After a successful decades-long career as a forensic thriller writer, Patricia Cornwell (Scarpetta) shares her own story in her first memoir, True Crime. Cornwell begins with her challenging childhood and her move from Florida to North Carolina. She recounts her parents' separation, her mother's multiple hospitalizations, and her lifelong friendship with Ruth Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham and the subject of Cornwell's first published book, Ruth, A Portrait. Cornwell recounts several failed attempts at novels and the work that went into developing Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner for Virginia and protagonist of nearly 30 of Cornwell's novels.
Cornwell narrates her time as a crime reporter, shadowing a medical examiner, and encountering a man on trial for serial killings--a fascinating look into the development of a genre. With a straightforward voice, Cornwell opens up her world, frankly addressing events in the same way she dissects them in her Scarpetta novels. She does not shy away from divulging mistakes, including a car crash in California that nearly killed her and resulted in a conviction for drunk driving.
Thorough and detailed regarding her early years, the memoir speeds up in adulthood as Cornwell's fame increased. She whisks readers through two marriages, the publication of dozens of novels, friendships with Senator Orrin Hatch and the Bush family, and her experiences visiting a body farm, flying helicopters, meeting Princess Margaret, and investigating Jack the Ripper. Engrossing and full of surprising tidbits, True Crime is essential for forensic thriller buffs. --Alyssa Parssinen, freelance reviewer and former bookseller