Kay Scarpetta Books in Order

At the beginning of the series, in Postmortem, Kay Scarpetta is Virginia’s chief medical examiner in Richmond. To help with investigations, she performs autopsies, works in the forensic lab and visits crime scenes.

Each Kay Scarpetta book has its own case that is usually resolved by the end of the story. Scarpetta’s career and her relationships with Pete Marino, Benton Wesley and her niece Lucy Farinelli continue throughout the series. Villains from earlier books also reappear in later stories, sometimes with major consequences for the characters.

As the series continues, Scarpetta leaves Richmond, works as a private consultant, undertakes federal work and serves as a medical examiner outside Virginia before eventually returning. This is why reading the books in publication order is the best way to follow the changes in Scarpetta’s career, her return to Virginia, her relationships with friends and colleagues and the cases she goes back to in later books.

This page includes all the novels, the shorter Scarpetta’s Winter Table and the confirmed next book. It also explains where to begin reading if you’ve watched the Scarpetta television series.

For Patricia Cornwell’s other series and nonfiction books, see Patricia Cornwell Books in Order.

Next Kay Scarpetta Book

• Rapid and Fatal (Kay Scarpetta #30) – January 19, 2027

Where Should You Start with the Books After Watching the Scarpetta TV Series?

Start with Postmortem, then read Body of Evidence and continue with the books in publication order.

The first season of the TV series makes the reading order look more complicated than it actually is. It combines Postmortem, the first Scarpetta novel, and Autopsy, book 25, and moves between two investigations 28 years apart. The earlier part is based on the serial murder case in Postmortem, while the present-day story takes its material from Autopsy. The television writers connect the two cases as part of the same main story.

However, that connection does not exist in the books. Here, Autopsy does not continue the murder investigation from Postmortem. It was published 31 years later, with 23 Scarpetta novels in between, and it starts a separate investigation after Kay has returned to Virginia as chief medical examiner.

In the meantime, a lot happens during those 23 books. Scarpetta leaves Virginia and works elsewhere before eventually returning. Lucy is now an adult, and Scarpetta’s relationships with Marino and Benton change as well along with their careers. People and events that took place in previous books sometimes return later in the series. If you jump straight from Postmortem to Autopsy, you meet the same main characters at two very different points in their lives with no continuity of what exactly happened in the middle.

As they are two source novels for the series, you can still read Postmortem followed by Autopsy if you only want the two books used for the first television season. But I would not use them as a reading order for the Scarpetta books themselves.

The second season will use Cruel and Unusual and The Body Farm, books four and five. If you are following the novels, keep going in publication order instead: Body of Evidence is book two, All That Remains is book three, followed by Cruel and Unusual and The Body Farm.

Kay Scarpetta Books in Publication Order

The list below follows the publication order. Scarpetta’s Winter Table was published between Point of Origin and Black Notice, but it is an optional novella/cookbook and does not change the official numbering of the novels.

1. Postmortem, 1990
2. Body of Evidence, 1991
3. All That Remains, 1992
4. Cruel and Unusual, 1993
5. The Body Farm, 1994
6. From Potter’s Field, 1995
7. Cause of Death, 1996
8. Unnatural Exposure, 1997
9. Point of Origin, 1998
10. Scarpetta’s Winter Table, 1998 (optional novella with recipes and photographs)
11. Black Notice, 1999
12. The Last Precinct, 2000
13. Blow Fly, 2003
14. Trace, 2004
15. Predator, 2005
16. Book of the Dead, 2007
17. Scarpetta, 2008
18. The Scarpetta Factor, 2009
19. Port Mortuary, 2010
20. Red Mist, 2011
21. The Bone Bed, 2012
22. Dust, 2013
23. Flesh and Blood, 2014
24. Depraved Heart, 2015
25. Chaos, 2016
26. Autopsy, 2021
27. Livid, 2022
28. Unnatural Death, 2023
29. Identity Unknown, 2024
30. Sharp Force, 2025
31. Rapid and Fatal, 2027 (forthcoming January 19)

Reading notes:

• Cruel and Unusual, The Body Farm and From Potter’s Field form an early three-book arc involving Temple Gault.
• The Last Precinct is the direct sequel of Black Notice, and Blow Fly continues important events and characters from those books.
• Autopsy was published after a five-year break, but it remains book 25 of the series.

Where Does Scarpetta’s Winter Table Fit?

Scarpetta’s Winter Table was published in 1998 after Point of Origin and before Black Notice, which is why it is #9.5 in the list. It is a short Christmas story about Scarpetta, Marino and Lucy, and it also has recipes and photographs from their holiday weekend.

It is an optional story in the series with no murder investigations to solve. You can easily skip it and read Black Notice right after Point of Origin without missing out on anything.

Patricia Cornwell later published Food to Die For: Secrets from Kay Scarpetta’s Kitchen, a separate companion cookbook based on food mentioned in the Scarpetta series.

Forensic Pathology in the Kay Scarpetta Books

Forensic pathology is the medical specialty at the center of a medicolegal death investigation. A forensic pathologist performs autopsies and uses what is known about the body, the scene and other evidence such as toxicology to determine the cause of death and whether the manner of death is natural, accident, suicide, homicide or undetermined. This is the branch of forensic science that is at the heart of the Kay Scarpetta series.

During her job, Scarpetta not only examines bodies after they arrive at the morgue but also takes part in recovering remains and performs autopsies, then compares what she finds on and inside the body with evidence from the scene and laboratory, and visits crime scenes. She can then find important clues about injuries, changes that occur after death and very small traces that can help understand whether the condition of the body matches with what the investigators initially believed to have happened. For example, the injuries may not match the events that were described, toxicology can show what is in the victim’s body, and trace material can suggest that the body came into contact with another place or was moved.

The books also bring other forensic fields into Scarpetta’s cases. The Body Farm uses research into human decomposition, Unnatural Exposure involves a rare infectious disease and Trace depends heavily on tiny pieces of physical evidence. Scarpetta usually works with police investigators, laboratory specialists and federal agencies, and Benton Wesley and Lucy Farinelli help later cases with forensic psychology and computer investigation. At times, Scarpetta also becomes involved in the actual search for the killer.

As time passes, forensic science changes too over the years. Postmortem was published in 1990 and used forensic methods and technology that were new at the time. By Port Mortuary, Scarpetta has been training at the Dover Port Mortuary in CT-assisted virtual autopsies while serving as chief of the Cambridge Forensic Center. Later books also involve digital evidence, surveillance and other newer technology. The tools change, but the medical investigation of death remains the most important part of her work.

The forensic detail can be graphic. Patricia Cornwell describes wounds, damaged and decomposing bodies and parts of the autopsy itself. While reading, we can follow much of Scarpetta’s examination as she figures out what happened to the victim. This makes the books more detailed about death investigation than a usual police procedural.

That is also what separates the series from other types of forensic crime fiction. Scarpetta sometimes works with bones, decomposition and trace evidence, but when she comes face to face with a suspicious death, she examines the body as a forensic pathologist first. In forensic anthropology or archaeology, the main work can start with skeletal remains or a burial site, while a crime-lab series may focus more heavily on the physical traces recovered from a scene.

More Books by Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell also writes the Andy Brazil, Win Garano and Captain Chase series, as well as nonfiction, cookbooks and a picture book. See Patricia Cornwell Books in Order for her complete catalogue and recommended reading order.