Patricia Cornwell

If you like a good crime novel, filled with suspense, gory details and a human touch, pick up a Patricia Cornwell novel. She brings something almost indescribable to her books. They are the kinds of novels that you really have a hard time putting down. But how did she get to be such a good writer? What about the beginnings of Patricia Cornwell?

Patricia was born in Florida as Patricia Daniels. Her father was an attorney and her mother was a secretary. They divorced when Patricia was young and she, her mother and her brothers moved to Montreat, North Carolina. They lived just down the street from Billy Graham and his wife Ruth. Ruth Graham is the first person to encourage Patricia to write and even gave her a journal to start with. Ruth Graham was later the subject of Patricia’s first non-fiction writing, A Time for Remembering, published in 1983.

Patricia graduated from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina and married her English professor, Charles Cornwell, a man 17 years her senior. She worked as a reporter for a North Carolina newspaper. She went on to jobs as a police reporter and then as a technical writer and computer analyst at the Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office.

Cornwell’s first stab at writing a crime novel entitled Postmortem, was rejected several times before being picked up by Scribner in 1990 for a paltry $6000. This novel was the introduction of the Dr. Kay Scarpetta. It went on to win critical acclaim as well as several prestigious awards and launched an exciting series based on Dr. Scarpetta.

Cornwell has since divorced Charles and states that she is in a long term relationship with a woman.