Patricia Cornwell is the Director of Applied Forensic Science at the National Forensic Academy. Her most recent bestsellers include Book of the Dead, At Risk, and Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed. Her earlier works include Postmortem—the only novel to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards and the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure in a single year—and Cruel and Unusual, which won Britain's prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel in 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American author.
