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Dr. Kay Scarpetta
Kay Scarpetta is a fictional character inspired by former Virginia coroner, Chief Medical Examiner Marcella Farinelli Fierro MD (retired). She is the protagonist in a series of crime fiction, crime novels written by Patricia Cornwell noted for its use of recent forensic technology in Scarpetta's investigations. The name ''Scarpetta'' is a diminutive, meaning Little Shoe, as revealed in the 2009 novel ''The Scarpetta Factor'', which points out that the underlying pun is similar to ''Caligula'', which means Little Boot in Latin. The novel features a website named Caligula, which is involved indirectly in the murder of a young woman. Fictional character biography Family background: Miami, Florida, 1954, of Italian descent on both sides of her family (the Scarpettas emigrated from Verona, Italy). As a young girl she watched her father die from leukemia. Education: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, and Georgetown Law School. She has certificates from Cornell Universit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Postmortem (novel)
''Postmortem'' is a crime fiction novel by author Patricia Cornwell and is her debut novel. The first book of the Dr. Kay Scarpetta series, it received the 1991 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Plot summary The novel opens as Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia, receives an early-morning call from Sergeant Pete Marino, a homicide detective at the Richmond Police Department with whom Scarpetta has a tense working relationship. She meets him at the scene of a woman's gruesome strangling, the latest in a string of unsolved murders in Richmond. The killer leaves behind a few clues; among them are a mysterious substance which fluoresces under laser light, which was later on proved to be from a liquid soap which the killer used to wash his hands, traces of semen, and in the vicinity of the last murder, an unusual smell. Scarpetta and Marino work with FBI profiler Benton Wesley to attempt to piece together a profile of the killer. Initial ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |