Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Cornwell, Patricia - Mary Cantwell (essay date 14 July 1996)

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Mary Cantwell (essay date 14 July 1996)

SOURCE: Cantwell, Mary. “How to Make a Corpse Talk.” New York Times Magazine (14 July 1996): 15–17.

[In the following essay, Cantwell explores Cornwell's success with the Kay Scarpetta series and Cornwell's introduction of a new heroine, Judy Hammer, in Hornet's Nest.]

Judging by her jacket photograph, Patricia Cornwell is the spitting image of her lead character, the one who has just got her a ＄24 million advance on three crime novels and made her a bundle on the previous seven, the most recent of which, Cause of Death, was published this month. But Patricia Cornwell doesn't really resemble Dr. Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner of Virginia. Her hair, possibly lightened for the pictures, isn't blond and her eyes appear a less-vivid blue. Still, she has walked Kay Scarpetta's walk, talked Kay Scarpetta's talk, and if she has not been the target of a serial killer, as Kay Scarpetta...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Charles Champlin (review date 11 February 1990)
   2. Joan Hamerman Robbins (review date 7 July 1991)
   3. Charles Champlin (review date 20 September 1992)
   4. Eva Schegulla (review date summer 1993)
   5. Bettina Berch (review date fall 1993)
   6. Charles Champlin (review date 4 September 1994)
   7. Dinitia Smith (review date 11 September 1994)
   8. Maureen Corrigan (review date 20 August 1995)
   9. Jonathan Coe (review date 1 October 1995)
   10. Mary Scott (review date 13 October 1995)
   11. Mary Cantwell (essay date 14 July 1996)
   12. David Sexton (review date 1 March 1997)
   13. Kirkus Reviews (review date 1 July 1997)
   14. Paul Skenazy (review date 20 July 1997)
   15. Peter Messent (essay date fall–winter 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright