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Patricia Cornwell is known to millions of readers worldwide. She has won nearly every literary award for popular fiction and has authored 29 New York Times bestsellers. Her novels center primarily on medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, along with her tech-savvy niece Lucy and investigator Pete Marino.
In her newest novel, Depraved Heart, we find Kay Scarpetta working on a highly suspicious death, when an emergency alert sounds on her cell phone. It seems to be coming in on a secure line from her niece, Lucy; and a video link plays a surveillance tape of Lucy taken almost 20 years earlier. Additional video clips follow, along with a strange series of incidents involving Lucy, the suspicious death of a Hollywood mogul's daughter, the FBI, and the unseen presence of a "depraved heart" behind these mysterious events.
Depraved Heart expands beyond forensic science to technology. In the novel, you bring up the concept of data fiction. What is this?
When you think of things we're afraid of in today's world, they're quite different from what they were twenty years ago. Much of it has to do with technology and terrorism. Years ago, it was more the fear the Ted Bundys of the world might crawl through your window.
The things we fear today have changed. With technology, the Internet and social media--with identity theft wiping out people's bank accounts and events like that--we don't necessarily know what's real or true anymore. Everything's electronic: these aren't things you can hold in your hand. We're not dealing with tangible items. How do we know what's true? If someone wants to manipulate us, how preventable is it? I coined the term data fiction to describe this phenomenon.
Later in the book, the reader will learn there's also a type of malware that can produce data fiction. Imagine a virus that can go into computer systems and alter data. Imagine if the DNA data base was corrupted.
Or perhaps one's bank or brokerage account.
Absolutely. The changes in technology in our world have caused me to dramatically alter what I do in my books. Kay Scarpetta is our contemporary, so she has to worry about cybercrime--not only personally, but its impact on her cases.
Depraved Heart depicts, among other things, an adversarial relationship between the FBI and local law enforcement. Will you talk about that?
It's been known for a long time--almost to the point of being a cliché--that local police and the feds are like oil and water. Typically, with a big case, the first responders are local police, then the folks from the regional FBI field office show up. They often take over the investigation and the local police don't much like that. These outsiders don't walk the streets and don't know the people in the community.
Local police often complain the FBI is quick to take credit because they're very PR oriented. They need to be visible and sort of Hollywood to increase their funding in Washington.
In Depraved Heart, it's more than adversarial. It's hostile.
Yes. There's bad blood between Lucy and one FBI agent. While it's fiction and may be somewhat exaggerated, there are times I portray law enforcement people as the bad guys, which can happen in life, too.
You're very prolific. Only a short time ago, we talked about your last novel, Flesh and Blood. Do you ever deal with procrastination or writer's block?
I most certainly do. I like to remind people not to judge me based on what they see on the outside. Prolific and successful people have the same problems others do. I absolutely have days where I'll find every excuse under the sun not to sit at that desk and write.
Why is that?
Because it scares me. It's hard. And if the characters are being uncooperative, I just move words around uselessly. At times like that, I wonder who stole my characters? Or, think they've gone on vacation.
I don't feel I control that world. I don't think you can be creative if you try to control what you're doing. You have to allow psychological spaces in your mind--ones you don't even know exist--to let things surface on their own. It's far easier to do almost anything else than to write.
Sometimes, I have writer's block where I'm stuck in a scene. When that happens, I need to go back to where the script was working. I've p
Clik here to view.
Photo: Patrick Ecclesine
Patricia Cornwell is known to millions of readers worldwide. She has won nearly every literary award for popular fiction and has authored 29 New York Times bestsellers. Her novels center primarily on medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, along with her tech-savvy niece Lucy and investigator Pete Marino.
In her newest novel, Depraved Heart, we find Kay Scarpetta working on a highly suspicious death, when an emergency alert sounds on her cell phone. It seems to be coming in on a secure line from her niece, Lucy; and a video link plays a surveillance tape of Lucy taken almost 20 years earlier. Additional video clips follow, along with a strange series of incidents involving Lucy, the suspicious death of a Hollywood mogul's daughter, the FBI, and the unseen presence of a "depraved heart" behind these mysterious events.
Depraved Heart expands beyond forensic science to technology. In the novel, you bring up the concept of data fiction. What is this?
When you think of things we're afraid of in today's world, they're quite different from what they were twenty years ago. Much of it has to do with technology and terrorism. Years ago, it was more the fear the Ted Bundys of the world might crawl through your window.
The things we fear today have changed. With technology, the Internet and social media--with identity theft wiping out people's bank accounts and events like that--we don't necessarily know what's real or true anymore. Everything's electronic: these aren't things you can hold in your hand. We're not dealing with tangible items. How do we know what's true? If someone wants to manipulate us, how preventable is it? I coined the term data fiction to describe this phenomenon.
Later in the book, the reader will learn there's also a type of malware that can produce data fiction. Imagine a virus that can go into computer systems and alter data. Imagine if the DNA data base was corrupted.
Or perhaps one's bank or brokerage account.
Absolutely. The changes in technology in our world have caused me to dramatically alter what I do in my books. Kay Scarpetta is our contemporary, so she has to worry about cybercrime--not only personally, but its impact on her cases.
Depraved Heart depicts, among other things, an adversarial relationship between the FBI and local law enforcement. Will you talk about that?
It's been known for a long time--almost to the point of being a cliché--that local police and the feds are like oil and water. Typically, with a big case, the first responders are local police, then the folks from the regional FBI field office show up. They often take over the investigation and the local police don't much like that. These outsiders don't walk the streets and don't know the people in the community.
Local police often complain the FBI is quick to take credit because they're very PR oriented. They need to be visible and sort of Hollywood to increase their funding in Washington.
In Depraved Heart, it's more than adversarial. It's hostile.
Yes. There's bad blood between Lucy and one FBI agent. While it's fiction and may be somewhat exaggerated, there are times I portray law enforcement people as the bad guys, which can happen in life, too.
You're very prolific. Only a short time ago, we talked about your last novel, Flesh and Blood. Do you ever deal with procrastination or writer's block?
I most certainly do. I like to remind people not to judge me based on what they see on the outside. Prolific and successful people have the same problems others do. I absolutely have days where I'll find every excuse under the sun not to sit at that desk and write.
Why is that?
Because it scares me. It's hard. And if the characters are being uncooperative, I just move words around uselessly. At times like that, I wonder who stole my characters? Or, think they've gone on vacation.
I don't feel I control that world. I don't think you can be creative if you try to control what you're doing. You have to allow psychological spaces in your mind--ones you don't even know exist--to let things surface on their own. It's far easier to do almost anything else than to write.
Sometimes, I have writer's block where I'm stuck in a scene. When that happens, I need to go back to where the script was working. I've p