Black Notice [Import] [Hardcover]

Patricia Cornwell (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons; 1ST edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316646377
• ISBN-13: 978-0316646376
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.6 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (639 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,109,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patricia Cornwell was born on June 9, 1956, in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Montreat, North Carolina.

Following graduation from Davidson College in 1979, she began working at the Charlotte Observer, rapidly advancing from listing television programs to writing feature articles to covering the police beat. She won an investigative reporting award from the North Carolina Press Association for a series of articles on prostitution and crime in downtown Charlotte.

Her award-winning biography of Ruth Bell Graham, A Time for Remembering, was published in 1983. From 1984 to 1990, she worked as a technical writer and a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia.

Cornwell's first crime novel, Postmortem, was published by Scribner's in 1990. Initially rejected by seven major publishing houses, it became the first novel to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventure in a single year. In Postmortem, Cornwell introduced Dr. Kay Scarpetta as the intrepid Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1999, Dr. Scarpetta herself won the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author.

Following the success of her first novel, Cornwell has written a series of bestsellers featuring Kay Scarpetta, her detective sidekick Pete Marino and her brilliant and unpredictable niece, Lucy Farinelli, including: Body of Evidence (1991); All That Remains (1992); Cruel and Unusual (1993), which won Britain's prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the year's best crime novel; The Body Farm (1994); From Potter's Field (1995); Cause of Death (1996); Unnatural Exposure (1997); Point of Origin (1998); Black Notice (1999); The Last Precinct (2000); Blow Fly (2003); Trace (2004); Predator (2005); Book of the Dead (2007), which won the 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards' Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year, making Cornwell the first American ever to win this award; Scarpetta (2008); The Scarpetta Factor (2009); and Port Mortuary (2010). In 2011 Cornwell was awarded the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, one of France's most prestigious awards to honor those who have distinguished themselves in the domains of art or literature, or by their contribution to the development of culture in France and throughout the world.

In addition to the Scarpetta novels, she has written three best-selling books featuring Andy Brazil: Hornet's Nest (1996), Southern Cross (1998) and Isle of Dogs (2001); two cook books: Scarpetta's Winter Table (1998) and Food to Die For (2001); and a children's book: Life's Little Fable (1999). In 1997, Cornwell updated A Time for Remembering, which was reissued as Ruth, A Portrait: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham. Intrigued by Scotland Yard's John Grieve's observation that no one had ever tried to use modern forensic evidence to solve the murders committed by Jack the Ripper, Cornwell began her own investigation of the serial killer's crimes. In Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed (2002), she narrates her discovery of compelling evidence to indict the famous artist Walter Sickert as the Ripper.

In January 2006, the New York Times Magazine began a 15-week serialization of At Risk, featuring Massachusetts State Police investigator Win Garano and his boss, district attorney Monique Lamont. Its sequel, The Front, was serialized in the London Times in the spring of 2008. Both novellas were subsequently published as books and promptly optioned for adaptation by Lifetime Television Network, starring Daniel Sunjata and Andie MacDowell. The films made their debut in April 2010.

In April 2009, Fox acquired the film rights to the Scarpetta novels, featuring Angelina Jolie as Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Cornwell herself wrote and co-produced the movie ATF for ABC.

Often interviewed on national television as a forensic consultant, Cornwell is a founder of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, a founding member of the National Forensic Academy, a member of the Advisory Board for the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, NYC, and a member of the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital's National Council, where she is an advocate for psychiatric research. She is also well known for her philanthropic contributions to animal rescue and criminal justice, as well as endowing college scholarships and promoting the cause of literacy on the national scene. Some of her projects include the establishment of an ICU at Cornell's Animal Hospital, the archaeological excavation of Jamestown and the scientific study of the Confederacy's submarine H.L. Hunley. Most recently, she donated a million dollars to Harvard's Fogg Museum to establish a chair in inorganic science.

Cornwell's books have been translated into 36 languages across more than 50 countries, and she is regarded as one of the major international best-selling authors. Her novels are praised for their meticulous research and an insistence on accuracy in every detail, especially in forensic medicine and police procedures. She is so committed to verisimilitude that, among other accomplishments, she became a helicopter pilot and a certified scuba diver, and qualified for a motorcycle license because she was writing about characters who were doing these things. "It is important to me to live in the world I write about," she often says. "If I want a character to do or know something, I want to do or know the same thing."

Visit the author's website at: www.patriciacornwell.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

132 of 138 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SCARPETTA AND THE WOLF..., August 3, 2000

By 

Nick G - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Notice (Mass Market Paperback)

A cargo ship containing the remains of a stowaway arrives in Virginia's waterway. Kay Scarpetta is called to examine the remains. Why would this man hide in a shipping container, and what does the strange tattoo on his back symbolize? These questions, as well as the identity of the man are a mystery to Scarpetta.

Kay's neice, Lucy, has a new lover, Jo. Lucy and Jo are working in Miami, and their latest mission has gone terribly wrong, leaving two criminals dead, and Jo, fighting for her life in the hospital.

Another body is found, this time, a young woman, brutally attacked, with strange bite marks on her body.

Kay and Marino, end up in France, working with Interpol on the cases of victims who have also been brutally attacked, with strange bite marks left on the bodies. Once there, the two will have to solve the bizzare puzzle of the strange killings, and make connection to the mystery man in the container.

"Black Notice" is one of the better entries in the Scarpetta series (it takes a while to get steam, about 250 pages before things start to move, and the plot involving the wolf-like killings comes into play). Long time readers of the series will notice each new novel is taking the series in a new direction; with less time being spent on the thrill a minute plot twists, and more time being spent on various sub-plots, and character development.

Patricia Cornwell is the leading practicioner of the forensic crime thriller, but over the years she has lost her knack of creating "up all night" reads, she is trying to balance too much in each novel, and at times it takes away from the main theme of the book. The story line is interesting in this new book, and the characters are all likable, but we want more page-turning plot twists.

If you are a fan of the series, you will enjoy this book, new readers should start off with one of her earlier novels, such as "All That Remains", "Cruel And Unusual", "The Body Farm", etc.

Nick Gonnella

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Diasappointed, August 17, 2000

By 

David H. Miller Jr. "ygor" (DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Notice (Mass Market Paperback)

Once again I am drawn in to Kay Scarpetta's world by the fascinating details of forensic science. But with with each novel I am finding the chief character increasingly annoying, self-centered and and one-dimensional. When the story strays from the police procedural stuff I find myself wading through the worst kind of melodrama involving Kay, her murdered lover and everyone surrounding her. I mean, can anyone read the dialogue between Dr. Scarpetta and Talley (at the Paris restaurant) without gagging or giggling. The whole issue of how Kay faces adversity is treated by the author without the slightest hint of (intentional) humor or irony. The book is extremely joyless. How could someone with no coping mechanisms stand to be a medical examiner at all?

Tne major flaw of the book, and one that occurs in several of Cornwell's novels, is that the eventual capture of the serial killer has very little to do with the following of forensic clues to expose the criminal. Rather, once again, the villain is undone by his obsessive need to go after the Chief Medical Examiner herself, and is defeated in hand to hand combat by our heroine. Won't these guys ever learn?

46 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Strange Loup, August 16, 2000

By 

Rob Lawrence (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Notice (Mass Market Paperback)

I was starting to feel that the Kay Scarpetta series was getting a little tired. But, my roommate bought Black Notice, and I decided to go ahead and read it. On the whole, it is a fairly good book. The strange victim with a strange tattoo found with strange hairs starts the book off. The primary plot revolves around this death, and becomes a little too fantastic (Who's Afraid of Virginia's Wolf?) . However, the book is saved by having a subplot involving what appears to be a new nemesis for Dr. Scarpetta: a strong woman Deputy Police Chief, attempting to shake up the department and Marino, Kay's close police friend, and Scarpetta herself. Ultimately, these two seemingly divergent plots must come together.

I have read all the books in this series, yet I will not profess to understanding all the complex personalaties and relationships in the primary characters. Therefore, if you are thinking of delving into this series, try the earlier books first.

The secondary plot, which almost becomes primary, and solid writing help make up for an odd story and a weak ending. Furthermore, Patricia Cornwell attempts to throw some things in the mix to keep interest, such as the question of "Is Benton really dead?".

My suggestion: Read the book and enjoy, but don't analyze it.