confrontation with one of the most savage killers she’s ever faced in her career.

What Is the Latest Scarpetta Novel?

Autopsy, the 25th and most recent addition to the Scarpetta saga, was just released on November 30, 2021.

It brings forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta nearly full circle, as she returns to Virginia as the chief medical examiner.

After just weeks on the job, she’s called to a scene by railroad tracks where a woman’s body has been shockingly displayed, sending Scarpetta on a trail that leads unnervingly close to her own historic neighborhood.

At the same time, she’s appointed to the highly classified Doomsday Commission after a catastrophe endangers at least two scientists in a top-secret laboratory in outer space. But even as she tries to remotely work the first potential crime scene in space, an apparent serial killer strikes again close to home. 

Do you have a favorite Patricia Cornwell novel? Share it with us in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like: