ebook / ISBN-13: 9781408722619

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 NOW ON 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 . . .

DON’T MISS TRUE CRIME, PATRICIA CORNWELL’S JAW-DROPPING MEMOIR – AVAILABLE NOW

‘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

‘Compelling, grisly and dark, another incredible thriller’ THE SUN

‘This is vintage Cornwell’ THE FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Masterfully plotted and utterly addictive’ WOMAN’S OWN

Reviews

Slick, fast-paced and brilliant
HEAT
A masterfully plotted and utterly addictive crime thriller
WOMAN'S OWN
The top gun in this field
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns
MIRROR
The queen of the forensic thriller
MAIL ON SUNDAY
Cornwell really is in a league of her own
HEAT
A pioneer of the genre of forensic psychological thriller
BBC
The top gun in this field
DAILY TELEGRAPH
The queen of the forensic thriller
MAIL ON SUNDAY
Thirty years on, there's still no other crime writer like her
SUNDAY TIMES
Astonishing . . . Thirty years on, there's still no other crime writer like her
SUNDAY TIMES
A brisk, kaleidoscopic thriller
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
One of the best crime writers writing today
GUARDIAN
Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns
MIRROR
When it comes to forensic sciences, nobody can touch Cornwell
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
The Agatha Christie of the DNA age
EXPRESS
PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL
-
PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL
-
Compelling, grisly and dark, another incredible thriller
THE SUN
One of the all-time greats of this genre
SUN
An especially good entry in the series
BOOKLIST
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
Slick, ghoulish, and a reliable stocking-filler for crime fiction lovers
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Expert pacing and psychologically nuanced and complex characters
LIBRARY JOURNAL
America's most stimulating and chilling writer of crime fiction
THE TIMES
This is vintage Cornwell
FINANCIAL TIMES
A chilling, thrilling, macabre masterpiece. Unnatural Death is Patricia Cornwell at her mesmerising finest. The best just got better
CHRIS WHITAKER
One of the best crime writers writing today
GUARDIAN
With Cornwell's signature forensic detail and intense pacing, this latest instalment is a must read
YOURS MAGAZINE
Cutting-edge
SUN
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
America's most stimulating and chilling writer of crime fiction
THE TIMES
The Agatha Christie of the DNA age
EXPRESS
PRAISE FOR UNNATURAL DEATH
-
Sinister, surprising and utterly unputdownable. Cornwell at her brilliant best
M. J. ARLIDGE