Point Of Origin (novel)

''Point of Origin'' is a crime fiction novel by Patricia Cornwell. It is the ninth book in the Dr. Kay Scarpetta series.

Plot summary

Dr Kay Scarpetta, Virginia Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for the federal law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to a farmhouse in Virginia that has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body that tells a story of a violent and grisly murder.

The fire has come at the same time as Carrie Grethen, a killer who nearly destroyed the lives of Scarpetta and those closest to her, has escaped from a forensic psychiatric hospital. Her whereabouts is unknown, but her ultimate destination is not, for Carrie has begun to communicate with Scarpetta, conveying her deadly—if cryptic—plans for revenge.

Carrie has linked up with a new companion, willing to end his life of sadistic slayings for her pursuit of Scarpetta.

Characters in ''Point of Origin''

*Kay Scarpetta – Chief Medical Examiner. Consulting pathologist for ATF.
*Benton Wesley – FBI Profiler.
*Lucy Farinelli – Kay's niece, she was an FBI agent, but left due to her implications of her sexual orientation. She had a romantic relationship with ''Carrie Grethen.'' She went to ATF thereafter. It was revealed for the first time that she had slept with men – two.
*Pete Marino – Captain in the Richmond Police Department.
*T.N. McGovern – Being known as Teun to people around her, she was ''Lucy's'' mentor, and the team leader of ATF's National Response Team (NRT) for the incident at Warrenton, Virginia. She's around ''Kay's'' age and is based in the Philadelphia field office. Also known to have a strong animosity towards reporters.
*Kenneth Sparkes – Media mogul. Owner of the ranch in Warrenton, Virginia that was burnt down. He was a strikingly handsome man, tall and lean, with thick gray hair. His eyes were amber, his features aristocratic, with a straight Jeffersonian nose and skin dark and as smooth as a man half his age. Known to be a collector of bourbon, World War II weapons and fine horses. He was not too fond of Kay, as there was more than one occasion when they disagreed about case details he thought should be released to the media. At the time of the fire, he claimed to be at Beaverdam, Virginia, with his horse trainer, ''Betty Foster''. 19 of his horses were killed in the fire.
*Betty Foster – Kenneth Sparkes horse trainer, based in Beaverdam.

Victims

*2 unnamed victims in England – First victim was in London, 1981, followed by one in Liverpool, 1983.
*11 unnamed victims in Ireland – From 1984 to 1987, starting in Belfast, he then continued into the country in Galway, followed by nine murders in Dublin in neighbourhoods such as Malahide, Santry and Howth.
*9 unnamed victims in United States – Mainly out west, in remote areas of Utah, Nevada, Montana and Washington, and once in Mississippi. Those bodies in United States never found. Then four were found in Virginia. The first, in 1995, near Virginia Beach, the next in Norfolk. Then in 1996, one in Lynchburg, the other in Blacksburg.
*Marlene Farber – Died October 1997, before the events of the book. Twenty-three-year-old actress whose career consisted mainly of small parts on soap operas and sitcoms. She was found in her home, which was burning heavily, reduced to white, calcinated fragments. Identification was by a comparison of antemortem