Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781408722596

Price: £22

ON SALE: 7th October 2025

Genre: Crime & Mystery / Suspense

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

SCARPETTA, A BRAND NEW ORIGINAL SERIES, IS COMING SOON TO PRIME VIDEO

NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE SERIAL KILLER.
NOT EVEN SCARPETTA…

During the early hours of Christmas morning, chief medical examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta receives a chilling call. The Phantom Slasher has struck again.

The serial killer has terrorized Northern Virginia for months. His pattern is to stalk with a sophisticated technology that enables him to invade his victims’ homes and watch their every move. They wake up to a ghost-like hologram before being murdered in their beds.

Scarpetta is summoned to Mercy Island, the site of a notorious psychiatric hospital where two people have been brutalized, one of them from Scarpetta’s past. It soon becomes apparent that she could be next . . .

‘In Sharp Force Cornwell is at the very top of her game and Scarpetta is as finely wrought as ever. The research is impeccable as always . . . You are in the hands of a master storyteller. Sit back and prepare to be thrilled’ DAVID BALDACCI

Reviews

Sinister, surprising and utterly unputdownable. Cornwell at her brilliant best
M. J. ARLIDGE
With Cornwell's expert pacing and psychologically nuanced and complex characters, this novel offers a reliable read for longtime fans of the forensic series, but it also includes enough backstory and detail to get newcomers up to speed
LIBRARY JOURNAL
A brisk, kaleidoscopic thriller
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns
MIRROR
The top gun in this field
DAILY TELEGRAPH
One of the best crime writers writing today
GUARDIAN
PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL
-
The Agatha Christie of the DNA age
EXPRESS
Classic Cornwell with an up-to-the-minute twenty-first-century plot - an intoxicating blend that proves Scarpetta is still queen of the autopsy and Cornwell is still queen of crime fiction. An utterly thrilling roller coaster ride
ANDREA MARA
America's most stimulating and chilling writer of crime fiction
THE TIMES
Thirty years on, there's still no other crime writer like her
SUNDAY TIMES
PRAISE FOR UNNATURAL DEATH
-
One of the all-time greats of this genre
SUN
Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns
MIRROR
The top gun in this field
DAILY TELEGRAPH
An especially good entry in the series
BOOKLIST
Astonishing . . . Thirty years on, there's still no other crime writer like her
SUNDAY TIMES
Slick, fast-paced and brilliant
HEAT
The queen of the forensic thriller
MAIL ON SUNDAY
Cornwell really is in a league of her own
HEAT
When it comes to forensic sciences, nobody can touch Cornwell
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
In Sharp Force Cornwell is at the very top of her game and Scarpetta is as finely wrought as ever. The research is as impeccable as always . . . You are in the hands of a master storyteller. Sit back and prepare to be thrilled
DAVID BALDACCI
A chilling, thrilling, macabre masterpiece. Unnatural Death is Patricia Cornwell at her mesmerising finest. The best just got better
CHRIS WHITAKER
America's most stimulating and chilling writer of crime fiction
THE TIMES
PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL
-
A pioneer of the genre of forensic psychological thriller
BBC
One of the best crime writers writing today
GUARDIAN
Cutting-edge
SUN
The queen of the forensic thriller
MAIL ON SUNDAY
The Agatha Christie of the DNA age
EXPRESS