Patricia Cornwell Books in Order
Patricia Cornwell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Kay Scarpetta books, which began with Postmortem in 1990. She worked first as a technical writer and then as a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. Here she came into contact with autopsies and forensic laboratories. She started writing Postmortem during this time.
The novel, which introduces Kay Scarpetta, won the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventures. The Scarpetta books helped establish forensic pathology as an important part of modern crime fiction. Her books have since sold more than 120 million copies in 36 languages, and the Scarpetta novels were adapted into the television series Scarpetta in 2026.
Kay Scarpetta starts the series as Virginia’s chief medical examiner and a forensic pathologist in Richmond, who often starts her investigations with a body to examine. She performs autopsies, examines injuries and toxicology results, goes to crime scenes and checks whether what happened to the victim matches the current investigation findings.
The Scarpetta books remain Patricia Cornwell’s main series, but she has also written the Andy Brazil, Win Garano, and Captain Calli Chase series, books about Jack the Ripper, other nonfiction, cookbooks, and a picture book. This page lists the Patricia Cornwell books in order and explains where to start with her novels and how the 2026 television adaptation is connected to the series.
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Latest Patricia Cornwell Books
Publication date: May 5, 2026
Next Patricia Cornwell Book:
- Rapid and Fatal (Kay Scarpetta #30) – January 19, 2027
Where to Start with Patricia Cornwell
- Start the Kay Scarpetta series with the first book, Postmortem. It introduces Kay Scarpetta in her role as Virginia’s chief medical examiner and her relationships with Pete Marino, Benton Wesley and her niece Lucy Farinelli. The books are best read in publication order because the characters’ lives continue from one novel to the next.
- If you’re coming from the Scarpetta television series, you should still start with Postmortem. The first season uses material from Postmortem and Autopsy, but Autopsy is book 25 and takes place decades later in the characters’ lives. Starting there would skip years of character history.
- The Andy Brazil series starts with Hornet’s Nest and brings together reporter and volunteer police officer Andy Brazil, Police Chief Judy Hammer and Deputy Chief Virginia West. The three books are more satirical and humorous than the Scarpetta novels and should be read in order because the characters’ roles and relationships change.
- For the Win Garano series, start with At Risk, where we meet Massachusetts state investigator Win Garano as he uses newer DNA technology to investigate an old murder.
- Start the Captain Calli Chase series with Quantum. These techno-thrillers are very different from Patricia Cornwell’s forensic crime novels. Calli is a NASA pilot, quantum physicist and cybercrime investigator who works on national-security cases involving advanced technology.
The four series are independent of each other, so you can start with any of them. Within the Scarpetta series, however, publication order is strongly recommended. Each book has its own main investigation, but recurring villains and major events involving Scarpetta, Benton, Marino and Lucy continue into later books. Reading the newer books first may reveal the outcomes of storylines that the earlier books have not yet resolved.
Kay Scarpetta Series (Books in Order)
Several early Kay Scarpetta novels start with a body in Richmond which raises the question of how they died. Scarpetta is Virginia’s chief medical examiner, and she performs autopsies, studies injuries, checks toxicology and other lab results. Sometimes all it takes is an injury that doesn’t fit the cause of death, trace evidence left on the body, or something about the crime scene that doesn’t quite make sense. The books are often more graphic than many police procedurals as they often describe injuries, decomposition and postmortem examinations quite in detail.
Scarpetta often works with Richmond detective Pete Marino, and FBI profiler Benton Wesley, and her niece Lucy Farinelli are also becoming more important over the years as she leaves Richmond, works in private and federal positions, directs the Cambridge Forensic Center and eventually returns to Virginia as chief medical examiner.
The author keeps up with the changes in technology in the series, as the later novels introduce more advanced technology, cases involving cybercrimes and national security, however, what doesn’t change is Scarpetta’s work as a forensic pathologist.
- Postmortem, 1990
- Body of Evidence, 1991
- All That Remains, 1992
- Cruel and Unusual, 1993
- The Body Farm, 1994
- From Potter’s Field, 1995
- Cause of Death, 1996
- Unnatural Exposure, 1997
- Point of Origin, 1998
- Scarpetta’s Winter Table, 1998 (novella with recipes and photographs)
- Black Notice, 1999
- The Last Precinct, 2000
- Blow Fly, 2003
- Trace, 2004
- Predator, 2005
- Book of the Dead, 2007
- Scarpetta, 2008
- The Scarpetta Factor, 2009
- Port Mortuary, 2010
- Red Mist, 2011
- The Bone Bed, 2012
- Dust, 2013
- Flesh and Blood, 2014
- Depraved Heart, 2015
- Chaos, 2016
- Autopsy, 2021
- Livid, 2022
- Unnatural Death, 2023
- Identity Unknown, 2024
- Sharp Force, 2025
- Rapid and Fatal, 2027
Andy Brazil Series (Books in Order)
Andy Brazil is a young reporter who starts the series working for The Charlotte Observer and volunteers with the police. This gives him access to police work and investigations while he is still a reporter. He has a close relationship with Police Chief Judy Hammer and Deputy Chief Virginia West.
The series moves from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Richmond and other parts of Virginia. In Southern Cross, Hammer, West and Brazil are in Richmond, where Hammer has been brought in to reform a troubled police department.
By Isle of Dogs, she is superintendent of the Virginia State Police and Brazil has become a state trooper and her trusted assistant. The series is much more humorous than the Kay Scarpetta books, mixing crime and police work with political satire, eccentric characters and increasingly absurd situations.
- Hornet’s Nest, 1996
- Southern Cross, 1998
- Isle of Dogs, 2001
Win Garano Series (Books in Order)
The Win Garano series follows Massachusetts state investigator Winston “Win” Garano, who works for the ambitious district attorney Monique Lamont. Monique is ambitious and often chooses her cases mainly for the attention and publicity they could bring her office, so she can advance her political career.
Garano is in the difficult situation of not only having to investigate cases but also work out what she is really asking him to do and what she is trying to achieve.
In At Risk, Garano is recalled from the National Forensic Academy to investigate an unsolved twenty-year-old Tennessee murder using newer DNA technology. In The Front, Lamont sends him into another old case in Watertown for an old case that she can use in her PR campaign. Garano has his own suspicions about her reasons, however.
The two books have separate investigations, but Garano’s difficult working relationship with Lamont continues directly from the first book.
Captain Chase Series (Books in Order)
Callisto “Calli” Chase is a NASA pilot, quantum physicist and cybercrime investigator working at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. In Quantum, a security alarm in the tunnels beneath the research center brings her to a suspicious death that involves a missing security badge. The evidence points toward her missing identical twin sister, Carme, a military pilot, as a top-secret mission approaches.
Spin continues the story after a NASA launch goes badly wrong and the two sisters finally meet. The two techno-thriller books should be read in order as Spin is a direct sequel to the story in Quantum.
Picture Book
- Life’s Little Fable, 1999
Non-Fiction Books
Biography and Memoir
- A Time for Remembering, 1983 (Reissued as An Uncommon Friend: The Authorized Biography of Ruth Bell Graham in 1996 and Ruth, A Portrait: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham in 1997)
- True Crime: A Memoir, 2026
Jack the Ripper Books
- Portrait Of A Killer: Jack the Ripper – Case Closed, 2002
- Chasing the Ripper, 2014 (Kindle Single)
- Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert, 2017 (revised and expanded from Portrait of a Killer)
Cookbooks
- Scarpetta’s Winter Table, 1998 (also a Kay Scarpetta novella, listed above as 9.5)
- Food To Die For: Secrets from Kay Scarpetta’s Kitchen, 2001
Forewords by Patricia Cornwell
- Death’s Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab, the Body Farm, Where the Dead Do Tell Tales by Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson, 2003
- Coroner’s Journal: Stalking Death in Louisiana by Louis Cataldie, 2006
- Behind the Yellow Tape: On the Road with Some of America’s Hardest Working Crime Scene Investigators by Jarrett Hallcox and Amy Welch, 2009
About Patricia Cornwell
Before creating the Kay Scarpetta series, Patricia Cornwell was a newspaper crime reporter, wrote a biography of Ruth Bell Graham and worked at the Virginia’s medical examiner’s office for several years.
Official website: patriciacornwell.com
Patricia Cornwell was born in Miami in 1956 and grew up in Montreat, North Carolina. She studied English at Davidson College and graduated in 1979, then started working at The Charlotte Observer. Her first assignments included compiling television listings, but then she moved to the police beat. She won a North Carolina Press Association award for investigative reporting about prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte.
Patricia Cornwell later joined the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia, where she worked as a technical writer and computer analyst. The job gave her access to autopsies, forensic laboratories, investigators, and gave her insights into the usual routines of a medical examiner’s office.
In 1981, she began working on the biography of Ruth Bell Graham, wife of the famous evangelist Billy Graham, who became a parental figure after Cornwell’s mother was institutionalized. The book became A Time for Remembering, published in 1983 that was revised and reissued as Ruth, A Portrait in 1997.
She wrote Postmortem while working at the medical examiner’s office and continued submitting it after publishers initially turned it down. Her first book signing took place during her lunch break from the medical examiner’s office. However, she sold no copies, and one customer asked where the cookbooks were. Despite that bad start, Postmortem became a major success and it was the start of the most important Kay Scarpetta series in her career.
Patricia Cornwell continues to research the science and technology that she uses in her books by spending time with forensic specialists, law-enforcement agencies, first responders, and organizations such as NASA. She is also a licensed helicopter pilot and trained scuba diver. Her books have sold more than 120 million copies and have been published in 36 languages across more than 120 countries. She lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts.
Major Awards and Honors
- Postmortem – John Creasey Memorial Dagger, Edgar Award for Best First Novel, Anthony Award for Best First Novel, Macavity Award for Best First Mystery and Prix du Roman d’Aventures (1990–1992)
- Cruel and Unusual – Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger (1993)
- Kay Scarpetta – Sherlock Award for Best Detective Created by an American Author (1999)
- Book of the Dead – Galaxy British Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year, making Cornwell the first American winner (2008)
- Red Mist – RBA Prize for Crime Writing (2011)
- Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture (2011)
Patricia Cornwell Book Adaptations
- At Risk – adapted into the television film Patricia Cornwell’s At Risk (2010)
- The Front – adapted into the television film Patricia Cornwell’s The Front (2010)
- Hornet’s Nest – adapted into the television film Patricia Cornwell’s Hornet’s Nest (2012)
- Kay Scarpetta series – adapted into the television series Scarpetta (2026)
I started reading your books not long after you started writing them. Had a great number of them when I was working in a volunteer library and I donated them. Now I think I’m going to start collecting them again. You are one heck of a writer.
I leave Cornwell’s books, only to return hungry and thirsty!
I have enjoyed all of the Scarpetta series, when will the next be out?
I’ve read almost all the books I love Scarpetta even tho I class my self as a male chauvinist but I believe if a person can do a job they should be aloud to do it weather there female or male and love reading about female who show they are capable to do the job better then a male
That’s why I’d like to know what happened to Virginia West
In the hornets nest series I thought her, Hammer and Andy made a great team but in Isle of dogs isn’t there and there is no mention of what happened to her???
Kay, you are flawed, thus real and relatable thank God! This is why women of all ages ( 69 and master’s plus 60 hours retired teacher, now defense attorney3 years of law school and backgrounds identify with you and believe in you. Your vulnerability comes through in your manuscripts and endears you to the audience….the bond of trust and respect is established leaving us wanting more! I started your Kay Scarpetta books after I retired teaching, after I took my last treatment fighting leukemia, after my father died, after my mother entered dementia, after my family exploded and I was literally on the run from my my my family who were in pursuit of my money….money won in a large lawsuit from an awful accident I was in that permanently disabled me right before my father’s death!
I was in a program called, Safe Quarters, being protected from my youngest sister and brother and I bought the audio version of Last Precinct.” I had a brand new car and I sat outside the facility in the heat of summer, runnng my car air conditioning, and read your box on my car radio. Guys, most homeless would come by the car to visit me, some getting in and listening for awhile, all wondering what I was doing in a place like that! In the four and one half months I was there I read six of your books on audio and spent a whole lot of money on gas! But I developed a love for you YOU and Kay!
That was the summer of 1998 and this is 2021 and I have read all of your books and still adore you and your writing! I, too was abused physically by a psychopathic brother… the brother mentioned above that caught up with me. He beat the crap out of me, stole the money I had on me ( about $3o,000 … not all of it) and left me on the side of the road on the L.I.E. in NY. Today, I am permanently disabled suffering balance and hearing loss from that beating on top of my other medical problems. My brother and youngest sister concocted a wild story about me and spread it all over the place after I left. They continue to live their lies…. FYI
Keep writing, Queen of Writing!
I love your KayScarpetta series. I haven’t read them in order. I don’t think you have to. They are each stand on their own but I was looking at the list of your books in order to see if I missed any. I did and was happy to know there were more books for me to read. I didn’t know you wrote other series I can’t wait to read those too to see if I like them. My friend and I are not totally convinced about your identity of Jack the Ripper but it was gutsy of you & maybe you are right.
I think you’re the most gifted writer. Just bought your new Kay Scarpetta series. Autopsy. Can’t wait to start reading. Please don’t ever stop writing.
The best and only books I read are kay scarpetta novels!!!!! Please don’t ever stop writing them Patricia! You are truly the most gifted writer ever!
Will there be any new Scarpetta books? The last one was 2016 and I really enjoy them
I have all the books in the Scarpetta books and shelve them in date order. Over time I have re-read the entire series three times. I guess it should be clear I really enjoy them. Thank you Patricia Cornwell!
Jac wrote:
August 31, 2016 at
I listen to these books and I can’t get Stephanie plum out of my head listening to flesh and blood this has to be changed sorry!
I know what you mean Jac! Ha! The narrator Lorelei King is why. I love her voice for Stephanie Plum but I didn’t like it for Kay Scarpetta
Waiting for the Scarpetta book after Chaos!!!!
I forgot how great the Scarpetta series are. Had to list them again just so I can see where I left off. On that note, I can re-read these and still thoroughly enjoy them again. I love Scarpetta’s stregnth and smarts yet see he tender side as well. Well written in subject matter and characted(s)…. With the exception of wanting to slap Marino! Bull headed, complex but smart! Don’t get me started on
Lucy! She is amazing. Always liked her and her character immensely. I hope this series continues!
I am reading Red Mist right now. I love the Scarpetta series. I hope you continue to write many more. I’ve learned a lot from her and am extremely impressed that you put yourself through so much in order to state facts that are true about forensic science.
Thank you for all the truth you put in your series.
I was recently turned on to Conwell novels as a result of her being mentioned by the Jefferson Bass writing team..after running out of their books, I began the Scarpetta quest. Within a month I had read 13 of them.
Absolutely riveting. I however was unfornate enough to not have read them in order. I cant seem to obtain the book where the “ressurection” occurs and it is driving me crazy!! Please help!! So I settled for Book of The Dead for now…
I’ve read every book – and I think it’s absolutely necessary to read the Scarpetta series in order – if you want to enjoy them to the maximum effect. Some villains crossover books, and the behaviors of some characters just cannot be “felt” if you have no context. And lastly, some events will just not rock your world if you don’t have the “prerequisites” in mind – or if you already know the future.
love the books trying to collect them all. have just finished blow fly and need to know title of next book in this series of chandonne
After Blow Fly is Trace. The list of the Kay Scarpetta books in order is at the top of this page.
I saw on one of the series about a sixteen year ols boy hsd been killed or murdered and I did not get the name of the book. Kyou help me. thankz
The Scarpetta series has a lot of deaths. Could you be referring to Cruel & Unusual in which a teenage boy is the victim of a serial killer?
I have read other mystery series but Patricia Cornwell is by far the best. I love Kay Scarpetta and her family of characters. I hope this series never ends.
The books have to read in an order my first book was The last precinct and then I read the body of evidence… It was truly confusing.. After that I decided to start the entire series from book 1… It’s been an amazing read… Kay has been beautifully evolving from one book to the other… Love the work of Patrician Cornwell….
I’ve read black notice first and the story says that benton wesley died, the next book i read was Trace and in it, benton wesley is still alive, i’m just confused about the orders of the series cause i’m following Dr. Scarpetta’s love story. haha
Don’t want to spoil anything for you so I won’t give details. You really need to read the series in order.
Of course when we mentioned Patricia Cornwell, we mostly think of the famous Scarpetta series, featuring the Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, working in Massachusetts.
Sorry, but she worked in Virginia, not Massachusetts.
She worked in Massachusetts too. Keep ‘reading and assume nothing.
I read Flesh and Blood in January. This was my first in the Scarpetta series. I have just now found Point of Origin, written in 1998, and have just finished it. To my horror I found out that Benton Wesley died in this series, yet he is listed as Scarpetta’s husband in Flesh and Blood. Did he miraculously come back from the dead or it was not him in the first place and they let go the ashes of someone else? Without me having to read the rest of this series to solve this answer, Can someone let me know how he comes back to life please?
You are in for a nice surprise! He has been resurrected. After reading the later novel after he died I decided to start from series 1. Thanks to my nook her Scarpetti series is from 1990 to 2014. And Lthough I have read the older ones it is much better to start from scratch to see how all the characters evolve.
I stopped reading for awhile after Last Precinct because I thought it would be the final story. I decided to reread before starting the newer books.
Can someone match the villains to the books? I want to refer back to the book when Carrie Gretchen, and Temple Gault, or any others come up in a new novel. Thanks!
They first appeared when Lucy was interning at UVA. The book is Cruel & Usual but she refers to Gault again in the next book and Carrie is mentioned in Unatural Exposure when a cop Lucy won’t date & who happens to hate Scarpetta reveals something to the DA prosecuting Carrie that could end Lucy’s career while trying to also discredit Scarpetta
I HOPE #23 is in the works! I just finished Flesh and Blood, with a huge gap between the last I read…I need to read all I’ve missed but there must be more Kay Scarpetta!
And movie is in works??? So exciting!
I like the ‘Wen Garano’ books, trouble is I’ve read all ‘2’ of them. Any more in the works.
I just listened to the audiobook version of “Point of Origin” thinking it was new because the audio version just become available on Audible, and was stunned by the brutal death of a major continuing character whom I knew appears in later novels. For that reason I checked the list of publication dates and to confirm that character does appear afterwards – and to find out that Point of Origin was published in 1998. At any rate, though each book stands pretty well on its own, there is definitely a utility to reading them in order, and I cannot imagine how the future resurrection of this character will take place without rendering the fabric of time & space, etc. I just hope the character doesn’t just magically appear as though nothing happened. Having read or listened to most of the books already, there are some gaps to fill in – and definitely a bonus to consuming them in order of publication.
I am a huge fan. Absolutely love the series. Originally had a number of books, not in sequence. Read them twice before I found the rest of books. Have now read and reread the series, and still look forward to rereading about Kay Scarpetta and all the gang. Like having family around! Some are fine, others irritating. Keep up the writing. Hope there are still a number of novels to come.
LOVE Patricia Cornwell’s books!! My sis, Deb, and I read them over and over, but a new one is Always waited for with huge anticipation. Thank you, Patricia, you are the best. Long live Scarpetta!
I have read all of scarpetta series. I
Like keeping up with pete and Lucy. Looking forward reading next book.
I just love the Kay Scarpetta series, I’ve read all by Flesh & Blood, that’s for tonight . Thank you Patricia Cornwell.
she’s the best suspense-thriller author I ever come across with! Been following and reading the Kay Scarpetta series, I’m a HUGE FAN!