The Intrepid Dr Kay Scarpetta

Patricia Cornwell's Fictional Chief Medical Examiner

Jan 1, 2008

Dr Kay Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell's fictional Chief Medical Examiner has made forensic science a sizzling hot topic of conversation and sold millions of books.

Dr Kay Scarpetta is a Fictional Character

Dr Kay Scarpetta, a Medical Examiner, is a fictional character. She is the protagonist in a series of crime novels written by Patricia Cornwell. The series is noted for the use of up to date forensic technology in Scarpetta's investigations.

Patricia Cornwell Makes Publishing History with Postmortem

Patricia Cornwell published her first novel Postmortem in 1990. Initially rejected by seven major publishing houses, Postmortem, featuring Dr Kay Scarpetta was the first novel to win the Edgar, Creasy, Anthony and Macavity awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Adventurei, in a single year.

In another record, on 1 March 1996, six of Patricia Cornwell's books were on the USA Today list of the 25 most best-selling mystery books to date:

1. The Body Farm
2. From Potter's Field
8. Postmortem
14. Cruel & Unusual
15. Body of Evidence
24. All That Remains.

Following the success of her first novel, Patricia Cornwell has written a string of bestselling books featuring Dr Kay Scarpetta, her detective sidekick Pete Marino, her volatile whiz-kid niece, Lucy and Benton Wesley, the FBI Profiler who becomes Dr Kay Scarpetta’s lover.

Background of Dr Kay Scarpetta

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is of Italian decent and was born in Miami, Florida. She is blonde and a sharp dresser, although always professional. Kay Scarpetta is a perfectionist, an incredibly hard worker who loves to cook Italian food and has a beautiful, custom-built kitchen in her home. She drives a Mercedes Benz.

The Men in Kay Scarpetta’s Life - Tony Benedetti, Mark James, Benton Wesley

She was married once, to Tony Benedetti; they divorced about six years before the beginning of the first novel Postmortem. Since then she has had a serious relationship with Mark James, who dies in a bombing on the London tube station in the novel Cruel and Unusual and later has a long-time affair with FBI Agent, Benton Wesley.

Where Scarpetta Lives

In the early novels Dr Kay Scarpetta is the Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Virginia, and works in Richmond. She resigns after the events of The Last Precinct and relocates to Florida to become a private forensic consultant. Dr Kay Scarpetta returns to Virginia in Trace. In Predator, Scarpetta becomes the head of the National Forensic Academy in Hollywood, Florida, a private institution founded by her now wealthy niece Lucy Farinelli. In Book of the Dead, Kay Scarpetta has relocated as a freelance forensic examiner/expert to Charleston, South Carolina.

Important People in Dr Kay Scarpetta’s Life

Lucy Farinelli - The Mercurial Niece

Lucy is first introduced in Postmortem as a precocious 10 year old, the only child of Kay's irresponsible, narcissistic sister, Dorothy. Lucy adores Kay and despises her own mother. She is a computer wizard and has very few friends. Lucy is a lesbian, she is brilliant, she is a risk taker and she always seems to be getting into trouble. Lucy makes her first million selling search engines before she is 25 and spends her money starting her own training center—the National Forensic Academy, in Hollywood, Florida.

Pete Marino - The Homicide Detective

In the earlier books of the series, Pete Marino worked as a homicide detective for the Richmond police department, eventually rising to the rank of Captain. Physically, Pete is big and balding. His high blood pressure, heavy smoking, and borderline alcoholism trouble Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Pete Marino is an excellent detective and a good friend to Kay and Lucy. He joins Kay Scarpetta and Lucy Farinelli at the National Forensic Academy after retiring from the police force in Predator.

Benton Wesley - the FBI Profiler

Benton Wesley is an FBI profiler. He and Scarpetta work together professionally on many different cases. As their relationship progresses, they end up having an affair, which goes on for years. In Point of Origin Benton disappears. In Blow Fly it is later revealed that he is not dead, but had been hiding for years in order to trap a serial killer: